New space for walking along the Seine

In September last year I made a post about a walk along the right bank of the Seine. I referred to the fact that a large part of the Seine banks around 1967 had been transformed to expressways, but that great efforts recently have been made to give them back to pedestrians. This is now also, since a couple of days, the case with a large part of the left bank  – of course under protest from some car owners (which I am not).

This is the part of the left bank, which is concerned, westwards from the Orsay Museum to the Pont’d’Alma. (Most of the left bank east of the Orsay Museum was never opened to car traffic.)

I visited the new installations the day of the “Fête de la Musique” in the afternoon and especially in the evening when the weather was – reasonably - good. This may give you a quite positive feeling, but to really see how successful all this is, I guess you must wait until the autumn and days when no special events take place; the “looks” are not quite like the more traditional Seine-River-Bank ones … But let’s be positive and optimistic!

First some general views.

Some green space has been created...

  … some areas of rest…

… a number of places for eating and drinking…

… a number of installations for sports and other activities…

You will always have the pleasure to watch the traffic on the Seine…

… and have a look under the bridges…

As I said, the day I went was when the “Fête de la musique” took place. In the afternoon you could listen to some book reading (some of you may recognize Jean-Michel Ribes), some music…. and in the evening more music.