Seine river

The Seine (French: Seine) is a European watercourse on the Atlantic side that runs solely through France. With a length of almost 776 km it is the third longest in the country —after the Loire and the Rhône—. It drains a catchment area of 55,000 km² of rivers covering 94,500 km², i.e. 18% of French territory. It has its sources in several springs at 470 m s. no. m. on the Langres plateau, in the Côte-d'Or department, in the Burgundy region and flows into a wide estuary at Le Havre, in the Bay of the Seine.

Administratively, it covers four French regions —Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Grand Est, Île-de-France and Normandy— and fourteen departments —Côte-d'Or, Aube, Marne, Seine-et-Marne, Essonne, Val- de-Marne, Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-d'Oise, Yvelines, Eure, Seine-Maritime and Calvados—four of which bear his name.

It crosses some important cities —Troyes, Melun, Rouen— and especially the capital, Paris, which has developed on its two banks, and in which the routes in the typical bateaux mouches are a tourist attraction. There are thirty-seven Parisian bridges that span the river, such as the Pont Louis-Philippe and the Pont Neuf, the latter erected as early as 1607. Near the estuary is the Normandy Bridge, one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, which connects Le Havre with Honfleur

The fertile center of its basin in the Île-de-France was the cradle of the French monarchy and the nucleus of the French nation-state.

Geography

Course

The course of the Seine is generally divided into five parts, from the source to the mouth:

• (Petite Seine), from the source to Montereau-Fault-Yonne (confluence with the Yonne);
• the High SeineHaute Seinefrom Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris;
• the journey through Paris;
• Lower Seine (Basse Seinefrom Paris to Ruan;
• the Sea Seine (Seine maritime) from Ruan to the Channel.

The artificial lake of the Orient forest, upstream of Troyes, and the lake of Der-Chantecoq, upstream of Saint-Dizier, were created in the 1960s and 1970s to regulate the flow of the river.

In the Île-de-France and Normandy, the low gradient of the Seine valley caused the formation of numerous deep meanders, sometimes very sinuous over several tens of kilometres. For the same reason, the effects of the tide are felt for more than a hundred kilometers, up to the Poses dam and manifested itself in the phenomenon of bore, called barre in Normandy. This term was popularized by the novel La Barre-y-va by Maurice Leblanc belonging to the adventures of Arsenio Lupin.

Regions and departments crossed

The regions and departments crossed are the following, from the source to the mouth:

• in the region of Burgundy-Franco County: Côte-d'Or;
• in the Great East region: Aube and Marne;
• in the region of Île-de-France: Seine-et-Marne, Essonne, Val-de-Marne, Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-d'Oise and Yvelines;
• in the region of Normandy: Eure, Seine Marítimo and Calvados (situated at the end of the mouth).

From Source-Seine (former-Saint-Germain-Source-Seine) to Honfleur, there are 164 communes on the banks of the Seine, including Paris, the capital of France. One of them, L'Île-Saint-Denis is entirely located on the island of the same name.

The sources of the Seine

Source of the Seine.

First bridge over the Seine.

The "official sources" of the Seine are located on the territory of the commune of Source-Seine (lit., 'Source-Seine') on the Langres plateau at an altitude of 446 m. The Seine fountains have been owned by the city of Paris since 1864. An artificial cave was built the following year to house the main fountain and the statue of a nymph that symbolizes the river. However, the capital lost interest in it and the plot would revert to the former Burgundy region who wished to improve the site. It also houses the remains of a Gallo-Roman temple (now buried). The Archaeological Museum of Dijon exhibits objects that testify to the cult of the sources of the river (Dea Sequana).

The Seine River Basin

The Seine river basin with an area of 79,000 km² is almost entirely within the Parisian basin, which from a geological point of view It constitutes a sedimentary basin that adopts the shape of a basin open towards the English Channel and the Atlantic. This basin is made up of a stack of geological formations with a pronounced slope that converges towards the center and between which important aquifer formations are interposed. The relief of the Seine basin generally does not rise above 300 m, except on its southeast bank in the Morvan where it culminates at 900 m. The low average altitude of the basin explains the low slopes of the watercourses (between 0.01−0.03 m/100 m) that flow towards the west as they move across the slopes that project to the east of the basin and then impinging on the mesas of the center of the region.

