île de la Cité, islands in the Seine

île de la Cité, islands in the Seine

As any fan of the Bourne Identity knows, the Hotel Samaritaine – a perfect vantage point for surveillance – overlooks the Pont-Neuf. It’s the oldest bridge in Paris, built in 1604 to allow King Henry IV to cross from one bank of the Seine to the other. It also crosses over the main island in the Seine, île de la Cité, which is home to the Palais of Justice, Sainte-Chapelle and Cathedrale Notre-Dame.

 The bridge stanchions are capped with very comfortable benches thereby promoting yet another Paris public display of affection, as well as a wonderful setting for an impromptu portrait of my wife.

An uninterrupted sidewalk runs along the Seine so one can get away from much of the noise and commotion of the city by taking just a few steps down a walkway. In July and August some stretches of the walkway are covered with sand and fitted out with umbrellas and deck chairs to turn the banks into a beach on the Seine.

In the same general area is a stretch of bookseller stalls, a wonderful sidewalk flower market and la Maison de l’Orchidée, a shop that proclaims they have the largest selection of orchids in the world.

Of course the main attraction on the island is Notre-Dame Cathedral. Since we last visited, a large review stand has been set up to prepare for it’s 850^th anniversary celebration. As usual, the lines to enter the cathedral were hours long so we elected to return on a weekday rather than a holiday weekend. We’ll do the same at Sainte Chapelle.

There’s still a lot to see from the entryway with its incredible didactic detail. But more about that when we go inside in another post.

 

From the gardens at the rear of the cathedral you can see the flying buttress architectural engineering innovation that created the structural integrity to support the large window openings.

 

The structure that anchors this small French garden style park in the area is a shrine to the end of WWII.

Eileen and I also found the grand scale and adornments of the police station / court complex rather impressive.

But ultimately, Paris is not only the City of Light, but the City of Lovers. Next to the Pont-Neuf is the Pont des Arts. The bridge has become a place for lovers to proclaim their devotion by engraving, painting or scratching their love message onto a padlock and securing it to the chain link of the bridge rails. The large black hearts were added to highlight women in abusive relationships – one purchases such hearts from the “Unlock a Woman” project (similar to the Live Strong wrist bands) to aid the cause.

If you do want to navigate Paris like a native for as little as one Euro a day, it’s possible using the Velib bicycle network. It’s a city-maintained bicycle rental system where you pick up a bike at one station and return it at the station near your destination. They are well maintained and available near most Metro stations. But be careful, always use the system as point-to-point Velib station to Velib station. If you simply keep the same bike for an entire day you’re likely to spend a lot of money for overtime charges (to encourage continuous availability of the bikes).