Water in Paris, Part 4: Crossing the Seine

Water in Paris, Part 4: Crossing the Seine The first bridges were wooden constructions in the middle ages. They were lined with shops and houses. They were easily destroyed by floods or fire or sometimes deliberately to prevent invasion. Seven bridges were added in the 17th century of which three remain: Pont-neuf, pont Marie and pont Royal. Today the Seine is crossed by 37 bridges in the nearly 13 kilometers that it runs through Paris.  For a complete list see Wikipedia, but here’s a few of our personal favorites. The Pont d'Alma, while not overly pretty does have an interesting sculpture. The bridge was originally constructed in 1855 in stone and commemorated the 1854 Franco-English victory over Russia at Alma. The original bridge was thus decorated with four statues that represented the four armies that fought at Alma. There was a Grenadier, a Zouave (north African foot soldier), a Chasseur and an Artilleur. The Zouave became, over time, the unofficial scale by whic…
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  • 24 août 2025
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Water in Paris, Part 3: Non-Drinking water

A series on Water in Paris. Part 3: Non-Drinking water In the 19th century, Baron Haussmann, who was in charge of reorganizing Paris to make it more sanitary hired Eugène Belgrand as Director of Water and Sewers. Mr Belgrand with great foresight created not one but two water systems. One of course for treated drinking water which is expensively processed stuff and the other a network of non-potable from the canal Saint Martin and the Seine. The less expensive untreated water is used for watering parks, decorative fountains and cleaning the streets. There are 12,000  bouches de lavage from which water flows into the gutter. They are turned on by sanitation workers with green brooms and directed by soggy rolls of old carpet. The water flow and the green broom push the accumulated debris along to the sewer openings. Tout un système! The non-potable water is also used in the high pressure sprayers that clean up after markets and festivals. 1 600 kilometers of streets are sp…
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  • 17 août 2025
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Water in Paris, Part 2: Drinking water

A series on Water in Paris Part 2: Drinking water The Seine furnishes half of the drinking water to Paris and the region. Other water comes from aquifers and aqueducts. One of the aqueducts, the aqueduct de l'Avre, brings water, using just the force of gravity, to Paris from the Avre river in Normandy 102 kilometers away. The chief engineer for the project was Fulgence Bienvenüe who was also the creator of the Paris metro. The aqueduct entered into service in 1893. The aqueduct flows mostly underground before crossing the Seine on a bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel between Saint Cloud and the Bois de Boulogne. The bridge is a footbridge and an interesting destination for an outing. See our article. There has been indoor running water in Paris since 1781, albiet there were only 125 houses connected at that point. The great strides in indoor water came under Baron Haussmann in the mid 19th century and by 1884 two-thirds of Paris was connected. There are multiple water tr…
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  • 10 août 2025
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Australian Lustre by Trent Mitchell

an exhibition at the Australian Embassy in Paris Trent Mitchell’s iconic roadtrip series makes a stop in Paris for its first-ever exhibition showing. PHOTO Australia in partnership with the Australian Embassy in Paris is pleased to announce Australian Lustre, a solo exhibition by Australian photographer Trent Mitchell.

Trent Mitchell (b.1979), who has been photographing professionally for two decades, has a narrative approach to his work, focusing on the environment in the broadest possible sense. Although best known for his water photography, he has also gained a reputation for his wry yet sensitive take on the manmade world, zeroing in on its various idiosyncrasies and contradictions. On both personal and assigned projects, his work is identified by an ability to not only compose his subject but distil the sensibility of the location and give a connection to place.

