John and Mary Kormendy: Paris 2025

Here are pictures from our brief stop in Paris at the start of our 3.5-month summer/fall 2025 trip. We stopped in Paris partly becaused it is our favorite city in the world and partly because it is a convenient "way station" on our way to Singapore, our next stop (see next web site).

Our tradition for many decades is a "Crepe Ecurie" at Creperie Les Ecuries, 5 rue Washington, Paris 75008. Always a signature treat.

Our most important venue this year was to see the newly re-opened Notre Dame Cathedral. France has done a marvelous job of restoration after the tragic fire of 15/16 April 2019. The feeling of distinguished artistic monument has in part been replaced by a brighter, cleaner, and newer look ... but it is faithful to tradition and remarkable in execution. The only "down side" to our visit -- which, in truth, affected every day and every place -- was that the crowds of tourists seemed enormously bigger than ever before. As tourists ourselves, we could hardly complain. It is no wonder that so many people come here -- here to see the new Notre Dame and here to experience the "city of light".

The 115-foot-high nave of the restored Notre Dame

On our last evening in Paris, we had a fine dinner at the oldest restaurant in Paris, Le Procope, at 13 rue de l'Ancienne Comedie, 75006, just about 100 m from our hotel.

Two of many illustrious past patrons were Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717 -1783), a mathematician scientist, and philosopher, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778), a social and political philosopher. They are chosen here in part because of their relevance but largely also because their portraits -- among many in the restaurant -- were well placed for photography. Quoting Wikipedia: "Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his dramatic opening lines to his immensely powerful treatise 'The Social Contract,' wrote that man was naturally good but becomes corrupted by the pernicious influence of human society and institutions. He preached a mankind improved by returning to nature and living a natural life at peace with his neighbors and himself. He claims to be in favor of democracy, but what he really favors is egalitarianism. Rousseau's influence both in art and politics was huge in his own day and continues to be strong today."

A new discovery was Creperie Les Arts, just down the street from our hotel. "La Bresilienne" was wonderful. The unicorn was well behaved. Better than the astronomer.

Our other principal tradition in Paris is a Bateaux Mouches dinner, a river cruise on the Seine. This is the seriously wonderful way to celebrate being in Paris together.

Dinner was followed by this surprise.

Our bird pictures from around the world follow standard ecozones approximately but not exactly:

Birds from the USA and Canada:   our house,   Hornsby Bend and greater Austin,   Texas,   California,   Hawaii,   Canada,

Neotropic birds from Central America and the Caribbean:   Honduras,   Costa Rica,   Panama,   Trinidad and Tobago

Neotropic birds from South America:   Ecuador,   Ecuador 2017,   Brazil.

Western palearctic birds:   Europe: Germany, Finland, Norway,   Europe: United Kingdom,   Europe: Spain,   the Canary Islands,   Europe: Lesbos, Greece,   Israel

Eastern palearctic birds:   China

Birds from Africa:   The Gambia,   South Africa

Indo-Malayan birds from   India: North-west (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand)   India: North-east (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya)   India: Central (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh)

Birds from   Australia,   New Zealand.

For our 2014 December trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2016 May-June trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2017 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2018 March trip to India, see this travelog.

For our 2018 May trip to China, see this travelog.

For our 2018 October trip from Munich to Budapest, Hungary see this travelog.

For our 2018 November trip to China, see this travelog.

For our 2019 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2019 July trip to China, see this travelog.

For our 2021 April trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For the 2021 August 3 & 4 migration of Purple martins through Austin, see this web site.

For our 2021 December trip to Ecuador, see this web site.

For our 2022 January-February trip to Peru, see this web site.

For our 2022 July/August trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, see this web site.

For our 2022 September trip to Bolivia, see this web site.

For our 2022 November-December pre-trip to Argentina (before our Antarctic cruise), see this web site.

For our 2022 November-December cruise to Antarctica, see this web site.

For our 2023 January birding in Chile, see this web site.

For our 2023 January-March cruise from Chile to Antarctica and around South America to Miami, FL, see this web site.

For our 2023 March-April birding in south Florida (after the Seabourn cruise), see this web site.

For our 2023 November-December birding to Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, and South India, see this web site.

For John's 2024 February-March birding in Colombia, see this web site.

For our 2024 May-June cruise from Iceland to Jan Mayen Island to and around the Svalbard Archipelago, see this web site.

For our 2024 June 25-30 stay in Paris, see this web site.

For our 2025 April 21 - May 3 trip to High Island, Texas, see this web site.

For our 2025 July 16-22 stay in Paris, see this web site.

For our 2025 July vacation and birding in Singapore, see this web site.

For our 2025 August birding in north-west Australia, see this web site.

For our 2025 August-October Seabourn cruise from Australia to Chile, see this web site.