HISTORIC, BELOVED BIRD MARKET IS CLOSING

Canaries, parakeets and zebra finches will no longer chirp from small cages in the shadow of Notre Dame cathedral, after Paris voted to close its 19th-century bird market, deeming it inappropriate for this day and age. Held on Sundays, the market on the Île de la Cité island in the Seine river, dating from 1808, has been a magnet for tourists and Parisians with children for decades, but an animal rights group's campaign against it and plans to renovate the site led to a city council decision to close it. “The market had become the epicentre of bird trafficking in the Paris region, including of endangered birds,” Paris deputy mayor Christophe Najdovksi told Reuters. “A second reason for closing it is that the conditions in which the birds are presented are no longer acceptable,” he said.