A peaceful ride down the Seine

The cruise began at the new marina of Paris Arsenal. I thought we would be cruising along the calm waters of the St.Martin canal. Turns out, the boat slowly flowed between the two lines of yachts and river barges, passed the Bastille lock and made its entrance onto the Seine in front of the river brigade created for the 1900 Universal Exhibition.

Hmm, we are heading the opposite way!? Whatever! Little did the direction of the ride matter, it was more about enjoying the last tour of the school year and exchanging farewells with all the fellow mums I had met over the past two years in Paris. Yes, many are leaving after only 24 months in the city of lights. I am quite surprised to experience the enormous turnover of Expats first-hand.

While we were chatting away and snapping our souvenir photos we rode down the river Seine to join the heart of Paris, the Ile de Saint Louis and its splendid private mansions. We then admired the majestic monuments: the Notre Dame, the Louvre Museum, the France Institute, the Orsay Museum, the Eiffel Tower, the Chaillot Palace. We made it all the way to the "Mini" Statue of Liberty and then sailed back to the Arsenal Marina.

None of us really saw anything new along the banks of the Seine and we are still curious to cruise up the canal St.Martin but feeling the sun tickle our skin after months and months of atrocious weather was all that really mattered today.

Marina Arsenal

Pont des Arts - the Love Lock bridge

Bibliothèque Mazarine

Musée d'Orsay

Pont Alexandre III

Cathedral de Notre Dame

"Miniature" replica of the Statue of Liberty

Ile de St.Louis

Statue of Saint Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris at Pont de la Tournelle

Romantic encounter under the bridge of Sully

Les Docks - Cité de la mode et du design

Le Batofar - Paris' trendy nightclub on a lighthouse boat

near Gare d'Austerlitz 

Canal Lock leading into the marina