Hydrography

The Seine river basin experiences an oceanic climate with a constant supply of moisture carried by the prevailing westerly winds. Precipitation ranges from 800−1,100 mm in coastal regions to 550 mm in the central regions due to lack of relief (altitude below 200 m in Ile-de-France) with a minimum in the Beauce to climb on the eastern margins with a maximum of 1,300 mm on the Morvan. similar (oceanic regime, low relief and identical geology) share the same hydrographic regime with a maximum flow in January and a minimum in August. The Parisian basin comprises 9 aquifers that are interspersed between the different geological strata. The hydrographic network is connected at various points directly to the shallower aquifer: depending on the height of the waters it feeds or is fed by the Seine. Finally, the alluvial layer, present in the valleys with a thickness of less than 10 m, constitutes a tenth formation of highly productive aquifers.

Main tributaries

Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, located in the confluence of the Oise and the Seine.

Here follows a list of the main direct tributaries of the Seine (length of more than 100 km, or slope of more than 1000 km² or known mean discharge (modulus) closest to the major confluence of 10 m³/s) and located with their confluence by distance (km) from the western edge of the Seine estuary (49°26′14″N 0°6′33″E / 49.43722, 0.10917) according to its downstream flow, by altitude (m) (of water level at mean flow, best estimated from a topographic map), by bank, by department name (if inter-limit upstream), by the commune of the confluence point, by the coordinates then with 3 comparable data for the Seine (just upstream of the confluence):

Comparative diagram of the hydrographic basins of the main tributaries, over 1000 km²:

The Yonne or the Seine?

By the definition of a confluence, the stream entering a confluence with the highest annual flow (modulus) gives its name to the stream leaving that confluence. According to this definition, it would not be the Seine, but the Yonne, the main course of the Parisian basin. In fact, at its confluence at Montereau-Fault-Yonne, the Yonne has a flow and a basin greater than those of the Seine (respectively, 93 m³/s and about 10,800 km² for Yonne, while the Seine has a flow of 80 m³/s and 10,300 km²). Same situation prevails upstream with the Aube whose basin is 4700 km², with a flow of 41 m³/s< /span>, compared to 4000 km² and 33 m³/s for the Seine. It is therefore, for a cultural and historical question, that one speaks of the Seine basin. This situation is also found between the Saône and the Doubs.

Geological aspects

It is possible that the Loire was, until the Miocene or Pliocene, a tributary of the Seine to which it would be joined by the current course of the Loing. The Seine then crossed a vast clayey peneplain under a subtropical climate. Three million years ago, the region underwent a recooling and uplift due to the thrust of the Pyrenean and Alpine ranges in the south. The glaciations of the Quaternary era caused the drop in the levels of the seas and oceans, so that the Seine "se jetait alors au large de la Bretagne actuelle (la Manche était un fleuve"). This period was characterized by the migration of the meanders of the river, still visible in Normandy, and by intense erosion leveling the plateaus and forming alluvial terraces.The current appearance of the Seine dates back to the end of the last ice age, around 12000 BC.

Hydrology

Although rainfall is well distributed throughout the year, the Seine and its tributaries can experience severe dry periods at the end of summer or, on the contrary, significant floods in winter. Floods are of two types: rapid floods in the upstream parts of the basin as a result of heavy rainfall, and slow floods in the downstream valleys following prolonged rainfall episodes. In order to control flooding and low flows, Important regulation works have been carried out in the upper part of the course of the Seine and its tributaries. Its average flow in Paris is about 328 and can exceed 1600 during periods of spate. Four large reservoir lakes were created between 1960 and 1990: the Seine (Lake of the Orient), the Marne (Der-Chantecoq lake), the Aube (Amance lake and Auzon-Temple lake) and the Yonne (Panneciere lake). which already fed the Nivernais canal in the XIX century). These lakes, which constitute a reserve of 800 million cubic meters, make it possible to absorb floods and simultaneously guarantee a minimum flow of low water. They are managed by a public institution, the interdepartmental institution of dams-reservoirs of the Seine basin.

