The Seine- The River that Unifies Paris

So, here is the first entry from the travel journal I must submit to my professor for Academic Travel, and thus the first installment in my Reflections on Paris series. Enjoy!

I discovered the prominence, almost omnipresence, of the River Seine during our walking tour on our first morning in Paris. It divides the city nearly in half down the middle, and it would become the most helpful landmark for navigation while walking around the city. When we finished our tour in front of the Place des Vosges, we figured that, in order to return to our hotel eventually, we needed to head toward, and then cross, the Seine. This strategy proved effective, and would continue to be so throughout our stay. We found the Louvre by locating it across the river and found our way back from the Musee Carnavalet in the same manner, despite not knowing any of the necessary street names.

The River Seine is perhaps the best symbol of Paris for the visitor, even moreso than the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower sits to the side in the Eighth arrondisement and required a deliberate metro journey from our hotel. However, the Seine was always there. Even on the metro, when we did not necessarily use it to navigate, the symbol was still everywhere we looked, as its path is an integral part of the Transportation Department's logo.

Even in Roman times, the city was centered around the River and then grew outward, as shown in how the current arrondisements are numbered and how most of the historical attractions are, if not on the River, near it. As our boat tour that first night cruised up and down the Seine, our guide was able to point out nearly 75% of Paris's famous landmarks, from the Eiffel Tower to the former palace and prision known as the Conciergerie.

From the first few readings in the course packet, I learned that the juxtaposition of beauty and carnage is a central theme to Parisian history, and perhaps nothing embodies this better than the Seine. As I sat on our boat admiring how the Eiffel Tower's lights sparkled on the water, I also remembered learning in a French class back at UCSD that in 1961, the Parisian chief of police ordered the drowning of numerous Algerian immigrants peacefully protesting French colonial rule nearby. During the day, I admired the souvenirs and used books the bouquinistes sell to tourists walking along the River and seconds later, noticed the homeless men and women sleeping in tents on its banks.

Walking along Rue Mouffetard during the same initial walking tour provoked similar thoughts, thanks to the provided text I had read days before. Shops have operated there for centuries, and the vendors with their colorful fruits and tempting cheeses continue this tradition into the present. However, I also could not help but remember the gruesome stories the author mentioned. The most haunting reportedly occured behind those very shopfronts, as a barber and a butcher a couple centuries ago murdered homeless teens and made a popular pates from their flesh.

The juxtaposition of life and death, beauty and misery, peace and violence, is the central tenet of the history Paris has carried with it into the present, and the omnipresent River Seine embodies this principle, and thus the entire city, better than any other landmark.