As many have pointed out, it’s hell to think that in this century, science and the principles of the enlightment would be fighting for acceptance, even survival.

Yesterday, the Paris March for Science assembled, appropriately enough, in front of the Jardin des Plantes. A small band played. Two notables gave succinct speeches in defense of verifiable fact, the inquiring method, logical reasoning and above all doubt—the open, questioning mind.

Poetry was embraced.  A long minute of silence held for the young policeman assassinated two days earlier on the Champs-Elysees.  An estimated few thousand people with home-made signs.  All ages. Many faces chiselled by a certain inner life.

Those who marched for science yesterday will be voting in her defense today.  Here, some scenes from voting stations this Sunday morning.  Vive la France.