This past semester, I travelled to Paris, France with the Contemporary Paris Honors seminar. This was my favorite class this semester, and our weeklong journey to Paris was an unforgettable experience. Before departure, we learned about Paris as a city, from its roots as a Celtic settlement on the island of Lutetia, through the Roman era, to Napoleon, to the intricacies of modern Paris. We learned about geography, the Seine, culture, the French language, food, travelling, shopping, and much more to prepare us for our trip. Once there, we partook in a whirlwind of interactive learning. It was incredible to see everything we had learned about suddenly in front of us. We saw and did so much more than I ever thought would be possible for one short week. I had the chance to spend hours strolling around world famous art galleries like the Louvre, the Monet Museum, and the Centre Pompidou. We viewed the city from the top of the Eiffel Tower, the famous bell towers of the Notre Dame, and from the boat called a bateau mouche as we slowly made our way down the Seine on a tour. I learned that truly experiencing something is the best and most complete way to learn about it. I loved diving in to the culture of France, and can’t wait to return someday soon!
My friend Kati, who was my roommate on this trip, and I in front of the Louvre. There was an overwhelming amount to see at this museum, and I loved seeing the apartments of Napoleon, furnished to replicate reality, and famous works such as the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the Mona Lisa. I also enjoyed the buildings of the Louvre itself, which served as the royal palace for many years before the French Revolution.
This picture was taken in a small garden hidden off to one side of the Place des Vosges. Also in this town square, we visited the Maison de Victor Hugo, where the French author lived, died, and created many pieces of work.
The picture above is of my classmates Ellen, Shivank, and I standing on top of the towers of Notre Dame. The view from this cathedral was incredible, with everything from the Seine river to the white towers of Sacre Couer on the hill of Montmatre. Visiting the Ile de Cite, where this cathedral was located, was an incredible day. First, I attended Mass at Notre Dame, which allowed me to use a few phrases I picked up in French class at a Catholic high school, Mount Notre Dame. We also got to witness a different culture of France, in street performers such as a mime and comedian imitating everyone walking down the street for the crowds gathered in front of the cathedral. We also saw the Saint Chapelle, a beautiful and historical church with enormous and magnificent stained glass windows. We then walked to the other island on the Seine, the Ile Saint Louis, and had what I can confidently say is the best ice cream in the world.
This picture shows Hannah, Stephen, Shivank, and me outside the Monet Museum. This museum was beautiful, and I was very excited to see the water lily paintings in person. However, as this was our first day in the city, and we had been awake for about 40 hours at that point, we had a few people find the benches just a little too comfortable and fall asleep! We let them nap for a few minutes, and then moved on to our next sight.
Kati and I may have upset a few Parisians in the gardens on the Rodin museum, as we preferred to imitate the statues than ponder their meaning.
Again in Rodin's garden, this time in front of the iconic sculpture, "The Thinker".
This last picture is of me on the banks of the Seine River, after exploring the Ile Saint Louis. This trip was one of the best weeks of my life. I made incredible friendships, learned so much more than I ever thought possible, and developed my desire to travel and return to the City of Love, the City of Lights, Paris. Au revoir, a bien tot!
For my final project, I chose to write a paper and make a presentation on the rivers of Cincinnati, Boston, and Paris: the Ohio, the Charles, and the Seine.
Both are below:
The Role of Rivers in Cincinnati, Boston and Paris
From the beginnings of organized settlements, rivers have played an integral role in allowing civilizations to develop and flourish. The first known civilization, Mesopotamia, developed on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, bringing fertility to a once barren land. From this original small group of people building homes along these banks to the enormous, advanced cities we know now, civilizations have relied on the waters of rivers to supply them with resources and connect them to the rest of the world. New York City sprung up on the banks of the Hudson River, Chicago relies on the Chicago River, Chinese cities such as Zhengzhou and Lanzhou find their roots in the Yellow River, and Egypt is supplied by the Nile River. All of these large, industrious, centers of culture can trace their beginnings to a river, just like the three cities being compared in this analysis: Cincinnati, Boston, and Paris.
