While riding around with my high school classmate on the top of a double-decker tourist bus, I noticed this second-story commemorative carving on the rue de Castiglione, just south of Place Vendôme. I'd never noticed it before. It says,
EMBASSY OF TEXAS. In 1842-1843, this building was the seat of the embassy of the Republic of Texas in Paris. By the Franco-Texan Treaty of 29 September 1839, France was the first nation to recognize the independent state of the Republic of Texas between 1839 and 1845.