Wednesday, December 06, 2006

And a river runs through it!


The Seine is the river that runs through Paris from east to west and it is used by many boats to carry goods or passengers - there is also a "bus" service (and when I was much younger I even participated in a rowing race!). And sometimes it is also used to carry waste... Much less glamorous than the usual romantic image of the Paris embankment that I often show here, huh?! And if you noticed, the colour of the river is not exactly blue...

36 comments:

  1. si tu veux voir une mer bleue demain j'irais te shooter un coin de plage et je l'enverrais via mail...
    par contre il est vrai que paris reste magiques avec sa seine mais bon j'irais pas m'y baigner...

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  2. Interesting, Eric. Reminds me of our Thames, that colour! Except it sounds like you use your river a lot more, i've read that we could transport goods more frequently in the UK than we do. I've travelled on the Seine bus service and loved every minute. A race? I'm impressed. Where did you come?

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  3. > Terra. En plus je viens de voir la Météo, ils disent qu'il fait 19 à Bastia ?! Je rêve...

    > Lynn. Every year they do a rawing race on the Seine around the two islands and stuff. It's really fantisatic but pretty hard of course. We were 4 on my boat (well 4 +1) and it took us 6 hours whereas the first ones did it in a little more than 2 hours! But still I loved it - and slept very well afterwards!!

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  4. A floating poubel perhaps, as Tomate has taught us previously.
    One could also use the Seine for funerals like in Venezia.
    The mind boggles.
    O to be in Paris

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  5. That's something the tourists very rarely see!

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  6. oh, the water reminds me the river in shanghai,called Huang2 pu3 river, actually in Chinese Huang2 means yellow. so you could imagine the colour of that river.
    :))
    and its interesting to see Paris in many angle.

    jing
    shanghai daily photo

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  7. I'd love to live on a barge on the Seine for awhile. This looks much different than those I used to watch from the bridges. I agree with jing that it is interesting, and important I might add, to see Paris from all angles. Really like this photo.

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  8. And now you wonder how this boat will fit under the bridge?!? ;~) Nice perspective!

    Alex

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  9. While Web surfing at an Internet cafe earlier today I was utterly shocked when I saw this photo and the contents of this garbage barge. I nearly blurted out loud, "What is that doing in Paris and how did it get there?"

    On returning home I was relieved to have discovered that, although a near identical reproduction, the resemblance is mere happenstance—the interior contents of my residence had, indeed, not been stolen.

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  10. greaaaat... i am coming to paris on a school trip this coming march break and we are going on a boat cruise on the seine - now all i'll think about is garbage!

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  11. One of the things I love about this blog is the sheer variety of perspectives we are offered on Paris. In three days, we have gone from the sublime to the silly to the downright smelly!

    Boy, six hours of rowing, Eric! I couldn't WATCH rowing for that long!

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  12. Ah, the Seine...

    I'm surprised that they didn't come up with a creative cover for aesthetic purposes...I wouldn't put it past the French to do that :-)

    On another note, here is an article for those of you who are interested in learning more about Paris' "new and upcoming" neighborhood: the 11th arrondissement....

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR2005110400570.html

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  13. Haz-mat carrying barges, pigeons ... how romantic! ;)

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  14. as a tourist, it was so interesting to take the Seine cruise. you discover that there are so so so so many bridges!

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  15. lol Percy!

    Goodness Eric that sounds really hard but great fun. I bet you did sleep well! - are there any pics to show us? We don't mind a little retrospective slant now and then.
    I would love to be there right now. Well, not actually in the poubelle, clearly, i meant on the Seine in something a little more luxurious, lol, mmm drifting along, taking in the sights. Lovely.

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  16. Quo Vadis? I hope the destination of this garbage scowl isn't the open sea. Garbage has made the news so often this month and last. It takes the glamour out of living. Polluted though it may be (is)you can't take the beauty of the Seine away from a romantic.

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  17. Aaaa, a wonderful sight to go with my coffee this morning ;-)))

    Love Paris, good, bad or ugly (definition of a true francophile - c'est moi).

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  18. It may be used for the transfer of waste, but La Seine has the Thames beaten hands down as a city river. I love the Thames west of London but the Seine by night through central Paris has to be one of the best ways to see any capital in the world. Thanks Eric for allowing Salut! to spread news of your gifts.

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  19. > Johnnyparsons : "I hope the destination of this garbage scowl isn't the open sea."

    Don't be afraid of that. If you look closely to the picture you might recognise the Pont Neuf, and on your right, the Ile de la Cité, meaning, the picture is taken from the Pont des Arts, so the barge is going upwards. The Channel will stay clean… at least of this garbage !

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  20. ERIC! I think this is one of your most trashiest posts to date! LOL! ;-) You weren't MANNING that barge were you? Looks awfully close there! =)

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  21. my, my, my, the beauty of your 12/02 post seems so far away now!
    This is a cool fact-of-everyday-life shot though.

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  22. Un bateau des ordures? Quelle drolle.

    But it is indeed part of city life...

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  23. I can't believe you ALL got it wrong. This isn't smelly, these are metal scraps off to recycling. Look closely, it's obvious !

    Before moving to Sydney my husband and I owned a barge like this for 14 years, which we bought in Belgium as a working boat, sailed down to Avignon and converted to a beautiful 4 bedroom floating home.

    We did the barge's last commercial trip with the previous owners so we could learn how to steer it. It's quite a monster, 40 metres of steel, to navigate through the numerous bridges and intense traffic of the Seine.... souvenirs, souvenirs...

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  24. Gosh Nathalie, how adventurous. I interviewed someone recently who had done a similar thing. His boat/barge was immaculate, all kitted out and really very luxurious. When he bought it, i think he'd paid something like £20,000. On sale it went for £240,000. Obviously he spent a lot on top range refurbishment but even so...

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  25. One thing about boats on the Seine,
    ils vont sous les ponts. I think Nathalie is right, it is recylcing, and gg is right of course, it is going upriver. I had the opportunity once to steer a tugboat pushing two empty barges on the Mississippi. The whole things was about 500 feet long. No way could I steer it under Pont Neuf. The skill of these pilots impresses me.

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  26. This reminds me of an AbFab episode where Patsy and Edina woke up on a garbage barge enroute to the dump?

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  27. I'm afraid alliteration got the better of me, Nathalie. I read the word 'waste' and assumed (wrongly) that I was looking at rotting rubbish, not recyclable refuse (you see, I just can't help myself).

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  28. I just read about the France state run all news channel that is being kicked off Wednesday night in Paris. Are you going to go? Wait, today is Wednesday isn't it?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/05/AR2006120500910.html

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  29. Lovely 'literation, Louis London; Lynn likes lots! lol

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  30. ...probably practices perfect pronunciation, too.

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  31. Yes Nathalie was right. It's definitely recycling.

    Susan. Did you thnik I was going to miss France's big entry in the news channels world??? I did not go to the opening though but I went there today at lunch time especially for you!

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  32. Jeff: Good punctuation always goes unnoticed - as it should: it's absence, on the other hand, never does - as it shouldn't.

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  33. The Shot is great! Another great perspective of Paris.

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  34. Well this was a strange post. From garbage, to nautical directions, to barge businesses, to 24 hour television, to punctuation...

    how much more can one fit into a photo?

    Excellent.

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  35. Eric, for a moment I thought this image came right out the Ladykillers film. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it very highly.

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