Paris Charmant 2026-27

Île de la Cité and the Seine. The heart of Paris.

Paris was born on the banks of the river that today winds its way between the city’s prestigious monuments, creating a panorama of rare beauty. Alongside its celebrated museums and monuments, its lively boulevards and avenues lined with world-famous shops, Paris also offers corners with a more intimate atmosphere and medieval-looking lanes that never cease to amaze visitors. A city of a thousand shades, where history, art and literature live side by side with modernity and multiculturalism. Around 200 BC a group of Gaulish fishermen belonging to the Parisii tribe set up their huts on the largest island in the Seine: thus was born Lutetia, the first nucleus of the future Paris. The Romans then founded a small town there devoted to river trade.

In 360, the Roman prefect Julian the Apostate was proclaimed emperor by his legions. Lutetia then took its name from the people who had founded it: Paris. Until the beginning of the Middle Ages, Paris extended only over the Île de la Cité, spared by Attila and chosen by Clovis as his capital in 506.

The building of the cathedral turned the island into an intellectual and artistic centre: it was a teacher, Alexander of Paris, who invented the twelve-syllable line known as the alexandrine; later, at the beginning of the 12th century, the tragic love story between the philosopher Abelard and Héloïse, niece of Canon Fulbert, flared up in the cloister of Notre-Dame. A great many churches, chapels and convents sprang up on the Cité: by the end of the 13th century there were at least 22 bell towers. It was also the seat of the Parlement, the highest judicial authority in the kingdom. From 1852, Haussmann remodelled the island and gave it its present appearance: 25,000 people were evacuated from the demolished houses, enormous administrative buildings were erected, and wide avenues and great squares took the place of the narrow streets of old. A boat trip on the Seine is part of every perfect tourist’s programme in Paris. Yet, far more than an unmissable tourist cliché, discovering the city from the Seine offers an unusual perspective on the capital. Bateaux Mouches (literally: fly-boats) is the name given to the river boats that offer their passengers a stunning view of the capital’s finest monuments: the name originates from the Mouche district of Lyon, where the first “bateaux-omnibus” were built at the end of the 19th century. A Parisian activity that has flourished ever since, for Paris is the world’s leading tourist port, with 5 million passengers a year. But what is the reason for such success? What can be seen from the Seine that cannot be seen from its banks? Banks which, it should be remembered, have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1991, as they are home to the capital’s most prestigious monuments. Taking these boats is without doubt the most satisfying way to admire the many bridges (no fewer than 37 within the city walls) and their architecture. Monuments known and admired from dry land reveal themselves in a new light: taking in the Musée d’Orsay along its entire length, sailing at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, discovering Notre-Dame from a different angle, gliding along the river close to the ancestral banks of the Île Saint-Louis and the Île de la Cité. The ultimate is to take these “by night” cruises, for a vision of Paris sublimated by its illuminations. This strong romantic potential has, moreover, prompted many companies to develop themed cruises, with the option of a candlelit lunch or dinner, private cocktail parties and even wedding celebrations… While tourists are moved by such beauty, Parisians never tire of repeating this classic tour of tourist Paris, declaring, not without pride, that Paris really is the most beautiful city in the world.