Panorama Of Barneville Sur SeinePanorama Of Barneville Sur Seine
- The Seine is over 14,000 years old: Although numerous modifications and developments have been made by Man, the river’s course is said to have been broadly the same since 12,000 BC.
- At Le Havre, the Seine estuary is one of France’s three largest along with the Gironde and the Loire. It’s nearly 10,000 hectares of wetlands offering typical stretches such as salt meadows, roselières, wet meadows and vasières. These natural expanses are protected by La Réserve Naturelle de l’Estuaire de la Seine.
- The great flood of 1910: The Seine is a centennial river, meaning that every year there is one chance in 100 that the river will flood. In 1910, Parisians had to travel by boat with a flood record of 8.62 meters above the Pont d’Austerlitz.
- The Seine and Parisian street numbering: the Seine has had a real influence on the numbering of Parisian streets. Streets perpendicular or oblique to the river always have their first number at the street entrance on the side closest to the Seine. Parallel street numbers follow the direction of the current in ascending order.
- The Vikings sailed up the Seine: In 841, the Vikings plundered Neustria, set fire to Rouen and laid siege to Paris all by sailing up the river on their famous drakkars!
- By the 1980s, only the Pont de Tancarville provided a means of crossing the Le Havre estuary. With road traffic increasing drastically, a new bridge was needed. In 1987, construction of the Pont de Normandie was launched by the Chambre du Commerce et d’Industrie to facilitate trade between Honfleur and Le Havre. Spanning the Seine estuary, the bridge is now one of the 10 most beautiful in France.
- On the right bank of the Seine in Rouen stands Rouen Cathedral, the tallest cathedral in France. For history buffs, it houses one of the three tombs of Richard the Lionheart, King of England, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitiers, Count of Maine and Count of Anjou in the 12th century.
- The shipwreck of Telemachus: it was in Rouen in 1790 that a sailing ship named Telemachus sank for reasons as yet unexplained. Numerous legends circulate claiming that the boat was carrying a fabulous treasure, which today is said to be still lost at the bottom of the Seine.
- The Seine and the D-Day in Normandy: in early June 1944, numerous Allied bombardments neutralized a large majority of the bridges located between Paris and the sea constituting strategic points essential to the smooth running of the D-Day.
- The goddess of the Seine: in Gallic mythology, Sequana is the nymph of the Seine springs. Located in a park, a former Gallo-Roman sanctuary at Source-Seine in Burgundy Franche-Comté, these springs can still be visited and are the property of the city of Paris, a veritable 21st arrondissement for the capital!
