The best long walk inside Paris: down to the river where cars once roared and now people stroll, past bridges, floating gardens and the great monuments, then up onto an old railway viaduct turned into a ribbon of gardens running east above the rooftops.
For decades the Seine's lower quays were expressways. Today long stretches on both banks belong to walkers, runners and cyclists: the Parc Rives de Seine, with gardens on barges, play areas, cafés and the bridges of Paris passing overhead.
This walk starts at the Pont de l'Alma with the Eiffel Tower behind you and heads east along the Left Bank under the Musée d'Orsay, crosses to the Tuileries, then follows the car-free Right Bank past the Louvre, the Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame towards the Bastille.
From behind the Opéra Bastille, stairs lead up onto the Coulée Verte René-Dumont, opened in 1993 on the viaduct of a 19th-century railway: one of the first elevated parks in the world, years before New York's High Line. It runs east for 4.5 km through roses, bamboo, lime trees and a tunnel or two, past the Jardin de Reuilly, to the edge of the Bois de Vincennes. Below it, the arches of the viaduct house craft workshops: the Viaduc des Arts.
Do it in one go, or split it: the quays one evening, the Coulée Verte one morning.
Walk down to the lower quay on the Left Bank and head east, past floating gardens and deck chairs, under the Pont Alexandre III and below the Musée d'Orsay.
Cross the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor footbridge to the Tuileries gardens, then drop to the Right Bank quays below the Louvre.
The car-free Right Bank runs past the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis, with Notre-Dame's towers across the water.
Leave the river at the Bastille marina, walk past the Opéra Bastille to avenue Daumesnil, and climb the stairs onto the Coulée Verte.
The planted walkway runs above the street, then at ground level through cuttings and tunnels, past the Jardin de Reuilly, to its end near the Bois de Vincennes.
.jpg?width=1280)
.jpg?width=1280)
Start at Alma-Marceau (Métro 9) or Pont de l'Alma (RER C). Bastille has Métro lines 1, 5 and 8; at the end, Porte Dorée or Michel Bizot are close.
The Coulée Verte is a park with opening hours, roughly from morning to dusk. The quays are open at all times but are busiest on summer evenings.
In winter the Seine sometimes rises over the lower quays, which are then closed. Use the upper embankments instead.
Paris practical notes →Wikimedia Commons photographs are used under their Creative Commons licences; Pexels photographs under the Pexels licence.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}