Paris, from Hotel de Ville to Seine

 

Walking in Paris, strolling on cobbled streets flanked by old buildings, we really can feel the romantic atmosphere. As in many European cities, the buildings and streets were preserved that way, not modernized. The last Paris renovations were carried out from 1852 to 1870 by Georges-Eugne Haussmann under the order of Napoléon III. Haussmann’s work gave Paris the look it has today as well as its architecture. He created a very long and wide avenue with cafes and shops that influenced much of Parisian life. The architecture of classical Haussmann buildings was not designed independently but rather as part of a quarter, block, and thus the style should be coherent and in harmony with the architecture of the other buildings. The ground floor has thick walls. The second floor offers beautiful balconies and the third and fourth floors are built in the same style, although the window frames have less intricate stonework. 

After wandering through the cobbled streets of Le Marais, we arrived at the Hotel de Ville. Wow we thought, this hotel looked like a palace or a museum, wasn’t it? It turns out that in French, 'hotel' can mean a house, building, residence, so it does not always mean hotel as a place to rent rooms to stay for tourists. Today, apart from functioning as the city's administrative office, the Hotel de Ville is also a venue for art and cultural exhibitions. There are many interesting exhibits in the building and on the grounds in front of this building. 

From the Hotel de Ville we walked not far, only a few hundred meters to the south, to arrive at the Seine river. We can walk along this river or take a ferry to explore Paris. It turns out that the Eiffel Tower is located on the bank of this river and is one of the stops of the ferry route. The name of this stop is Port de la Bourdonnais. From this side we can see the towering Eiffel Tower, with its trademark brown color named Eiffel Tower Brown. 

Walking along the Seine reminds me of the words of the famous French painter Claude Monet: “I have painted the Seine all my life, in every hour, in every season. I never get bored: for me the Seine is always new.” But the river Seine in Paris is not as beautiful as Monet's paintings made in the interior of France, such as Argenteuil, Poissy and so on. Although the river water in Paris is not blue like in the painting, and there are no lotus plants, it flows calmly leading us to various history that are close to it, besides the Eiffel Tower, also Notre Dame Cathedral, Louvre Museum, and Musée d'Orsay.

 

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Source:

 

https://www.french-property.com/regions/haussmann-buildings-architecture/#:~:text=The%20Parisian%20Haussmann%20buildings%20and%20architecture%20renovations%20were,to%20buildings%E2%80%99%20front%20facades%2C%20public%20parks%20and%20monuments.