Cincinnati and Paris lie on two opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their use of their rivers. While both cities use their rivers in a variety of ways, Cincinnati’s Ohio River is used mostly for utilitarian purposes. Citizens view the river as a means of industrial travel, irrigation, and waste disposal. It is rarely thought about in literature, culture, or daily life, with the exception of the annoyance of paying a toll to traverse it. On the contrary, the Seine in Paris serves not only utilitarian purposes, but as a source of literary inspiration, the subject of pieces of art, and a tourist attraction, flowing through the literal and metaphorical heart of the city. Boston falls somewhere in the middle of these cities in term of their use of their river, the Charles. Some events set on the river, such as the Charles River Regatta, draw people to the river, as well as the historical universities set close to the Charles, but the river is not nearly as central to the cultural identity of the city as Boston as the Seine is to Paris.
The Ohio River is used in commercial purposes, for industry, and utilities. Using the river for these purposes has resulted in pollution building up in the river. Sewage and industry waste have been funneled into the river at strategic points to reduce cleansing needed for the potable water. West Virginia chemical plants and storage facilities dump into the Ohio, as evidenced by the result MCHM spill and the carbon tetrafluoride spill in 1977. These incidents, and many more over the years, have threatened the almost three million people who use the Ohio as a source of drinking water.
The Ohio is also a major waterway for commercial transportation. From the time of Native Americans, the Ohio River has serve as a source of transportation. Numerous terminals on the Ohio allow for a steady traffic of commercial shipping. Ports in Cincinnati handle 14.3 million tons of cargo per year. Ohio waterways account for the equivalent of 58 million truck trips per year.
The Charles has also been used industriously, since the beginning of settlement in the Boston area. According to the Charles River Watershed Association, “prior to the last century, the Charles River was values mostly for pragmatic purposes”. In the days of the Native Americans the river was used for small boats and fishing. Early European settlers used the river for the rapidly expanding mill industry. Industry, along with the settlements it promoted along the river, contributed to huge amounts of pollution in the river. Fish populations died out, and most efforts to clean up the river and surrounding areas were met with failure. Fortunately, architect Charles Eliot, led successful efforts to move industry away from the river and create the Charles River Basin, which now serves as the main recreation and tourist area of the Charles.
The Seine, while serving as a cultural icon, is also important for practical purposes, such as power and industry. According to bonjourlafrance.com, the river serves as a source of cooling water for a multitude of power stations, including electric and nuclear plants providing power to the metropolitan area. Half the water used for consumption and industry in the Paris metropolitan and the regions around the city come from the Seine. In earlier years, from the eighteenth century to the early nineteenth, as many as 80 laundry boats filled the Seine, concentrated at the base of the Louvre, and these boats were the only legal place to wash clothes in the city. River traffic, and the pollution that occurred with it, was also an issue for Parisians until the nineteenth century. In the beginning of this century, several channels, such as the Ourcq Canal, the Canal Saint Denis, and the Canal Saint-Martin, were designed to divert traffic from the main Seine itself.
The bridges that span any river are an iconic piece of their landscape. In Cincinnati, the most famous bridges serve as both landmarks and sources of annoyance. More well-known Ohio River crossings in the vicinity of the city include the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, the Brent Spence Bridge, and the Newport/ Southbank Bridge, better known as the Purple People Bridge. These bridges have served as midway points for events such as the Flying Pig Marathon and St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and contribute to the scenery and skyline of the city. However, frequent and expensive renovations and debate about tolls on these bridges, as well as their safety particularly the Brent-Spence have polarized opinions in the city and made the bridges a source of some negativity in the city. As the Charles is much narrower at the points where it flows through the city and the Ohio through Cincinnati, the bridges tend to resemble more closely those that span the Seine. For example, the Eliot Bridge, constructed in 1950, made of stone and brick, is reminiscent of some of the less ornate, low lying bridges of the Seine. Bridges spanning the Seine are in a historical and artistic league of their own. During the Napoleon and Baron Haussmann eras, a multitude of bridges crafted of ornately sculpted stone and gilded metals.
