Seine Cruise (7/11/2016)

Monday, July 11, 2016 (continued)
The day is not over yet! After dinner, we decided to take a sightseeing cruise on the River Seine. Since the cruise company Vedettes du Pont Neuf was just across the river from where we had dinner, that's what we took.

Mascarons/stone masks (19C copies of the 16C  originals)
on Pont Neuf/New Bridge, each of 381 is unique and represents
a forest or field god of ancient mythology (KSS)

The sightseeing boat first headed downstream.

Lovers and others gather on Square du Galant Vert,
with a Paris fireboat in the background (KSS)

Académie des Beaux-Arts/Academy of Fine Arts in the Palais de l'Institut
(1662-1682) by architect Louis le Vau (KSS)

Pont Royal/Royal Bridge (1685-1689 to replace a bridge destroyed
by flood), the third oldest bridge in Paris (KSS)

The River Seine has 37 bridges in Paris, two of which are railroad bridges, and three are pedestrian.

Pont de la Concorde (1787-1791, to replace a ferry),
was built using stones from the demolished Bastille (KSS)

Looking towards Place de la Concorde (KSS)

The Eiffel Tower between the socles/counterweight towers of
Pont Alexandre III (1896-1900), built for the 1900 Exposition
Universelle/World's Fair in Beaux-Arts style (KSS)

Nymphs of the Neva on Pont Alexandre III
by Georges Récipon, with the coat-of-arms of Russia;
a memorial to the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1892 (KSS)

Nymphs of the Seine on Pont Alexandre III
by Georges Récipon, with the coat-of-arms of Paris (KSS)

Pont des Invalides (1854-1855 using the piers of a former bridge)
with the sculpture Land Victory by Victor Vilain (KSS)

Maritime Victory by Georges Diébolt on the downstream side (KSS)

The steeple of the American Church (established 1814 as the first
American church outside the USA, built 1931, interdenominational) and
La Boudeuse (1916 in the Netherlands), a three-masted schooner (KSS)

Zouave (19C light infantryman) statue by
Georges Diébolt at Pont de l'Alma (1854-1856);
traditionally used to measure floods and the flood
waters of early June 2016 came to his thighs (KSS)

Eiffel Tower behind the Jardin Flottant/Floating
Garden (2014) by Niki de St Phalle (KSS)

Tour Eiffel/Eiffel Tower (KSS)

Pont de Bir-Hakeim (1903-1905) by Jean-Camille Formigé,
a double-decker bridge with a Métro train on the upper level;
the lower level is for motor vehicles and pedestrians (KSS)

The sightseeing boat turned around at the Eiffel Tower and headed back upstream.

Pont d'Iéna (1807-1814, widened in 1937),
with imperial eagles by Jean-François Mouret (KSS)

A replica of the flame (1989) from the Statue of Liberty,
given to Paris from the International Herald Tribune on the
occasion of the newspaper's centennial in Paris (KSS)

A view of the tremendous glass roof of Grand Palais (1897-1900),
which was necessary before the age of electricity
for large exposition halls (KSS)

Musée d'Orsay in the former Gare d'Orsay/Orsay Train Station
(1898-1900) by Victor Laloux, Lucien Magne and Émile Bénard for
the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans/Paris-Orléans Railway,
the first electrified urban railroad in France (KSS)

One of two enormous clocks on the façade
of the Orsay Museum (KSS)

Narrow house at #13 Quai Voltair (KSS)

Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge (KSS)

The sightseeing boat heading towards Pont Neuf

The Square du Galant Vert is getting more crowded (KSS)

The Paris police headquarters where earlier we had passed an
unmarked car as a handcuffed person got out with officers (KSS)

Pont St-Michel (1857 to replace a bridge
that had been closed to traffic),
with an 'N' for Napoléon (KSS)

Petit Pont/Little Bridge (1852-1853, where at least 13 bridges have
been built since Roman times) at Notre Dame Cathedral (KSS) 

Pont au Double (1883 cast iron bridge) (KSS)

Pont de l'Archevêché/Archbishopry Bridge (1828),
the narrowest road bridge (KSS)

Looking back for a view of Notre Dame Cathedral (KSS)

Under Pont de Sully (1876-1877) that crosses
tip of the Île Saint-Louis/St Louis Island (KSS)

Jardin Tino-Rossi with Latin dance lessons in progress (KSS)

The sightseeing boat turned around to go down the other side of the islands in the Seine.

Sun rays on Notre Dame Cathedral (KSS)

Hôtel de Lauzun (1657) one of the former homes of the wealthy
on Île Saint-Louis/St Louis Island (KSS)

Pont Marie (1614-1635) is the second oldest bridge in Paris;
each arch is a different size and the niches had never been filled (KSS)

Pont Louis-Philippe (1860-1862) is decorated with
stone laurel wreaths around metal rosettes (KSS)

Paris police launch (KSS)

The clock tower of the Palais de Justice and
Pont au Change (1858-1860) with the 'N' for
Napoléon; it is here where Inspector Javert, in the
Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables, jumps into the Seine

Passed on our walk back to the hotel: Louis Vuitton HQ maybe (KSS)

Next: Basilique du Sacré-Cœur.