sproiiiing!

That was the sound of Spring sproinging. I dunno, is it just me? Is it possible to 'go Spring' overnight? Even the weather people were a bit stunned;
'so yes, well, it's not an illusion, it's going to be 17°C today'
17! It was snowing 2 weeks ago!

I must be getting old, I talk about the weather way too much

Speaking of Spring though, rabbits. For our little getaway vacation, we had to get to Porte Maillot to catch the shuttle bus to the Beauvais airport (at 5.45am, ouch). There's basically one 'stupid' exit at Porte Maillot. Despite knowing Porte Maillot metro station pretty well, I take the stupid exit a bit too often for my liking (and those smug ideas of my intellectualism). This exit leads to the middle of a roundabout, which is itself in the middle of a major arterial route. Once you're there, the only way off is back through the same exit as crossing the road on foot reduces your life expectancy to about 12.8 seconds. It'd be a nice spot for lunch, it's a decently big green space, but the exterior cars kind of kill the atmosphere a bit. It's just a dumb exit designed to confuse people like me. So of course I took the dumb exit, and immediately after my standard homer simpsonism, I noticed a rabbit. Then another rabbit. Then about 12 other rabbits.

'There's rabbits!' I exclaim intelligently
thought bubble ('not again')
To explain that, I have an Alice in Wonderland type mental condition. Rabbits always turning up in the oddest places. Less often in the normal places though, now that I think about it. I thought I'd be protected from this kind of Leporidan persecution in a major capital city.

Another thing about the first twitterings of Spring, the booming nursery trade. Paris appears to do a nice vegetation and accessory turnover as people try and reintroduce whatever nature they can into their small environment (I'm steadily turning our apartment into the jungle that I believe it should be, and am happy to have a chance to play with those European plants that don't work in tropical climes).

So, having a good hour to myself yesterday as I was barred from entering my work building thanks to the road being blocked off due to a car gas leak, I took some time to check out the plant shop close by my work place, which is cheap enough if you want to get small plants, but rapidly escalates in price once you add some age and height. Noticed a small DIY plastic glasshouse thing - essentially 2 tubs - a lower tub where you put the soil, and a larger transparent tub that fitted on the top. 70 euros they wanted for that. It wasn't even a very big tub. 70 euros. Doth there exist, therefore, people who are prepared to PAY this price? Did they not learn how to make a teepee glasshouse using sticks and plastic sheeting in primary school? Still, in winter they were charging 5 euros for a couple of small pine branches. People obviously don't get out much here.