The Bateaux-Mouches of Paris

A Celt tribe, known as the Parisii, established a settlement on the Île de la Cité, a small island in the Seine River, long before Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul [58 – 51 BC].  In 52 BC, Caesar established the Roman city of Lutetia, which was latter named Paris, on the site of the old Celtic settlement.  As the settlement grew, various kings fortified it. 

From early times, Paris has been an important river port.  The Seine is now an even greater commercial artery, than it was when Clovis I made Paris his capital, since it is interconnected, by canals, to the Loire, Rhine and Rhône Rivers.

As early as the Middle Ages, as the city spread beyond the confines of the old Cité, stone embankments were built to channel the river.  As time passed, these riverbanks were enhanced through the judicious use of landscaping and the construction of a series of 35 delightful bridges that link the two banks. 

Parisian life has long been centered about the Seine, which cuts Paris in half; to the left, as you face down river, is the Rive Gauche [Left Bank] which houses the world famous Latin Quarter, the d’Orsay Museum and the Tour Eiffel.  To your right, the Rive Droite [Right Bank], is the northern half of the city that contains the Louvre Museum, Concord, the Champs Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. 

The Seine has always been the backbone of the city, but the majesty of the landscape of its banks seems to attract ever more Parisians and tourists alike.  A good way to see these banks, and their monuments, is to take a riverboat cruise.

One of the best European river cruises runs between the quays, and under the Seine’s 35 bridges.  These cruises are on the long and unique looking ‘bateaux-mouches’, the riverboats that leisurely ply their way carrying between 200 and 600 passengers on romantic cruises up and down the Seine.  They transport their sightseers under such bridges as the Pont-Neuf, which was inaugurated in 1607 [the first stone was laid by Henry III in 1578], the Alexandre III, that was built during the ‘Bell Époque’ in 1900, not far from the Invalides military hospital, and the Pont Charles de Gaulle, which was built in 1996. They pass by such well-known monuments as the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Eiffel tower.

The origin of the word ‘bateaux mouches’ is difficult to pin down.  Some say that the boats are named for their designer, Jean-Sébastien Mouche [who may or may not have existed].  Others say that they were christened after a quay [dock] in Lyon called ‘quai de la Mouche’.  Still others believe that they were named after a small spy boat.  Although the French word ‘mouche’ generally refers to the insect ‘fly’, the word was used, in old slang [argot], to mean a spy [mouche was the origin of the current word for spy – ‘mouchard’].  There are even those that believe they inherited their name from the shallow, almost flat-bottomed boats used in navigating the marshes of the Rhône River valley known as ‘mouches’.

An hour’s cruise on a typical bateau-mouche provides its passengers with a unique view of both the river landscaping and the city itself.  There are a myriad of cruises throughout the day that are run by an array of cruise companies. During the summer the boats sail every 30 minutes – from 10 am to 11 pm.  In the winter the bateaux depart as early as 11 am and as late as 9 pm.  Some are mere sightseeing cruises, some are for lunch and dinner and others are dancing cruises.  Each has it’s own particular charm.  Most boast a coordinated audio and text display system that is synchronized with the boat’s movement to provide commentary, in several languages, about the passing sights.

At least one of the bateaux-mouches companies offers combined bus and boat trips.  With this service, you can alternate between buses and boats at eight stations:  Eiffel Tower, Musèe d’Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Près, Notre-Dame, Jardin des Plantes, Hôtel-de-Ville, Louvre and Champs-Élysée.

You can take a cheap cruise holiday on a bateaux-mouches waterway trip for as little as 8.5 Euros per person [4.5 Euros for children].  Of course, some cost up to several hundred Euros on the boats renowned for lavish gourmet dining.  There are even cruises designed for children, between the ages of 3 to 10, with storytelling by professional actors. 

In Paris, virtually all of the cruise lines more-or-less sail the same route [Louvre, Notre-Dame, Musée d’Orsay, Tour Eiffel and the Statue of Liberty] and, at night, they illuminate the riverside monuments with their powerful searchlights.  You can obtain a map of each operator’s route by going to the operator’s web site.

The bateaux-mouches are not limited to just Paris; the same type river boats are used in such other cities as Annecy, Boston, Chartevill-Mézières, Chicago, Montreal, Nantes, New York, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Richmond, Seattle, Strasbourg and Seattle, where they are used to attract the tourist trade.

© Copyright 1999 - 2008 by Sharon Atchley.  All rights reserved.  Updated:  03/22/2008