In France, April Fool’s day is referred to as “April Fish day”, le jour du poisson d’avril. The fish is the symbol of any prank customarily performed on that day.
Whether you refer to the day as April Fool’s or Poisson d’Avril, legend has it that the custom originated in France back in 1564 when king Charles IX ordained that the new year would no longer begin on April 1st (the start of spring), but rather on January 1st (when the days begin to lengthen). Without mass media and Facebook, not everyone picked up on this major, counter-intuitive change, similar in many respects to the dogmatic reforms currently being pushed by the French government. And so for many years (maybe even decades? ) some silly people were still clinging and swinging to the rhythm of a springtime new year. To make fun of them, it became customary to offer fake gifts (such as a fish). Why a fish? That probably goes beyond the speculative powers of this blog entry, but legend has it that it is related to the end of the Catholic Lent period, when the last thing anybody wanted to eat was a fish (after having been deprived of meat for six weeks).
At ParisSharing, we don’t joke about hospitality, either on April Fool’s day or any other. That’s why our most recent guests, Anne & Family from Holland, were greeted in their ParisSharing apartment with a sumptuous fish made entirely of chocolate and stuffed
with little chocolates as well.
We strive to make each guest experience special, if not by such an unusual gift, by some touch of local joie de vivre. Some of our apartments are also decorated with unique or limited-series objects crafted by Parisian artists or designers, that can be purchased at the end of the stay.
For example, the apartment with the chocolate fish also featured adecorative platter hand-crafted by Isabelle Poupinel and a paper lamp from La Nomade du Design. The chocolate fish was crafted in the chocolate boutique-factory called called la Petite Fabrique just around the corner on the rue Saint-Sabin.
One last thing (and no kidding!): if you book your ParisSharing apartment before April Fool’s Day, we’ll offer you a free night if you stay five nights or longer. Simply ask for the April Fool’s discount in your booking request.