Late March or April in Paris

Don't be fooled by this spring-like pot of daffodils at a local shopping center. So far today, the weather in Paris has varied from sunshine to snow to rain to sunshine to sleet, with more snow predicted over the next two days. I was beginning to think the snow was going to pass us by entirely. When I went into the post office at 2 p.m., it was sunny and mild. Twenty minutes later I came out to a surreal landscape - snow covered the ground and icy slush was on the sidewalks and in the streets!

I phoned my husband, whose office is in the 16th arrondisement. He said there was no sign of any snow there. Yet another example of why if you don't like the weather in Paris, wait five minutes and it will change. And another reason we carry small folding parapluies wherever we go.

All you visitors who are about to descend upon Paris, be forewarned: the April in Paris song was intended as a joke! An excerpt from the late Art Buchwald's Paris:

"I finally caught up with the man who is responsible for bringing more American tourists to Paris in April than any other person. His name is Vernon Duke and he is the composer of the great romantic song "April in Paris." The fact that it had been raining in Paris all month didn't seem to faze Mr. Duke at all. He carries an umbrella and raincoat with him at all times.

Mr. Duke told me: "The whole song is a hoax, because I knew the weather was like this. They're talking about giving me the Legion of Honour for getting so many tourists to Paris so early in the season."

"Have you ever had any romances in Paris in April?" Mr. Duke, who is a bachelor, replied, "Never. You always have to wait until May before things start popping." I asked the composer to tell how he came to write "April in Paris."

"I was living with George Gershwin in New York at the time. Incidentally my real name is Vladimir Dukelsky and it was Gershwin who gave me the name Vernon Duke. We were preparing a show called Walk a Little Faster, which was to star Beatrice Lillie in April, 1932. At the time we needed a romantic number for Evelyn Hoey. I was sitting in Tony's on 52nd Street with Dorothy Parker, Bob Benchley, Monty Wooley, who staged the revue and John McClain, the theatre critic. We were all drinking and reminiscing about Paris and there was a lot of crying going on.

"Dorothy Parker or somebody said something like, "Oh to be in Paris now that April's here." I, in my unsobered condition, replied, "What a wonderful title for a song." Tony told me he had a piano upstairs and I was high enough to say okay, I'd write it right then and there. I went upstairs and came down ten minutes later with the music.

"The next day I told E.Y. Harburg, who was writing the lyrics for the show, that I had a song about Paris. Harburg had never been to Paris and said, "Who ...cares about April in Paris? I don't know what happens there."

"I told him I'd bring him a lot of guidebooks from the library. I gave them to him, but after he read them, he called me and said, "I still don't know what goes on in Paris in April. You better get over here and tell me!" So I went over to his apartment and he said, "Now, exactly what happens?"

"I said I didn't know exactly, but I thought the French people went out into the open and sat under the trees. "Great," said Harburg. "Now we're getting somewhere." And he wrote the first lines of the song, "April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom, holiday tables under the trees."

"Then Harburg said, "And what's the feeling there in April?" and I replied, "I always had the feeling that in Paris in the spring something wonderful should inevitably happen, but it never did," which took care of the last part of the song: "April in Paris, whom can I run to? What have you done to my heart?"

So when you pack your bags to come over in March or April, don't bring spring clothes - unless you have a warm jacket or lined trenchcoat to cover them! And leave the sandals at home. We're still wearing corduroy and winter coats here.