Concept
The Seine (seɪn,_sɛn , sɛn) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre (and Honfleur on the left bank). It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, from the sea. Over 60 percent of its length, as far as Burgundy, is negotiable by large barges and most tour boats, and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating; excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the river banks in the capital city, Paris. There are 37 bridges in Paris across the Seine (the most famous of which are the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont Neuf) and dozens more outside the city. A notable bridge, which is also the last along the course of the river, is the Pont de Normandie, the ninth longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, which links Le Havre and Honfleur. The Seine rises in the commune of Source-Seine, about northwest of Dijon. The source has been owned by the city of Paris since 1864. A number of closely associated small ditches or depressions provide the source waters, with an artificial grotto laid out to highlight and contain a deemed main source. The grotto includes a statue of a nymph, a dog, and a dragon. On the same site are the buried remains of a Gallo-Roman temple. Small statues of the dea Sequana "Seine goddess" and other ex-votos found at the same place are now exhibited in the Dijon archaeological museum. The Seine can artificially be divided into five parts: the Petite Seine, "Small Seine" from the sources to Montereau-Fault-Yonne the Haute Seine, "Upper Seine" from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris the Traversée de Paris, "the Paris waterway" the Basse Seine, "Lower Seine" from Paris to Rouen the Seine maritime, "Maritime Seine" from Rouen to the English channel. Below Rouen, the river passes through the Parc Naturel Régional des Boucles de la Seine Normande, a French regional nature park.