The Seine is unique among these three rivers for its presence in the arts and prevalence in literature and art. It serves as the iconic background in myriad Parisian themed paintings, photographs, articles, stories, films, and poems, among others. To quote Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer: “So quietly flows the Seine that one hardly notices its presence. It is always there, quiet and unobtrusive, like a great artery running through the human body.”. The Seine is world renowned for its beauty, perhaps because of the beauty of the words used to describe it.
All three of these rivers the cities they are associated with, are distinct in their recreational uses of the rivers. In Cincinnati, baseball falls turn their attention towards the river for fireworks displays after Cincinnati Reds baseball games. Boating and fishing on the Ohio are also popular pastimes for Cincinnati residents. Swimming and watersports have also been enjoyed on the river. Festivals and events such as the Celtic Festival and Memorial Day celebrations are held on the banks of the river, and boaters come out to enjoy the celebrations alongside those on the banks of the river. Parks commissioned by the city also draw Cincinnatians to the shores. Sawyer’s Point Park and Yeatman’s Cove occupy a stretch of the banks and offer beautiful views of the river and the city, tennis courts, and a pavilion designed for performances of all kind. On the Kentucky side of the river, Newport on the Levee, an outdoor shopping center with restaurants, shops, entertainers, and an aquarium, affords spanning views of the skyline of Cincinnati, all including the Ohio River running just below the lights of the city.
In Boston, Duck Tours are a popular source of entertainment. These tours utilize amphibian trucks to tour around the city and then transition to water tours on the river. The Head of the Charles Regatta is one of the largest rowing races in the world, drawing competitors and fans from far outside the city limits. Like in Cincinnati, boating and water sports are also very common here. Sailing is especially popular, and sailboats against the background of the Charles form an iconic image of the city of Boston. A somewhat more unexpected use of the river that shows how multicultural Boston is a city is the annual Hong Kong Boston Dragon Boat Festival held every June.
Recreation on the Seine is somewhat more relaxed. Some swimming and water sports are enjoyed, such as the competitions held to swim across the Seine every year from 1905 to 1936. Since their appearance at the Universal Exhibition of 1867, Bateaux-mouche boating tours can take you around the city, pointing out legendary locations, as well as lesser known points of interest. Parisians line the banks of the river on pleasant days, enjoying the views as the eat dinner with friends, share a drink with a lover, or simply ponder the wonders of the city by themselves. The volume of pedestrians enjoying walks along the river increases during special events focused on the river like the Paris-Plages and the Paris-Respire.
Sources (URLs):
http://www.city-data.com/states/Ohio-Transportation.html
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cincinnati,_Ohio
http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-29523industrial_pollutants_and_the_ohio_river.html
http://www.crwa.org/charles-river-history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Roebling_Suspension_Bridge
http://bridgestunnels.com/bridges/ohio-river/
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/258214-so-quietly-flows-the-seine-that-one-hardly-notices-its
http://www.recr8ohioriver.org/map.aspx?name=watersports
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_River
http://www.secretsofparis.com/heathers-secret-blog/the-seine-before-paris-plages.html
http://cincinnatiparks.com/index.php/sawyer-point-yeatman
Both are below:
The Role of Rivers in Cincinnati, Boston and Paris
From the beginnings of organized settlements, rivers have played an integral role in allowing civilizations to develop and flourish. The first known civilization, Mesopotamia, developed on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, bringing fertility to a once barren land. From this original small group of people building homes along these banks to the enormous, advanced cities we know now, civilizations have relied on the waters of rivers to supply them with resources and connect them to the rest of the world. New York City sprung up on the banks of the Hudson River, Chicago relies on the Chicago River, Chinese cities such as Zhengzhou and Lanzhou find their roots in the Yellow River, and Egypt is supplied by the Nile River. All of these large, industrious, centers of culture can trace their beginnings to a river, just like the three cities being compared in this analysis: Cincinnati, Boston, and Paris.
