Where to see the best spring flowers in the world

More potent than the groundhog's arrival, the first day that's warm and sunny enough to eat your lunch outside marks a turn of season, and of mood. Spring has sprung, or is at least is in the process of springing, and it's time to think about getting out into the garden, or someone else's, and enjoying the blooming beauty. These are some of the best places to enjoy the floral bounty of spring. Nothing says spring like the combined scent, colour and life of the seven million blooming tulips of Keukenhof Gardens. For spring in primary colours as nature intended: daffodils cover the Lake District, most especially along the Daffodil Way, in a plush pile rug of yellow bluebells add scent and romance to a meander through the Normandy countryside, stopping off in the blue floored woods and in pretty hamlets like Clecy; and Umbria's wild poppies spread from hilltop towns like Assisi and Pian Grande like bright red paint dripping down the hills―best seen cycling, also downhill. Lake Bohinj in spring appears to have had a giant bag of coloured sweets dropped onto it from on high. A glacial lake in the Julian Mountains, spring ripens it with enough orchids and irises to make a florist a millionaire. It's so beautiful they hold the Bohinj Wild Flower Festival to worship the blooms in every way―including eating them.