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Seine: Dancing by the Seine Seine Review

On the left bank of the Seine at Quai Saint-Bernard between the Sully and Austerlitz bridges there is a park named after the Corsican singer and movie star Tino Rossi (1907-1983). This park was created between 1975 and 1980 by the architect Daniel Badani. Unlike most Paris parks, which close at sunset, this one stays open all night and has developed into a tremendously popular venue for open-air dancing by the riverside.

It's all free and spontaneous. Somebody brings a CD-player for the music, and anyone is welcome to join in. There are usually two or three different kinds of dancing going on in different parts of the park, the most active being the tango group. They give tango lessons in the early evening, and then all dance until late into the night.

Second and third photos: Understandably, the best tango dancers tend to be older South American couples, but people of all ages and all nationalities come to dance here.

Fourth photo: In a different part of the park, near the Institute of the Arab World, there is an area where mainly young people come to dance. (Not the tango, in this case.)

Fifth photo: A bit further upstream there is a place where jugglers and other such performers congregate. My son borrowed some juggling clubs from someone, just to see if he could still do it -- and he still can! (He used to juggle in school, but hasn't done it since then.)

Address: Jardin Tino Rossi, Quai Saint-Bernard

Directions: Vélib' 5020
48°50'52.56" North; 2°21'38.03" East

Phone: 06 80 33 88 51

Theme: Dancing

Website: http://www.tango-club.com/jardintinorossi

Seine: Sunset on the Seine Seine Review

On a clear summer evening you could do worse than to join the many Parisians and visitors for a stroll along the banks of the Seine at sunset.

I took this first photo from the bridge called Pont de la Tournelle, looking towards Notre Dame Cathedral. By coincidence this is the same view that was described by the nineteenth-century French poet Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) in his poem Soleil couchant, though he had a large flaming cloud in the sky, which I didn't.

En passant sur le pont de la Tournelle, un soir,
Je me suis arrêté quelques instants pour voir
Le soleil se coucher derrière Notre-Dame.
Un nuage splendide à l'horizon de flamme,
Tel qu'un oiseau géant qui va prendre l'essor,
D'un bout du ciel à l'autre ouvrait ses ailes d'or,
- Et c'était des clartés à baisser la paupière.
Les tours au front orné de dentelles de pierre,
Le drapeau que le vent fouette, les minarets
Qui s'élèvent pareils aux sapins des forêts,
Les pignons tailladés que surmontent des anges
Aux corps roides et longs, aux figures étranges,
D'un fond clair ressortaient en noir ; l'Archevêché,
Comme au pied de sa mère un jeune enfant couché,
Se dessinait au pied de l'église, dont l'ombre
S'allongeait à l'entour mystérieuse et sombre.
- Plus loin, un rayon rouge allumait les carreaux
D'une maison du quai ; - l'air était doux ; les eaux
Se plaignaient contre l'arche à doux bruit, et la vague
De la vieille cité berçait l'image vague ;
Et moi, je regardais toujours, ne songeant pas
Que la nuit étoilée arrivait à grands pas.

(While crossing the Tournelle Bridge one evening, I stopped for several moments to see the sun setting behind Notre-Dame. A splendid cloud on the flaming horizon, like a giant bird getting ready to fly, opened its golden wings from one end of the sky to the other. . . .)

Dress Code:



Second photo: One of the many excursion boats on the Seine River at sunset. The bridge in the picture is Pont Louis Philippe, and I took the photo looking downstream from Pont Marie.

Third photo: People sitting by the Seine at night. I took this photo looking upstream on the left bank, not far from Pont Sully.

Directions: 48°51'2.05" North; 2°21'18.82" East

Theme: Other