Seine River Evening Lights Cruise from Pont de l'Alma Paris

Pont de l'Alma and Port de la Conférence, where the cruise begins

Pont de l'Alma links the Champs-Élysées side of the river with the 7th arrondissement, and the boats leave from Port de la Conférence on the Right Bank, just downstream of the bridge. The bridge is known to Parisians for the stone soldier, the Zouave, who stands on its pier and serves as an unofficial flood gauge: when the water reaches his feet, the riverside roads close. On the square above the tunnel stands the Flame of Liberty, a gilded copy of the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

How to get to Pont de l'Alma is easy: Alma-Marceau on metro line 9 is a two-minute walk, and the Pont de l'Alma RER C station is across the river. The crêperie of the default option faces the port, so arrive about an hour before you plan to board, enjoy your crêpe, then walk down the ramp to the quay. Boarding is first come, first served, and in summer the evening departures are the busiest of the day.

The Eiffel Tower illuminated from the Seine

The Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889 for the Paris World's Fair and, at 330 metres with its antennas, it remained the tallest structure in the world for four decades. At dusk its 20,000 golden lamps come on, and for five minutes at the top of every hour after dark the tower sparkles in white. From the river the whole structure appears at once, something you can never see from the crowded esplanade beneath it, and the boat passes close enough to see the lacework of the iron.

On this Seine River cruise at night the tower comes near the end of the loop, as the boat turns at Pont de Bir-Hakeim and heads back to Pont de l'Alma. If you want the sparkling show from the water, choose a departure that puts you alongside the tower on the hour, roughly 50 minutes after boarding. The open upper deck gives the best photos; the lower deck is enclosed and warm in winter.

The Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay from the water

Heading east, the boat passes the Musée d'Orsay on the Left Bank, a former railway station of 1900 whose giant clocks still face the river, and then the Louvre on the Right Bank. The Louvre began as a medieval fortress, became a royal palace and opened as a museum in 1793; its riverside wing runs for almost 700 metres, and from the deck you see the full length of the facade lit from below, with the glass pyramid hidden in the courtyard behind.

Between the two museums sits the Pont des Arts, the iron footbridge, and the Pont Royal, built in the 17th century. The commentary on board points out each building as it appears, so you leave with a clear picture of how the city's great museums and palaces line the river. Many travellers use this evening cruise as an introduction before deciding which museums to visit during the day.

Île de la Cité: Notre-Dame and the Conciergerie

Île de la Cité is the island where Paris was born, and the cruise circles it. On the north bank rise the pointed towers of the Conciergerie, a 14th-century royal palace that later became a prison, with the oldest public clock in Paris on its corner tower. At the eastern end stands Notre-Dame Cathedral, begun in 1163, whose flying buttresses and rebuilt spire look spectacular floodlit from the river; the view from the water is the best angle of the cathedral's eastern side.

The boat passes under the Pont Neuf, which despite its name is the oldest standing bridge in Paris, completed in 1607, and rounds the quiet Île Saint-Louis before turning back. This is the most photographed stretch of a Seine River cruise at night, so keep your camera ready on the right-hand side of the boat on the outbound leg and the left on the return.

The bridges of Paris by night

Dozens of bridges cross the Seine inside Paris and the evening route passes under many of them. The most ornate is the Pont Alexandre III, inaugurated for the 1900 World's Fair, with gilded statues on its four pillars and lamp posts that glow along its single steel arch; it is named after a Russian emperor whose alliance with France it celebrates. Just beyond lie the glass roof of the Grand Palais and the gold dome of Les Invalides.

The Pont de Bir-Hakeim, where the boat turns, carries the metro on an upper level and is a favourite photo spot facing the Eiffel Tower. Passing beneath the arches at night, with the stone lit from below and the reflections on the water, is what makes an evening Seine cruise feel different from a daytime one. The best time to go is just after sunset, when the sky is still deep blue behind the lights.