Finally it is afternoon on a gorgeous summers day in Paris. Lunch was satisfying (to say the leasty and littlemissy and I are heading to the Isle de City to peruse the wonders of Notre-Dame Cathedral. The sun is shining the sky is bright and the Isle de City beautiful. Romance is definitely in the air….
So we turn the corner onto the boulevard leading to Notre-Dame and stopped in horror. At two in the afternoon on a broiling hot summers afternoon the place was full of TOURISTS!!!! It was disgraceful how dare these tourists come and look at the attraction we wanted to see. The entire plaza in front of Notre-Dame was one big queue and from the look of it was not getting any smaller.
We wailed, we screamed and we shouted but the tourists would not listen. In fact more arrived! Littlemissy and I considered using the suitcase nuke we had brought with us just in case of this situation. But after much deliberation decided that Notre-Dame was too beautiful to destroy just because of tourists. Still what were we going to do? The crowd was to big to fight and so alternate plan Alpha Bravo 2341 was put into operation.
Alternate plan Alpha Bravo 2341 basic guiding operational parameter was find something else to do. Preferably involving shade of some kind or another. So while we thought out our goals we had an underground wander in the Crypt Archaeologique (More details when I cover Notre-Dame itself) and lightning struck! No I did not put my fingers in the plug socket I just had inspiration. On one of the little plaques around the crypt a word stood out to me imprinting and dredging up something in my subconscious. The equation running through my head went something like this:
Seine = River, River = Water, Water = H20, H20 = Floating, Floating = Boats, Boats = Tours
It took my brain a while to get there, as my brain was overheating, but a river trip up and down the Seine sounded like a great idea. So without further ado and a little help from our guide book we headed for the Seine to find a tour boat with which to explore Paris a little bit more. You see in the guide book was mentioned a company called Bateaux Parisiens which runs tours up and down the Seine between Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower. At this moment in time it seemed like a marvelous idea otherwise littlemissy and I were going to kill everyone on the Isle de City with our nuke.
Twenty minutes later, and having avoided loads of dodgy French men and women offering to draw our portrait we discover the Bateaux Parisiens office on the Left Bank. For some strange reason I will never understand we were on time for the next boat as well, which if you know littlemissy’s timekeeping at all is even more impressive. So signing our names on the dotted line and praying the boat won’t sink we board the boat destined to show and tell us about Paris.
Surprisingly the boat was actually quite big iy had a capacity for around 70 people at a time. On the seating front you also have a choice between sitting upstairs and at the back in open air. There was also a downstairs compartment but no one wanted to use it on such a beautiful day. We were welcomed aboard by a charming young lady whom we perceived to be our guide for the journey (It must have been the microphone she was holding) and headed towards the back as all the seats in the top section had already been taken:(
Still it was a gorgeous day, we were on the Seine in the most romantic city in world, and it could not get much better than this. But once that boat started moving we discovered it did get a lot better. So far we had only seen a bit of Montmartre, the Rue St Martin and the inside of some Metro trains. Now we saw Paris as a whole. If you are on the river it gives you a little distance from which to truly appreciate the beauty of Paris. As you travel up the river you get to see, at some point or another, every major building in Paris from the Louvre to the Bastille via the Assembly Nationale.
I did not realise what a gem Paris was until I saw it from the boat, littlemissy and I were entranced by Paris all over again in that hour long circular trip. I think we saw at least two thirds of Paris’s architectural triumph’s in that brief jaunt. With our guide keeping us informed of what we were seeing in French, English, German and Spanish (Sadly the speakers were not working where we were or else we would have heard her more clearly. For an investment of a few euro’s a guided trip up and down the Seine is well worth it.
From what we could ascertain from our guide book and the timetable at their Notre-Dame office. Bateaux Parisiens run one hour tours on the hour from both Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower. The boats used by Bateaux Parisiens can carry from 40 to 400 people at a time so getting a seat on any particular boat should be relatively easy to do. They also apparently run special cruise in the evenings during which you can sip wine and have a bite but you will have to check up on that if you want to try it out. If you have not got much time and you want to see as much of Paris as possible boat is the way to go.
Price €9 (£6)
Boarding areas: Notre-Dame on the Left Bank (summertime only) Eiffel Tower (all year round)
Directions to the Notre-Dame staging area:
From the front of the Cathedral walk away past the Crypt Archaelogique keeping to your left by the Seine. You will come to a bridge on your left-hand side. Look across at other bank of the river and keep an eye out for a large blue pillar with gold writing. That is your destination and head for it(Boy do I give crap directions!).
My one tip to you about going on this trip:
Make sure you are upstairs or in the compartment and want to hear the guide. It does help if you know what your looking at:)
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