Average monthly flow of the Seine at Poissy Station (in m3/s. Calculated data for a basin 61 820 km2 and 17 m altitudein the period 36 years, 1975-2010)

Navigation

Bateau mouche In the Seine.

The Seine is dredged, and ocean liners can dock in Rouen, 120 kilometers from the sea. Commercial boats can use the river from Bar-sur-Seine, 560 kilometers from its mouth. In Paris, the river is only 24 m s. no. m., 445 kilometers from its mouth, making it flow slowly and thus easily navigable. It is 777 kilometers long and flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

The tidal sensitive section of the river, from Le Havre to beyond Rouen, is followed by a canalized section with four large multiple locks to the mouth of the River Oise at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Then two more multiple locks at Bougival/Chatou and at Suresnes lift ships to the river level in Paris, where the mouth of the Marne River is located. Upstream of Paris, more locks ensure navigation to Saint Mammès (where the Loing empties). Through an eighth lock, the Yonne River is reached in Montereau. From the mouth of the Yonne, larger ships can continue up the Seine to Nogent-sur-Seine. From then on, the river is only navigable for small boats. All forms of shipping come to an abrupt end at Marcilly-sur-Seine, where the old canal of the Upper Seine used to allow boats to continue to Troyes. This channel has been abandoned for many years.

Until locks were installed to artificially raise the river's level in the 1800s, the river was much shallower, consisting only of a small, continuous-flow channel bordered by sandy banks, depicted in many contemporary illustrations. Currently the depth is closely controlled, which allows the channel to be full of water, normally slow flowing, but faster after periods of heavy rain. There are special dams upstream that help maintain a constant level of the river.

Water quality

Periodically, Paris' sewer systems experience a failure known as a "sanitary sewer overflow," often during times of heavy rain. Under these conditions, raw sewage is discharged directly into the Seine. The result is an oxygen deficit, caused mainly by alien bacteria larger than one micrometer in size. The specific activity of this wastewater bacterium is typically three to four times that of the indigenous bacterial population. The pH level of the Seine measured at the Pont Neuf reaches 8.46.

Since an ordinance issued in 1923, bathing in the Seine has been prohibited due to pollution. However, in 2009 Atlantic salmon were returning to the Seine after almost a century of absence. Then, the improvement of the water quality of the Seine, which had led the protected species to return to the river.

The Seine in Paris

The Seine divides the city of Paris into two distinct parts: the right bank or bank and the left bank or bank. The two names cover the entirety of the arrondissements of Paris on each side of the river. As it passes through the city, the Seine is crossed by 37 bridges from Charenton to Javel, in the vicinity of Boulogne-Billancourt.

History

Fire of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019. The passersby watch from the Petit-Pont.

On the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis, Lutetia, the Roman city that would give rise to present-day Paris, was founded. Around them and its banks, the city has developed over the centuries. The first bridge was built in the time of Julius Caesar.

In several of the buildings that border the river, events of international importance have taken place. Such is the case of the crowning as Emperor of Napoleon I in the Notre Dame Cathedral in 1804. The Schuman Declaration, pronounced at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1950, is also highlighted. The European Commission recognizes this declaration as a founding moment of the European Union (EU).

However, it was in the Tuileries Palace on the right bank of the Seine that the royal residence of various sovereigns was established in Paris (Henry IV, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, but also Louis XVIII, Charles X and later Luis Felipe), and imperial (Napoleon I and then Napoleon III). In addition, it was also the seat of the First Republic and the Consulate. Its role as the official seat of French power continued until the building's destruction following arson during the Paris Commune of 1871.

