Seine

dropdown On the Île de la Cité, in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, is a bronze compass set into the paving stones. From here — point zero — all distances from Paris are measured. And at the centre of Paris is the River Seine: its liquid heart. ‘For Parisians, the Seine is a compass, a way to know where you are’, says Marina Ferretti, an art historian. dropdown One day 34 years ago Claude Tharreau, a young market researcher, was walking along the Seine when he saw the Cathare, a 70-foot-long Dutch boat built in 1902, for sale. ‘Then I noticed it was a boat with no electricity or water.’ There are 199 houseboats in Paris and, undoubtedly, 199 stories of infatuation. dropdown The sandbox-on-the-Seine was the brainchild of Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë twelve years ago. To accommodate the beach, the Georges Pompidou Expressway on the Right Bank of the river is blocked off for four weeks. For this period, the Seine becomes an urban Riviera, a constant movement of beach-volleyball players, sand-castle engineers, samba, tango, and break dancers, rock, jazz, soul musicians and of course sunbathers of many shapes and sizes. dropdown On one of those exhausting summer days when heat rises from the road in visible waves, the river outside the office of the chief of the police who patrol the Seine looks cool and inviting. ‘Can you swim in the Seine?’ I ask Sandrine Berjot, the down-to-earth police commandant who heads the Brigade Fluviale. ‘Non,’ she says simply. ’38 euros.’ The fine for breaking the rule. ‘Other rules include: no waterskiing in certain zones; no tying your boat around a tree with a rope; no protesting or putting up banners.’