Working across digital and film, in both black and white and c…

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  • 3 août 2025
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Water in Paris, Part 1: La Seine

A series on Water in Paris Part 1: La Seine We all associate the Seine with Paris even though this river only runs 13 of its 776 kilometers in Paris. In fact La Seine starts not too far from Dijon on a plateau at a place called Source-Seine. Its origins are several springs of clear ground water that flow together on the surface forming a small stream. A spring has always been an important place throughout history and in this particular case the source of the Seine was known and revered back in the time of Gaul. This spring was the kingdom of the goddess or nymphe Séquanna and she gave her name to the river in about the 1st century. The Seine, in French, is called a fleuve. We don't have a specific word for this in English. A fleuve is different than a rivière. A fleuve flows into the ocean and a rivière flows into an inland body of water. France has 5 major fleuves and many, many rivières. Today the Seine's flow is controlled by a series of lakes and canals upstream tha…
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  • 28 juillet 2025
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Avoir les portugaises ensablées

In making this Speak Easy puzzle I very much enjoyed learning the origin of "Avoir les portugaises ensablées" via the wonderful website Expressio. The expression means to be deaf, so indeed I was intrigued to know how deafness and Portugal are related. The origin goes back to the a slang term for ear (oreille) from the middle of the 20th century which was "portugaise". Portugaise simply refers to a type of oyster called portuguese which is shaped like an ear. From there to the idea of the oyster full of sand making you hard of hearing is just a short stretch. Next obvious question then is why do we call huitres creuses "portuguese" oysters? 1868 - the ship called The Morlaisien, was delivering oysters from Portugal to France (some stories say to northern France some say to the Arcachon bassin) when the ship was forced to hold over in the Gironde Estuary. The oysters spoiled and the captain decided to dump them overboard. Apparently not all of them had expired, some even thri…
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  • 21 juillet 2025
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Made in France: A long history and current products

Made in France: A long history and current products When you think made in France you perhaps first think of food, then of luxury, then maybe of industry. France has a long history of creation of wonderful products and inventions such as the chip in your credit card, the minitel, which preceeded the internet, watches and knives. FUSAC has selected a few of our favorite historical products that are still made in France as well as some new concepts.  Cocorrico! as they say! Bilum You probably never wondered what happens to all of the huge canvas posters used to present exhibitions when the exhibition is over. Or what happens to lifejackets or seat from AirFrance flights at the end of their lives. Or how about the shirts worn for just one game by the PSG. Well Bilum, founded in 2005 by Hélène de La Moureyre, has teamed up with the museums, exhibition halls, AirFrance, the PSG and many others to create bags and pouches of all sorts from their « waste ». A made in France…
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  • 14 juillet 2025
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A visit to the trash recycling facility

A visit to the recycling facility Recently we visited the trash recycling sorting center near our home just outside Paris and were fascinated by the machinery and process of treating trash as well as the value in recycling. At the same time seeing all that we throw away in one place was disheartening. We learned quite a lot about the process, how it works, who pays for it, the value of it. Perhaps you heard in the news in April that a recycling plant in Paris 17th burned to the ground. The destroyed plant, dated only from 2019. And fire is a constant threat in the trash business. The cause of this particular fire is still not known but it could have been due to poor sorting. For example be careful not to put batteries in the recycling or trash can. They can explode and cause fires in the collection trucks and at the plants. Other fire causing items include canisters with a gas. Such as empty Soda Stream cylinders or small butane canisters. The most frequent offenders…
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  • 26 juin 2025
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Paris Metro station names

It is said that the entirety of the ancient world’s knowledge could be found in the Royal Library of Alexandria (Egypt), built in the third century BCE. That might be so, but for what sometimes seems like the entirety of the modern world’s promulgators of, places for and perks from knowledge, all you need do is take out your Paris Metro map, nestle into a quiet corner and wish yourself bon voyage through the encyclopedia of station names*: Following the famous? (You may have to look some of these folks up, and we’re leaving out ones whom even your French fellow commuters might not know!) Alexandre Dumas, Anatole France, (Bibliothèque)-François Mitterand, (Bobigny)-Pablo Picasso, Bolivar, (Champs-Elysées)-Clemenceau, Charles de Gaulle-(Etoile), (Chaussée d’Antin)-La Fayette, Emile Zola, Félix Faure, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George V, (Javel)-André Citroën, Michel-Ange (of Sistine Ceiling fame), Pasteur, Pierre et Marie Curie, Robespierre, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, etc. Jumping …
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  • 20 juin 2025
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