FRANCE’S WATERWAYS ❘ RIVER SEINE


“BESIDES SCENIC STROLLS, THE SEINE RIVERBANKS HOST DOZENS OF ATTRACTIONS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR THAT VISITORS CAN MISS”


Aisey-sur-Seine. At some places the river is so calm and clear that children grow up splashing in its shallows or chasing trout from its pools. On its way to Paris, it meanders past the medieval city of Troyes – famous for its picturesque old town and lovely Gothic cathedral – where it gains force as it meets the River Aube at Romilly-sur-Seine. Passing the ancient forest of Fontainebleau and the town of Melun, where the sculptor Rodin lived and worked in a house that’s now a museum, the Seine enters Paris, in whose history and fortunes it has played a starring role.


A RIVERSIDE VIEW OF PARIS The history of Paris began on the riverbanks in around 259 BC, when a Gallic tribe called the Parisii settled on the Île de la Cité. About 200 years later, the Romans arrived, claiming the strategic triad of the Île de la Cité, Île Saint-Louis


and the Left Bank (now the Latin Quarter) and renaming the burgeoning city Lutèce.


The Seine’s two earliest bridges – the Grand Pont and the Petit Pont (rebuilt in 2013 as the


Petit-Pont-Cardinal-Lustiger) – spanned the river between the Île de la Cité. Life fl ourished on the river, as the Seine provided food and water, crucial transport routes, and fertile ground on its banks for farming.


In 1991, UNESCO declared the Seine riverbanks a world heritage site for their “exceptional geography and history”. The protected area is between the Pont de Bir- Hakeim (one of the city’s two stacked bridges and the only one that accommodates the metro, automobiles and pedestrians, who come here for stellar views of the Eiffel Tower) and the Pont de Sully and contains 23 of Paris’s 37 bridges, both islands and 18 of the capital’s iconic monuments, including the Eiffel Tower, the Musée d’Orsay, the Petit and Grand Palais and the Louvre. There’s no more romantic way to discover Paris than along the Seine, traversing the city’s unique bridges as you go. Avid walkers can do the trip in a day, or two if stopping at monuments along the way. The river is the ideal theme for a long weekend or even a week in and around Paris, along with visits to some of the many riverside attractions just outside the city.


Or perhaps embark on an extended trip along the Seine, say from historic Troyes in the Aube department to beautiful Honfl eur on the Seine estuary, with stops at the scores of historic Seine-


90 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Feb/Mar 2023


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