When I was in Paris in 2012, I had a chance to visit Notre Dame, among many other things. To reach Notre Dame, I crossed on Pont au Double, which is a cast iron bridge built in 1882. Other people were standing on the bridge, and birds were swooping down everywhere to land on people’s hands or arms, as you can see above. What’s going on here?
While Paris has plenty of pigeons, these friendly birds are “house sparrows,” and they often nest in the box hedges in the square in front of the cathedral, as well as along the stone walls of the bridges crossing the Seine right next to the Notre Dame. It seems that generations of tourists and locals have fed them, making them incredibly bold and friendly. As you can see, people will stand still and hold out their hands with a few crumbs, which invites the house sparrows to fly right up and land there for a snack.
Look at the guy in the back right – he probably has 4 or 5 birds on his hand! While I didn’t have any bird feed or crumbs to offer myself, it was still magical to see the birds approach people around me and interact in such a friendly way.
By the way, “Les moineaux” translates from French to “the sparrows.”
