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photo: Eric Rougier |
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The Seine river The Seine (pronounced "sen") is a major river of northern France, forming the country's chief commercial waterway. It is also a tourist attraction, particularly within the city of Paris. The river is 780 km (485 miles) long, France's second longest (after the Loire which is 1020 km (634 miles) long). In ancient times the Seine was known by the Latin name Sequana. The Seine's main tributaries are the Aube, Marne and Oise rivers from the north and the Yonne and Eure rivers from the south. It is connected with canals to the Scheldt (also called the Escaut), Meuse, Rhine, Saône and Loire rivers. The Seine rises in the French région of Burgundy, in the département of Côte-d'Or, 30 km (18 miles) northwest of Dijon at a height of 471 metres (1545 feet). The river then flows through Troyes to Paris. On July 4, 1889 the American community in Paris offered the French people a gift of a bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty; it still stands now, on an island in the Seine River, downstream from the Eiffel Tower. In a symbolic sense, this recently restored American gift closes the circle of gift giving that was launched by the French in the 1860's with the gift of Miss Liberty. In a deeper sense, though, the American replica in Paris serves to extend and strenthen the chain of reciprocity between the two peoples that has existed since before the founding of the American Republic and that promises to continue well into the future. This magnificent exchange of gifts illustrates a declaration delivered by French ambassador Jule J. Jusserand on the occasion of the 1916 ceremony at which Liberty's torch was first lighted with electricity: "Not to a man, not to a nation, the statue was raised. It was raised to an idea - an idea greater than France or the United States: the idea of Liberty.". Beaugrenelle district Front de Seine (also known as Beaugrenelle) is a district in Paris, France, located along the river Seine in the 15th arrondissement right at the South of the Eiffel Tower. It is with the 13th arrondissement and La Défense, one of the districts hosting the most highrise buildings in the Paris area. The Front de Seine district is the result of an urban planning project from the 1970s. It includes about 20 towers reaching nearly 100 meters of height built all around an elevated espalanade. That esplanade is paved with frescos that can only be seen from the elevated floors of the towers. As opposed to Italie 13, the design of the towers is a lot more varied with, for instance, the Hôtel Novotel Paris-Tour Eiffel (formerly known as Hôtel Nikkō) with its red-encircled windows or the Tour Totem, which consists in a stack of several glassed-blocks. High-rise buildings Among the tallest towers in the district, we can find rising to 98 meters: Other Structures |