The Pont des Arts (Bridge of the Arts) is one of the six bridges in Paris that are reserved for circulations douces, a nice French expression meaning soft or mild traffic, i.e. non-motorized. For several years the Pont des Arts was better known to tourists as the “love lock bridge”, Read More …
This striking new footbridge, Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir, was built from 2004-2006 to connect the new National Library François Mitterrand with the new Parc du Bercy. It is a steel structure with oak planks as a deck, and it crosses the Seine in one leap, with no supports in the Read More …
The Austerlitz Bridge is a stone bridge with five arches. It was originally built from 1801 to 1805, but it was widened and strengthened twice during the nineteenth century. The bridge was named after the Battle of Austerlitz, a French victory under the command of Emperor Napoléon I in 1805. Read More …
The Mirabeau Bridge across the Seine was built in the 1890s and was considered a remarkable technical achievement at the time. It connects Auteuil on the Right Bank (16th arrondissement) with Javel (15th) on the Left. The bridge was named after the Count of Mirabeau (1749-1791), a rebellious aristocrat whose Read More …
On the left bank of the Seine, between the Austerlitz railway station and the François Mitterrand Library, there is a huge building made of reinforced concrete which was built in 1907 as a warehouse for the Paris docks. More than a century later, the building was renovated and re-designed for Read More …
This footbridge across the Seine in Paris connects the Garden of the Tuileries on the Right Bank (1st arrondissement) with the Faubourg Saint-Germain on the Left Bank (7th arrondissement), near the Orsay Museum. When I was in Paris in the 1960s there was a nondescript temporary steel footbridge at this Read More …
This is one of those quintessential Paris photos that everyone wants to take sooner or later: The Eiffel Tower from the Alexandre III Bridge. The sculpture in the foreground was made by Georges Récipon (1860-1920) and is supposed to represent a nymph, though she is rather more muscular than nymphs Read More …
The Pont Neuf (“New Bridge”) in Paris is a very solid and sturdy stone bridge which has withstood all the floods and high waters since 1607 without sustaining any serious damage. For this reason there is an expression in French “se porter comme le Pont Neuf”, which means that a Read More …