Seine River Cruise with Ice Cream or Treat from the Eiffel Tower Paris

The Eiffel Tower and Port de la Bourdonnais

The boats leave from Port de la Bourdonnais, the quay on the Left Bank directly below the Eiffel Tower, so your Seine River cruise begins with the best close-up of the monument from the water. The tower was finished in 1889 for the World's Fair, stands 330 metres tall with its antennas and is repainted by hand roughly every seven years. From the quay you see the four iron feet, the arches and the first floor from an angle the crowds on the Champ de Mars never get.

How to get to the Eiffel Tower cruise pier: take RER C to Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel or metro line 6 to Bir-Hakeim, then walk along the river to Pontoon 03. After dark the tower is lit in gold and sparkles for five minutes on the hour, so an evening departure gives you the show from the deck as the boat returns. Allow extra time for boarding in summer, when the queue can be long.

Les Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay and the Left Bank

Heading east the boat passes the gold dome of Les Invalides, a 17th-century complex built as a residence for wounded soldiers that now houses the Army Museum, and then the columned facade of the Assemblée Nationale, France's parliament, which faces Place de la Concorde across the river. Next comes the Musée d'Orsay, a railway station of 1900 converted into the museum of 19th-century art, with two giant clocks on its riverside wall.

The audio guide times each commentary to the building in view, so this stretch works as an introduction for travellers planning their museum days. Further on stands the domed Institut de France and the Monnaie de Paris, the mint founded in the 9th century, before the Pont Neuf appears ahead. Sit on the right-hand side of the boat on the outbound leg for the Left Bank monuments.

Île de la Cité, Notre-Dame and the Conciergerie

The cruise circles Île de la Cité, the island where the city began. On its north side rise the round towers of the Conciergerie, a 14th-century royal palace later used as a prison, with the oldest public clock in Paris on the corner. At the eastern tip stands Notre-Dame Cathedral, begun in 1163 and restored after the fire of 2019; its flying buttresses, rose windows and rebuilt spire are best seen from the water on the far side of the island.

Is a Seine cruise worth it just for Notre-Dame? Many travellers say yes: the river view of the cathedral's east end is the one that appears in every painting of Paris. The boat passes under the Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge in the city, completed in 1607, then turns at the quiet Île Saint-Louis and heads back. Keep your camera on the left side of the boat for the return.

The Louvre, Place de la Concorde and the Grand Palais

On the way back along the Right Bank the boat passes the full length of the Louvre, a medieval fortress turned royal palace turned museum in 1793; its riverside wing runs for almost 700 metres. Then come the Tuileries Garden, the obelisk of Place de la Concorde, the glass roof of the Grand Palais built for the 1900 World's Fair, and the ornate Pont Alexandre III with its gilded statues.

This is also the stretch with the most bridges: the Pont des Arts footbridge, the Pont Royal of the 17th century and the Pont de la Concorde, built partly with stone from the demolished Bastille fortress. The audio guide explains each one, and on an evening Seine cruise the lit facades reflect in the water. The loop ends back at the Eiffel Tower, passing the Palais de Chaillot and Trocadéro on the opposite bank.

Trocadéro esplanade and your treat

The Trocadéro esplanade, between the two curved wings of the Palais de Chaillot, is the most famous viewpoint of the Eiffel Tower: it sits on a rise directly across the river, so the tower fills the frame with nothing in front of it. The palace was built for the 1937 International Exhibition and houses museums of architecture and mankind. Below the esplanade the Trocadéro Gardens slope down to the Pont d'Iéna with their fountains and cannons of water.

Your ice cream, waffle or soft drink is collected at a café terrace on the esplanade, open from morning until late evening, before or after the cruise as you prefer. From the cruise pier it is a ten-minute walk across the Pont d'Iéna; from the metro, Trocadéro station on lines 6 and 9 brings you out on the square. The best time to visit Trocadéro is early morning or at the sparkle on the hour after dark.