Subscribe
On July 17, the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo fulfilled a promise she made some time ago. She swam in the waters of the Seine river in Paris, the French capital, to prove that they were safe for the hundreds of athletes who are to converge for the summer Olympics that start from July 26.
Hidalgo and Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 Games, swam in a stretch of river that passes by City Hall and the Notre Dame Cathedral, according to media reports.
Later, she posted on her Facebook Wall: “Swimming in the Seine. Some dreamt of it, some didn’t think it would happen, and we, well, we did it! After a 100-year ban, athletes will take the plunge in just a few days during the Games! Swimming in the Seine will be open to the public as of next summer.”
The countdown to the Olympics has shone a spotlight on Paris, a world city beloved of millions worldwide as the symbol of France’s rich culture, history and heritage. A large part of the French capital’s soft power is in part due to the river that flows through it: The Seine.
But why the Seine, one may ask? After all, France has several other rivers. There is the storied Rhine, which has seen so much along its banks across millennia. There is the Loire, which flows through the very heart of France. The Garonne, which is the river of Bordeaux. Or the Rhone, the river of Lyon, Avignon and Arles.
But no. To the world outside, the Seine is the most recognizable symbol of France. Why?
Author Elaine Sciolino answers this question in her 2019 book The Seine: The River that Made Paris. “The Seine is the most romantic river in the world. She encourages us to dream, to linger, to flirt, to fall in love, or to at least fantasize that falling in love is possible…”
She adds: “The Seine’s romantic power is rooted in her human scale. Compared with the Nile, the Amazon, or even the Hudson, she feels accessible, narrow enough to track the comings and goings on either side…”
And it is not just the Rhine that has a history. Or the Loire that has length. The Seine too goes back a long way in time. And is second-longest after the Loire in France.
The river starts deep in the countryside of northeastern France, near the city of Dijon in the historical region of Burgundy. There, springs at Source-Seine form the beginnings of the river of Paris and France.
The site was inhabited by the Sequani, a tribe of Gauls, who, in turn were a Continental Celtic people (as opposed to the insular Celts of Britain and Ireland). The river was revered by them as a goddess known as Sequana.
Emerging from Burgundy, the Seine flows towards Paris and makes an arc through the city. It is here that the story of France itself starts.
The site where Paris stands now has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic Period 4,500 Before Common Era (BCE), according to the French government.
These first inhabitants were farmers and livestock herders who settled in the alluvial plain of the Seine. “They probably lived in small villages consisting of houses made of wood and clay that were regularly dismantled, moved and rebuilt as necessary,” as per a French government portal.
The next important chapter in the history of Paris by the Seine is set in the Iron Age, when the Celts settled in the region.
The Celtic/Gallic tribe native to the Paris region were the Parisii. “Their wealth came from control of the river and its tributaries, and they were probably already boatmen,” according to the government.
The Parisii built an ‘oppidum’, a fortified settlement on an island in the Seine.
The island was mentioned by Julius Caesar in his account of the conquest of Gaul for Rome. From 58-50 BCE, Caesar invaded and engaged in a ruthless campaign against the tribes of Gaul in a bid to pay off his debts and boost his image in Rome.
His account of this campaign, known as the Gallic Wars, is the Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War).
In his account, Caesar mentions about the fortress of the Parisii built on an island in the Seine. It was known as Lutetia, although recent research has challenged the view that it was the only Parisii settlement in the region.
“The only mention of Gallic Lutetia is found in Caesar’s Gallic Wars, where Caesar tells us that Lutetia was an oppidum of the Parisii people, and that like the oppidum of the Senones tribe, it was built on an island in the Seine. Based on this literary source, historians have tended to associate the oppidum of the Parisii with the Île de la Cité, making Paris’ largest island the city’s birthplace,” according to the French government.
The Romans defeated the Parisii and other Gallic tribes in the Battle of Lutetia in 52 BCE. They built a new city at the site of the old Gallic Lutetia, one that would be Roman till 486 Common Era (CE), when Clovis I, the king of the Germanic tribe of Franks conquered the city.
Clovis founded the Merovingian Dynasty and is considered the founder of France (named after his tribe). He chose Paris as the capital of his vast kingdom. The Merovingians would rule France till 751 CE.
That is when they were overthrown by a new Frankish dynasty called the Carolingians, who would rule France till at least the 900s. That is when the country would again face a new challenge that came down the Seine.
The Viking Age began in 793 CE and lasted till 1066 CE. The Vikings, also known as Norsemen, emerged from Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) to explore, trade but also raid and pillage.
As researcher Danielle Turner notes, the success of the Vikings was, in large part, due to their longships.
“France’s waterways proved critical in Viking raids, as they posed great difficulties for the defense of French towns. The Viking success seems even less surprising given the iconic longship that could travel through both deep and shallow water and even portaged. With the innovation of this ship, the Vikings sailed down rivers and raided places previously thought untouchable,” she notes.
In 845 and 884, Norsemen sailed down the Seine and besieged Paris under leaders Ragnar Lodbrok and Rollo respectively. Ultimately, they were paid by the Franks to spare the city from destruction.
But the raids did not stop. Ultimately, in 911 CE, the French king, Charles the Simple, granted Rollo his own private fief in the northern part of France, today known as Normandy, after the Vikings or Norsemen/Northmen.
As Sciolino notes: “The Seine emerges young and fresh in a field of springs on a remote plateau in Burgundy and grows strong and majestic by the time she reaches the sea, 777 kilometers — 483 miles — away. She flows through history: past prehistoric encampments, ancient Roman towns, Viking strongholds, medieval chateaus, monastic abbeys, and World War II battlegrounds. Along her route, she opens herself without hesitation, allowing any riverside town to claim her mystique. Yet her one true love is and always has been Paris, the source of power in France since antiquity…”