Floating YOUR BOAT
France|December 2020
Spending a day on the River Seine in Paris, Heidi Fuller-love samples some of the city’s top entertainment that can be enjoyed afloat
Floating YOUR BOAT

After years of neglect, the 60-kilometer web of quays, wharves, and docks that were once Paris’ arteries bringing the oxygen of trade to the city’s heart are once again at the forefront of city life, and some of Paris’ best entertainment can now be sampled afloat. The canals and quays renovation project pumped life back into the city’s waterways, and several decades later everything from swimming to chocolate tasting and live opera can be enjoyed on a boat.

Planning to spend a day exploring as many of those watery kilometers as I can, I’ve just stepped from the Métro near Bercy, the site where countless French moviemakers flocked to film the loaded coal barges, beret-clad fishermen and women scrubbing piles of laundry on Bateaux lavoirs (laundry boats) that were moored here right up until the middle of the last century.

Life’s a beach

It’s August and Paris-Plages – that brilliant project dreamt up by socialist mayor Bertand Delanöe for turning the city’s water zones into beach-type resorts complete with sand, sprinklers and deckchairs – is in full swing: this year it opened in style with an open-air cinema set on the banks of the River Seine.

Despite unseasonably cloudy weather, there’s a holiday ambience that makes it hard to believe I’m actually at the heart of France’s capital city: candyfloss and Ambre Solaire perfume the air, overheated children dash in and out of the water sprinklers and a throng of beach babes clad in crop tops and teeny-weeny bikinis decorate the candy-striped deckchairs, which stand on wooden decking fringing the water’s edge.

The canals and quays renovation project pumped life back into the city’s waterways

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2020-Ausgabe von France.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2020-Ausgabe von France.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS FRANCEAlle anzeigen
Paindemic In Paris
France

Paindemic In Paris

For American actor and writer Alexander Burnett, a shortage of bread at his local boulangerie was one of the biggest challenges of lockdown in his adopted home city

time-read
5 Minuten  |
December 2020
VEULES-LES-ROSES
France

VEULES-LES-ROSES

Between the white cliffs of the Côte d’Albâtre and the bucolic landscapes of the Pays de Caux, discover a village that combines coast and country,

time-read
4 Minuten  |
December 2020
Taking the BISCUIT
France

Taking the BISCUIT

France is known for its exquisite pâtisserie and extravagant gâteaux but the not-so-humble biscuit deserves recognition too

time-read
5 Minuten  |
December 2020
PICTURE PERFECT PISTE
France

PICTURE PERFECT PISTE

After a decade away from the slopes Janet Brice finds her ski legs in val d'arly, a hidden gem in the shadow of Mount Blanc

time-read
8 Minuten  |
December 2020
Let there BE LIGHT
France

Let there BE LIGHT

Lyon’s annual Fête des Lumières brightens up the darkest of December nights in spectacular fashion, finds David Atkinson on a winter visit to the Rhône capital

time-read
4 Minuten  |
December 2020
Shop ‘til YOU DROP
France

Shop ‘til YOU DROP

In the first of our new Insight guides, Helen Parkinson delights in the French shopping experience

time-read
4 Minuten  |
December 2020
Floating YOUR BOAT
France

Floating YOUR BOAT

Spending a day on the River Seine in Paris, Heidi Fuller-love samples some of the city’s top entertainment that can be enjoyed afloat

time-read
6 Minuten  |
December 2020
Creamy Dijon Chicken With Bacon And Spinach
France

Creamy Dijon Chicken With Bacon And Spinach

Enjoy this hearty dish from Bisous & Brioche, a cookbook shot on location in Burgundy

time-read
2 Minuten  |
November 2020
A Moveable Feast
France

A Moveable Feast

Philip Sweeney embarks on a voyage gourmand along the Vallée de la Gastronomie travelling from Dijon to Marseille

time-read
4 Minuten  |
November 2020
BOND RETOUR 7
France

BOND RETOUR 7

To celebrate the return of everyone’s favourite globe-trotting British intelligence officer in No Time to Die, Helen Parkinson rounds up five of James Bond’s top cross-Channel escapades

time-read
2 Minuten  |
November 2020