Poisson d'avril is just in France, I think - I had to explain it to my cultural historian friend, who had bought some vintage postcards but couldn't understand why they were obsessed by fish...

Those are daffodils in the picture: once that name meant delicate little spring flowers which danced in the wind and inspired Wordsworth, but now we have cultivated varieties, taller, and with bigger flowers, which fall over when the wind blows, and look surprised that spring could treat them so roughly.

I thought of you this morning, as I read Saturday's newspaper: it seems Bordeaux is now the cool place to be... (http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/mar/30/bordeaux-reborn-city)