If you and your family find yourself in Paris at Eastertime, you’re in for a treat — or several …

Easter is when Paris truly lives up to this period’s traditional theme of rebirth and revival, with the city celebrating a new season, and all the sensorial inspiration that comes along with it. Here are some ideas for making the most of your Parisian Easter weekend …

Take a Chocolate Tour

Paris’s chocolateries are at their inspired best for Easter, when they design eggs that often rival Fabergé for intricacy and extravagance. Rabbits, of course, are another common chocolate creation, but you can also find a menagerie of other cute critters, such as chicks, cats, squirrels, and fish (which double up for poisson d’avril, France’s answer to April’s Fool’s Day). There are wonderful chocolate shops all over Paris, and checking them out makes for a thematically delicious walking tour, but some in particular to seek out are: À la Mère de Famille (pictured above), La Maison du Chocolat, Jean-Paul Hévin, and Alain Ducasse. Just note that Easter Monday is a public holiday in Paris, with many smaller shops closed, so stock up on your Easter goodies beforehand.

Attend a Church Service (or Concert)

Paris is also a city of churches, so if you’re planning to attend a religious service over the Easter weekend, you won’t have far to go. Notre-Dame is, of course, closed for renovation until the end of this year, but some other spectacular churches include Saint-Eustache (by Les Halles), Saint-Germain-des-Prés (above; just across from Les Deux Magots), and Saint-Etienne-du-Mont (tucked behind the Panthéon; it’s a.k.a the Midnight in Paris church!) Of course, you don’t need to participate in a Mass to visit a Church; anyone is welcome to enter and wander around, taking in the stained-glass splendour and Gothic architecture. Or, buy tickets to one of the classical concerts that are held at numerous churches about town; click here for a selection of upcoming shows at Saint-Germain, La Madeleine, and more.

Smell the Flowers

One of the loveliest ways to celebrate Easter’s message of new life is to stroll around the city’s gardens, admiring the season’s budding blooms. (And if you have little ones with you? It’s the perfect way for them to expend some energy in the parks’ playgrounds.) With Easter occurring early this year, you’ll be able still to catch March’s magnolias (most stunningly on display in the gardens of the Palais-Royal), as well as see the pretty pink blossoms starting to burst from the city’s cérisiers — click here to take a cherry blossom tour of Paris.

Go for Brunch

Paris loves a Sunday brunch, and that’s especially the case when it’s an Easter kind of Sunday. Most of the city’s top hotels are hosting extra-extravagant Sunday brunches for the Easter weekend; that of the Ritz Paris, for example, also includes a chocolate egg hunt in the hotel’s garden. Another indulgent option is Sunday brunch at La Tour d’Argent’s new first-floor Bar des Maillets d’Argent.

Spot a Bunny

Your little ones might be excited to know that the Easter Bunny, and all his friends, live right in the middle of Paris! Albeit in a most unexpected place: in front of Les Invalides, home of the Army Museum. Despite this ominous background, these rabbits blithely hop about the topiaries, burrowing here and there into the otherwise manicured lawn. Their efforts might be frustrating the authorities, who have been prevented from euthanising the animals, and are looking at how to humanely relocate them out of Paris. Until then, a trip to Les Invalides could well be the highlight of any child’s (or animal lover’s) Parisian Easter weekend.