How did Paris live off its river and its two islands?
6 walks with different starting points and stories. Compare their maps, stops and duration, then choose where to begin.
Explore these walks
The Seine offers a way to read Paris on both sides of the water. Its islands and bridges connect trade, urban life and ways of crossing the city. These walks turn the postcard view into particular questions: how did each place relate to the river, and which stories make more sense when you follow its banks?
In “Les Invalides and the 1900 palaces”: The position and height of the Pont Alexandre III let you explore the relationship between the Seine and Paris's grand monumental projects.
In “Latin Quarter”: The Latin-bank walk connects the river with the stories and places of the neighbourhood beside it.
In “From Liberty to the Vel d'Hiv”: You walk the Isle of Swans from end to end: the little Liberty and the big one that was put together in Paris, an island that's really a river wall, a Joan of Arc in disguise, the two-storey bridge from the films and the desert well it's named after.
Choose from 6 independent walks in Paris. Open the one that interests you to see its map, stops and approximate duration before deciding. You don't need to do them all or follow this selection's order; each walk has its own starting and finishing points.
Open a marker to see its page. Use two fingers to move the map on mobile.
You start at the tip of the island, where one March evening in 1314 the last master of the Templars was burnt at the stake, and you follow his day backwards to the square in front of Notre-Dame, where his sentence was read that morning.
You walk the Isle of Swans from end to end: the little Liberty and the big one that was put together in Paris, an island that's really a river wall, a Joan of Arc in disguise, the two-storey bridge from the films and the desert well it's named after.
The position and height of the Pont Alexandre III let you explore the relationship between the Seine and Paris's grand monumental projects.
The Latin-bank walk connects the river with the stories and places of the neighbourhood beside it.
You walk round the cathedral through the old cloister, where a rumour from 1612 told of a pastry cook and a barber, and where Heloise never lived, whatever a façade may say.
From the station that's now a museum to the most hidden square in Saint-Germain: a bridge the river carried away, Voltaire's death as told to Catherine the Great, Queen Margot's vow, Mazarin's college, Wilde and Borges, the rescued royal tombs and Delacroix's last studio.
Paris works best a neighbourhood at a time. Combine a walk, a pause and another look: the distances on the map can be deceptive.
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