The Seine has also been the scene of dramatic events in the city. Thus, during the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew in 1572, numerous Huguenot corpses were thrown into the Seine, but some of them were recovered downriver and buried. Already during The Terror (1793) of the French Revolution, in the Place de la Concorde King Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette, and Maximilien Robespierre were executed, among numerous other victims. Michel and other places in Paris. Additionally, the river is a popular location for suicides and for disposing of the bodies of murder victims.

On the other hand, after six years of work, the 13-kilometre Voie Georges-Pompidou was inaugurated in 1967 for vehicular traffic along the river: five on the banks, eight on the docks and three underground. However, in the 2010s, during the administration of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the pedestrianization of the road was carried out.

Floods

The Saint-Lazare Station during the flood of Paris in 1910.

In Paris, the oldest known floods of the Seine have been reported by Julian (358 flood) and Gregory of Tours (February 582). Since 1876, floods have been measured with a hydrometric scale installed on the Austerlitz bridge. Although the popular indicator of the height of the Seine waters is the statue of the Zouave on the Almá bridge, this measurement is not reliable due to the fact that in the 1970s the statue was raised due to an architectural reform, so it cannot be Compare current floods with past ones.

During the 1910 Paris flood, water reached a record height of 8.68 ms and a flow rate of 2,600 m³/s. The Seine again rose to threatening levels in the years 1924, 1955, 1982 and 1999-2000. In the present century, the greatest flood of the Seine was from May 28 to June 4, 2016. The water level rose up to 6.10 meters on the night of June 3 to 4, with a flow of 1800 m³/s. This is the largest flood to hit Paris in more than 30 years. However, it did not exceed the 6.18 meters of 1982. On January 29, 2018, the Seine grew again with a flow of 1,720 m³/s and a height of 5.88 meters. In all these situations it has overflowed, but not in the city of Paris, but in its metropolitan area.

Following a major flood alert in 2003, around 100,000 works of art were moved out of Paris, the largest art relocation since World War II. Much of the art in Paris is kept in underground warehouses that could be flooded. A 2002 study by the French government stated that the worst-case scenario in the event of the Seine flooding would cost €10 billion, cutting off telephone service to one million Parisians, leaving 200,000 without electricity and 100,000 without gas.

World Heritage Site

The Seine is known worldwide as it is the river that runs through Paris (France). Several of the most important buildings and monuments in the city can be seen by walking along the river. Such is the case of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, La Défense, the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, or the François Mitterrand Library. Precisely for this reason, since 1991 "Paris, banks of the Seine" is a Place included in the World Heritage Site when Unesco considers that,

from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, from the Place de la Concordia to the Grand and the Petit Palais, the evolution of Paris and its history can be seen from the Seine. The Cathedral of Our Lady and the Holy Chapel are masterpieces of architecture, while the vast neighborhoods and boulevards of Haussmann influenced urbanism around the world at the end of the 19th century and during the 20th century.

Seine view.

The Seine and art

The Seine in BougivalAlfred Sisley, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Seine has inspired numerous painters, especially from the 19th and 20th centuries: Richard Parkes Bonington, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Camille Corot, Eugène Isabey, Charles-François Daubigny, Eugène Boudin, Johan Barthold Jongkind, Claude Monet, Frédéric Bazille, Vuillard, Vallotton, Dufy, Othon Friesz, Albert Marquet, among others. The famous bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla has dedicated the tango Río Sena to him.

In Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables, Jean Valjean escapes from the sewers on the banks of the Seine. Waiting for him there is Inspector Javert, who despite him allows him to escape. Javert, contemplating what he has just done, decides to throw himself into the river to die.

The "Unknown Woman of the Seine" death mask has inspired several artists, and in 1958 an Austrian doctor who revolutionized medicine with his mouth-to-mouth resuscitation method, decided to teach his technique with a mannequin, and chose the face of the mask for the same. Thus was born the Resusci Anne.