 The Serene River Seine
Text and Pix: Nilma Dole
The pristine city of Paris
should acknowledge the lovely River Seine for gracefully lending its
curves to make it a peaceful and heavenly location for many. There is a
joke on the Seine, which goes, “If you jump off a Paris bridge, you’re
in Seine!” with the word insane replaced with in-Seine.
The best way to see gorgeous Paris in double-quick time is to hop on
a boat from the Bateaux Mouches for just 10 Euros that will take you
along the lovely Seine.
 Be prepared to see everything from the Eiffel Tower to the Notre Dame
where one can drink in the scenic setting of the picturesque island of
La Grande Jatte (Big Bowl Island). Delicately cutting right in the
middle of Paris, the Alfred Sisley square, a small public park on the
Ile de la Jatte beckons you to chill out and live the Parisian life.
The Ile de la Jatte (formerly called the Ile de la Grande Jatte,
which means “Big Bowl Island”), is a large island in the middle of the
Seine River in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a very chic northwestern suburb of
Paris. This little island would have been lost in history had it not
been for the several famous painters, most notably the French painter
Georges Seurat, who painted pictures of it. Seurat did a painting of it
called ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’, over a
hundred years ago, which made it famous. The Seine is a meandering big
river (second only to the longest Loire River) and commercial waterway
within the regions of Ile-de-France and Haute-Normandie in France and
recognized as a romantic backdrop in everything Parisian.
With massive attractions culminating in the Rive Droite (Right) and
Rive Gauche (Left), it ends in the Bay of the Seine region of the
English Channel. It offers easy accessibility for ocean-going vessels
for about ten percent of its length which is as far as Rouen, 120 km (75
miles) from the sea and over sixty percent of its length, as far as
Burgundy near the Swiss Alps which is negotiable by commercial
riverboats and nearly its whole length is available for recreational
boating.
There are 37 bridges over the River Seine just within Paris and
dozens more spanning the river outside of the city. Examples in Paris
include the Pont Louis-Philippe and Pont Neuf, the latter which dates
back to 1607. Outside of the city, examples include the Pont de
Normandie, one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, which
links Le Havre to Honfleur.
The best way to experience the true authenticity of the River Seine
is to have a picnic of cheese, baguette, caviar and roquet salad on the
Pont D’Art bridge which is used by pedestrians and bicyclists alike. Sip
smooth cherry wine and listen to St. Germaine while romancing with your
loved one overlooking the serene River Seine. |
