On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
randy khan
While a lot of the really touristy things in Paris are entirely skippable, here are some that you really should do. One of them is taking a boat ride on the Seine. It’s a great way to get off your feet for a while, and it also gives you a different perspective on the city. There are boats that just do a circuit from roughly the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame and back, and there also are boats where you sit down for lunch or dinner; we’ve done both. These photos are from a dinner cruise, arranged by our Parisian friend, as we never would have thought of it ourselves.
Here’s the entrance to the boat slip. You take steps down the wall that surrounds the river. (They’re pretty tall – the river is a good 15 feet or more below street level, as you’ll see from later photos.)
You’re on the river, so you go under all the bridges. And it turns out that a lot of them are nicer at river level than at street level. When you think about it, it makes sense, since there always has been a lot of traffic on the water.
Approaching Le Tour Eiffel. It’s like all the landmarks are drifting by you as you go. (Of course, it’s really the opposite.)
You may not have known that there’s a carousel at the Eiffel Tower, but you definitely can see it from the river.
Another bridge, this one with some sculpture on the piers.
In nice weather, and if the river isn’t too high (rare, but it does happen), there always are people hanging out along the banks. A lot of them are just sitting and enjoying themselves, but there are some runners, and there’s some exercise equipment along one section as well.
This is the Institut de France, where the French cultural academies are headquartered. It’s just west of the Ile de la Cite, where Ste. Chappelle and Notre Dame are located.
More people hanging out. This is the very tip of the Ile de la Cite.
I liked the alternating towers and straight facades here.
And, just before we turned back to return to the quay, a very modern structure, really unlike anything else along the river. This is the City of Fashion and Design.
opiejeanne
I think that fairy tale set of towers is where they held Marie Antoinette before her execution.
We really enjoyed our two visits to Paris. It’s a wonderful place.
phdesmond
the name of the launch company on the quai struck me, so i googled:
About 260,000 results (0.84 seconds)
Web results
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Fracasse_(novel)
Captain Fracasse (novel) – Wikipedia
from which several movies evolved. i might glance later.
Librarian
@opiejeanne: It’s the Conciergerie, which was a prison and court building on the Ile de la Cite, and used to imprison Figures in the French Revolution, including Marie Antoinette.
phdesmond
@Librarian:
i wonder what stories it could tell us about world war ii.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Thanks for the pictures and the compelling arguments for taking a boat ride on the Seine. I have avoided it in the past as being “too touristy” (although I had ignored that concern to go up the Eiffel Tower :-). I hadn’t thought of seeing the bridges from river level, or how interesting they are from that vantage point. How was the meal on the dinner cruise?
Wag
Great photo of the tip of Ile de la Cite. What a spectacular spot to watch the world go by.
phdesmond
@phdesmond:
turns out you can watch a lot of film clips about capitaine fracasse:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=capitaine+fracasse+fil
entire movies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiiyljJD9uw
cat alert: the baron de Sigognac’s cat is introduced at 1:40 . it’s an hour a half silent movie.
jackmac
Wonderful images! Thanks for posting. During my first trip to Paris more than 30 years ago, I would never have thought to take a river cruise. Now I want to go back and do just that!
Librarian
@phdesmond: I don’t know if the Germans used it for anything, but it’s still used as a courthouse. It was also a royal palace in the medieval period and the meeting place of the supreme court of prerevolutionary France, the Parlement of Paris.
randy khan
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
Dinner was fine. Not the best meal we’ve had in France by any measure, but good enough. It’s kind of like a restaurant on top of a tall building – you’re paying for the view.
The first time we did a little river cruise, we took one of the boats that just goes up and down the river, with no food, and usually open to the air. On a nice day, it’s really relaxing, and it’s not too expensive.
RaflW
I had a somewhat odd experience in Budapest some years ago. I was on a small group tour, set up through our denomination’s partner-church council. One of the dinners was on an old riverboat (like, a Viking ship but downscale, and then 20 years older). It was moored and we were the only people eating in the dining room.
It was kind of lovely to see other boats cruising up and down the river, but I wished we’d been under way as well!
The other odd part was that the starter looked like beet or red cabbage soup, but turned out to be a cold cherry soup. Delish! The desert, on the other hand, turned out not to be cherry strudel, but sweetened red cabbage in the pastry. Not delish.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the Conciergerie was the main royal palace of Paris until the expansion of the Louvre– that’s why the Sainte-Chapelle is part of the complex. That tip of the island where people are hanging out under the willows– which are of course too close to the palace– was a separate island in the Middle Ages. According to legend, Jacques de Molay and the other leading French Templars were taken there to be tied to the stakes, so that Phillip IV could watch them burn from the comfort his own rooms. No doubt counting their money while he watched.
frosty
We did one of the Paris hop-on hop-off river tours, getting off for the Eiffel Tower but nowhere else. Like you said, it’s a nice way to see the city. On the same trip we also did a river tour on the Thames in London.
What’s a US equivalent? Circle Tour of New York? Seems to me that in most US cities, the heart of the city isn’t on the river.
HeartlandLiberal
Did you see Jason Bourne on any of the bridges, escaping?
Great pictures, when we visited Paris early seventies, we never got to see this angle from the river. Good views.
Denali
Thanks for the great photos and idea. Will definitely do it- next time we are in Paris, which I don’t know when. But your photos reminded me of the horrific fire at Notre Dame, only 2 years ago, and I just got news yesterday that my grandmother’s home -over 150 years old- burned down due to a grease fire. So I am grieving this morning. It was a beautiful historic home with 5 fireplaces and porches and chesnut woodwork. Not a plantation but a working farm home. It was not still in the family, and I wish the current owners had not been so careless.
J R in WV
Great OTR photo set~!!~ I really want to spend a week or so in Paris, then tour the country side, vineyards, battlefields, historic sites, etc. We did visit quite a bit of history on our one trip into France, the main point was cave paintings, but we also hit museums, archaeological sites, and Richard the I aka Richard III castle, really old and somewhat primitive.
We did eat at a Michellin starred restaurant just across from the Eiffel tower, a wonderful evening. They specialized in seafood, and so we had two bottles of champagne with the long multi course dinner. So lucky to find it, and to make reservations! Love France and Spain and Italy, I’m sure we will love everywhere else in Europe as well.