À Pâques, ma mère cache aussi un petit lapin en chocolat près des fleurs.

À Pâques is a time expression meaning at Easter or on Easter. French often puts a time phrase at the beginning of a sentence to set the scene first.

You could also say:

Ma mère cache aussi un petit lapin en chocolat près des fleurs à Pâques.

But starting with À Pâques sounds very natural.

French uses à with some holidays and special occasions, including Pâques.

Common examples:

• à Noël
• à Pâques

By contrast, en is used with many months and seasons:

• en avril
• en été

So à Pâques is the normal expression.

In this fixed time expression, French normally says à Pâques, without le, la, or les.

That is just the standard pattern for this holiday expression, much like:

• à Noël
• à Halloween

So à Pâques is idiomatic French.

Pâques is one of those French words that looks plural but is used as the name of a single holiday. So even though it ends in -s, it functions as a holiday name.

You just learn it as the fixed form Pâques.

Cache is the present tense form of cacher used with ma mère.

The subject is ma mère = she, so the verb is elle cache.

Present tense of cacher:

• je cache
• tu caches
• il / elle cache
• nous cachons
• vous cachez
• ils / elles cachent

So ma mère cache is correct.

In a simple tense like this one, aussi often comes after the conjugated verb.

So:

• ma mère cache aussi...

This is the normal placement for also / too in this kind of sentence.

If you move aussi, the emphasis can change, but here the standard word order is very natural.

Some common adjectives usually come before the noun in French, and petit is one of them.

So:

• un petit lapin = a small rabbit

This is much more natural than un lapin petit, which would sound unusual in this context.

A useful pattern to remember: many adjectives about size, age, beauty, and goodness often go before the noun.

Here, en means made of.

So:

• un lapin en chocolat = a rabbit made of chocolate

French commonly uses en to show material:

• une table en bois = a wooden table
• une bague en or = a gold ring
• un lapin en chocolat = a chocolate rabbit

When French describes the material something is made from, en is usually the normal choice.

So un lapin en chocolat is the standard way to say a chocolate rabbit.

Using de chocolat here would sound less natural. En is the form learners should remember for materials in sentences like this.

The basic expression is près de, meaning near.

When de is followed by les, they contract:

• de + les = des

So:

• près de les fleurs becomes près des fleurs

That is why you see des here.

Not necessarily. In this sentence, des is very likely the contraction of de + les, so it means the flowers.

So:

• près des fleurs = near the flowers

This is a useful thing to watch in French: des can either be:

• the plural indefinite article, or
• the contraction of de + les

Here, it is best understood as the contraction.

French normally uses a possessive adjective with family members when talking about your own relatives:

• ma mère
• mon père
• ma sœur

So ma mère is the natural way to say my mother.

Using la mère would usually mean the mother, not specifically my mother.

The comma separates the introductory time phrase from the main part of the sentence.

So:

• À Pâques, ma mère...

This is very common in writing when a sentence begins with a time expression. The comma helps readability, though punctuation can sometimes vary depending on style.

Yes. French allows that.

You can say:

• À Pâques, ma mère cache aussi un petit lapin en chocolat près des fleurs.
• Ma mère cache aussi un petit lapin en chocolat près des fleurs à Pâques.

Both are grammatical. Starting with À Pâques just gives the time setting first.