You know it’s summer in the capital when… you’re walking along rue des Francs-Bourgeois on your way to get ice cream in the Marais and you notice the seagulls celebrating the return to their Paris pieds-à-terre.
Yes, pigeons and sparrows aren’t the only birds that enjoy life and food in the City of Lights. Gulls do too. Though not permanent residents, gulls can be seen congregating on Paris holiday between early summer and late winter on their way to/from northern or central Europe on the one hand and the Atlantic or channel coast on the other.
Paris has, as yet, been spared the kind of gull attacks against cats and small dogs that have recently been reported in Nice (from bigger seagulls). Between Paris’s tasty insects, not-too-toxic fish and the delicious trash, who needs a meal of yorkie (one was reportedly lifted from the beach in Nice and devoured at sea)?
In Paris we can take in the sight of these frolicking feathered friends without fear, for now, whether in July, as in this video that I shot in the Marais:
or in December, as in this video that I shot from a bridge over the Canal Saint Martin.
© Gary Lee Kraut