The Seine and other Paris, France General Tips

Favorite Thing: Visiting Paris, it's almost inevitable to see the Seine. This river played a important role in the origin and development of Paris. Many of the important monuments are built along the river, like the Tour Eiffel, the Notre Dame and the Louvre.

At many places a lot of trees are planted along the riverbanks. It's a nice place to sit on a bench for a while or to walk. You can find bookstalls, a city beach, but also a 'musée en plein air'.


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Favorite Thing: Coming from the Pantheon and walking in the direction of the the Jardin du Luxembourg, you can see the Tour Eiffel, though it's far from this place.

Most of the times I was in Paris I didn't visit the area around the Tour Eiffel. But it was almost impossible not to have at least a glimpse at this famous landmark of Paris from other parts of the city, when strolling around.


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Favorite Thing: From many places in Paris you can have a nice overview of the city. During one of my early visits to Paris I went to La Samaritaine, the largest department store in Paris.

I went to the café on the roof, which offers a 360 degree view of Paris. In the north you can see very well Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur from here.

Originally La Samaritaine takes its name from an old water pump near the Pont Neuf, which was decorated with the woman of Sameria, giving a drink of water to Jesus.

Metro: Pont Neuf or Louvre-Rivoli


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Favorite Thing: La Samaritaine, the largest department store in Paris is easy to find on the Louvre side near the Pont Neuf. It's located in three buildings. From the rooftop the 360 degree view at the city is wonderful. To the south you can see the Notre Dame and the Panthéon.

Metro stops would be Pont-Neuf or Louvre-Rivoli

Fondest Memory: After more than 25 years I have still the lovely scarf I bought here. In this time I brought this scarf many times to the desert and to many continents. Now finally it starts to falling apart.

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Favorite Thing: When I am in Paris I walk as much as possible. After visiting the cemetery Mont Parnasse I decided to walk back to the Seine, visiting the Jardin Luxembourg on my way.

I crossed the place Denfert-Rochereau (a French commander during the Siege of Belfort in the Franco-Prussian War) at the intersection of boulevards Raspail, Saint-Jacques, and avenues Denfert-Rochereau and some other avenues. The Place is dominated by a copy of the statue of the Lion of Belfort (the original is in Belfort). See picture 1.

At the intersection of the Boulevard Montparnasse/ Boulevard de Port Royal stands a statue of Francis Carnier (picture 2). From here along the Avenue de Observatoire you have allready a great view at the Jardin en Palais Luxembourg in the north (picture 3).

Looking back to the south along the same axis you see the Observatoire de Paris (picture 4), the foremost astronomical observatory of France and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world.

At the beginning of the Jardins Marco Polo and Cavalier de la Salle wich are connected with the Jardin de Luxembourg along the axis of the Avenue de Observatoire is located the impressive Fountain de Observatoire with bronze horses (picture 5).

Fondest Memory: Walking through the city and discovering something new at every corner.

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Favorite Thing: I will never forget my first walk in Paris more than 30 years ago. From this first walk of about 20 KM I could remember the impressive architecture, the enormous parcs with monuments at both ends of the long axis and of course the famous landmarks and icons of Paris like the Eiffel Tower.

In 2005 after 30 years I made the fisrt part of the same walk again from the Esplanada des Invalides to the Jardin du Trocadero. I skipped the rest of the walk, continuing to the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Jardin des Tuileries and Palais du Louvre. Starting from the Seine the view at the Esplanade des Invalides and the Hotel des Invalides at the end with the golden cupola at top (picture 1) was as impressive as I could remember from the first time. In the southwest corner of the Esplanade the Avenue de la Motte Picquet is heading straight to the Ecole de Militaire.

The École Militaire (see picture 2 and 3) stands at the southeastern end of the Champ-de-Mars. The Champs-de-Mars is a another large green space with the Eiffel Tower at the northwestern end. The Champs-de-Mars or ´Field of Mars´ is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. Originally it was used for military training. On the Champs de Mars in front of the Ecole Militaire stands the impressive Wall for Peace, first erected in 2000. Through the transparant wall with the word peace in 49 different languages the view at the Tour Eiffel is unique (picture 4).

From here it´s impossible to get lost with the Eiffel Tower and the Palais Chaillot allready visble from far. It´s great to walk under the Tour Eiffel and have a look at its brown coloured construction. Form here you have a nice view at the Palais Chaillot and the Jardins du Trocadero with the striking fountains (picture 5).

Fondest Memory: During this walk at one hand everything looks very familiar like I could remember of my first visit 30 years earlier. At the other hand there is always something new to discover at every single corner. I enjoyed this mixture of experiences during my walk.

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Favorite Thing: Walking in the streets of Paris or travelling with the metro you will see for sure some of the 68 remaining and restoredart nouveau metro entrances.

Hector Guimard (1867 - 1942), the best known French Art Nouveau architect, was the designer of these art nouveau entrances. Between 1900 and 1904 in total 141 art nouveau entrances, made of prefabricated cast-iron elements, were built all over the city. Anyway two canopied entrances survived, the one at the Porte Dauphine side of Avenue Foch and the one at the Abbesses metro station in the 18th Arrondisement.


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