White asparagus is grown under banked-up soil so that it never sees the light, and in April it reaches the Paris markets in thick, pale bundles, laid out beside green spears and the violet kind from Provence. For anyone who plans the day around lunch, few months are better. The stalls turn green after a winter of roots and cabbages, and by the end of April the sun does not set until about nine, which leaves the evening for eating outside. Keep a warm layer for cool mornings and the odd shower.
Next to the asparagus sit the Gariguettes, the first French strawberries of the year, long and tapered, in small baskets that scent the stall before you can read the label. Around them comes the rest of spring. There are pink radishes to eat with salted butter, the first peas and broad beans, young carrots with their tops on and, for a few weeks, wild garlic, which wants nothing more than wilting into an omelette. Morels turn up too, priced so that a small paper bag feels like a decision. A handful in cream over chicken is plenty.
The market to shop at is Aligre, in the 12th. Open-air stalls fill the square and spill up the rue d'Aligre, loud and cheap by Paris standards, while the Marché Beauvau, a covered hall from the late eighteenth century, keeps the cheese, oil and spice sellers under one roof. The whole market shuts on Mondays. On Sunday mornings the organic market along Boulevard Raspail in the 6th is smarter and a good deal dearer.
When Easter falls in April, the chocolatiers' windows fill with eggs, bells and friture, the little chocolate fish and shells of a French Easter. Easter lunch is traditionally a leg of lamb with spring vegetables, and restaurants serving it fill up over the long weekend, so book before you travel.
At the Jardin des Plantes the great Shirotae cherry, white and spreading, with branches that sweep the ground, flowers from late March into April, and the garden's pink Kanzan cherries follow around the middle of the month. Further out, the Domaine de Sceaux, a ride south on RER B, has one grove of white cherries and one of pink, and holds its Hanami celebration for about a fortnight in early and mid-April, timed to the blossom. The lawns under the pink trees may need a free booking, so look at the domaine's website before you pack the basket.
In town, choose the grass with care. In the Jardin du Luxembourg most lawns are for looking at, and only those signposted as open, towards the Observatoire end, take a blanket. The slopes of the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the 19th are far more relaxed, and Rosa Bonheur, the guinguette inside the park, pours drinks and serves small plates in season, for when the radishes are gone and the light is not.