The Seine: The River That Made Paris, Sciolino - B

Paris, city of light and love, is at the midpoint of the river's 483 mile traverse from Burgundy to the sea. It is France's only river referred to in the feminine, la Seine; all the others are le. Flowing west from its source and through the vineyards of Burgundy, the river reaches Troyes, where it is wide and deep enough for small boats. Past Fontainbleau, and the Marne,  it reaches the Il de France, the province that includes Paris and its suburbs. The first to build stone structures on the Il de Cite and Left Bank were the Romans. The first stone bridge, the Pont Neuf, connecting the Il de Cite to both banks, was built by Henri IV in 1598. Today, there are thirty-five bridges crossing the Seine. It is not the river's physicality, but its beauty that has inspired Parisians for centuries. It languidly curves through the metropolis, and is its beating heart. It has been and still is romanticized as the soul of the city of love. Love locks hang from its bridges. Lovers stroll throughout the day and night. They kiss on its bridges. It is also the focus of the city's nighttime lighting program and draws people in with its visual seductiveness. It is the subject of countless paintings and photographs. Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party' was set on its banks, as was Seuratt's 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte'. To the west, the Impressionists, particularly Monet, spent a significant amount of their time in Normandy, where they were the first to paint water moving. In 'Charade', Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn fall in love on a bateau-mouche.  All of the thousands of movies set in Paris feature the river. The Pont Notre Dame is where Javert ended it all. It is a working river as well with twenty million tons of freight per year and that is most evident west of the city on the way to the sea. At Rouen, the Seine is deep and wide enough to handle ocean-going ships. The estuary is miles wide, a full ten at its mouth, filled with sandbars, islands in flux and  navigational challenges. At the Channel, Le Havre is the large port on the left bank and Honfleur is on the right. Honfleur is a beautiful city, untouched by the passage of time or war. Le Havre is an industrial city considered to be without a soul. Earlier this year, in April, water from the river saved Notre Dame Cathedral. I like river biographies. They tell a slightly different story and touch upon geography, history, sociology, culture and are almost always instructive.