Cincinnati and Paris lie on two opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their use of their rivers. While both cities use their rivers in a variety of ways, Cincinnati’s Ohio River is used mostly for utilitarian purposes. Citizens view the river as a means of industrial travel, irrigation, and waste disposal. It is rarely thought about in literature, culture, or daily life, with the exception of the annoyance of paying a toll to traverse it. On the contrary, the Seine in Paris serves not only utilitarian purposes, but as a source of literary inspiration, the subject of pieces of art, and a tourist attraction, flowing through the literal and metaphorical heart of the city. Boston falls somewhere in the middle of these cities in term of their use of their river, the Charles. Some events set on the river, such as the Charles River Regatta, draw people to the river, as well as the historical universities set close to the Charles, but the river is not nearly as central to the cultural identity of the city as Boston as the Seine is to Paris.
The Ohio River is used in commercial purposes, for industry, and utilities. Using the river for these purposes has resulted in pollution building up in the river. Sewage and industry waste have been funneled into the river at strategic points to reduce cleansing needed for the potable water. West Virginia chemical plants and storage facilities dump into the Ohio, as evidenced by the result MCHM spill and the carbon tetrafluoride spill in 1977. These incidents, and many more over the years, have threatened the almost three million people who use the Ohio as a source of drinking water.
The Ohio is also a major waterway for commercial transportation. From the time of Native Americans, the Ohio River has serve as a source of transportation. Numerous terminals on the Ohio allow for a steady traffic of commercial shipping. Ports in Cincinnati handle 14.3 million tons of cargo per year. Ohio waterways account for the equivalent of 58 million truck trips per year.
The Charles has also been used industriously, since the beginning of settlement in the Boston area. According to the Charles River Watershed Association, “prior to the last century, the Charles River was values mostly for pragmatic purposes”. In the days of the Native Americans the river was used for small boats and fishing. Early European settlers used the river for the rapidly expanding mill industry. Industry, along with the settlements it promoted along the river, contributed to huge amounts of pollution in the river. Fish populations died out, and most efforts to clean up the river and surrounding areas were met with failure. Fortunately, architect Charles Eliot, led successful efforts to move industry away from the river and create the Charles River Basin, which now serves as the main recreation and tourist area of the Charles.
The Seine, while serving as a cultural icon, is also important for practical purposes, such as power and industry. According to bonjourlafrance.com, the river serves as a source of cooling water for a multitude of power stations, including electric and nuclear plants providing power to the metropolitan area. Half the water used for consumption and industry in the Paris metropolitan and the regions around the city come from the Seine. In earlier years, from the eighteenth century to the early nineteenth, as many as 80 laundry boats filled the Seine, concentrated at the base of the Louvre, and these boats were the only legal place to wash clothes in the city. River traffic, and the pollution that occurred with it, was also an issue for Parisians until the nineteenth century. In the beginning of this century, several channels, such as the Ourcq Canal, the Canal Saint Denis, and the Canal Saint-Martin, were designed to divert traffic from the main Seine itself.
The bridges that span any river are an iconic piece of their landscape. In Cincinnati, the most famous bridges serve as both landmarks and sources of annoyance. More well-known Ohio River crossings in the vicinity of the city include the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, the Brent Spence Bridge, and the Newport/ Southbank Bridge, better known as the Purple People Bridge. These bridges have served as midway points for events such as the Flying Pig Marathon and St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and contribute to the scenery and skyline of the city. However, frequent and expensive renovations and debate about tolls on these bridges, as well as their safety particularly the Brent-Spence have polarized opinions in the city and made the bridges a source of some negativity in the city. As the Charles is much narrower at the points where it flows through the city and the Ohio through Cincinnati, the bridges tend to resemble more closely those that span the Seine. For example, the Eliot Bridge, constructed in 1950, made of stone and brick, is reminiscent of some of the less ornate, low lying bridges of the Seine. Bridges spanning the Seine are in a historical and artistic league of their own. During the Napoleon and Baron Haussmann eras, a multitude of bridges crafted of ornately sculpted stone and gilded metals.
The Seine is unique among these three rivers for its presence in the arts and prevalence in literature and art. It serves as the iconic background in myriad Parisian themed paintings, photographs, articles, stories, films, and poems, among others. To quote Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer: “So quietly flows the Seine that one hardly notices its presence. It is always there, quiet and unobtrusive, like a great artery running through the human body.”. The Seine is world renowned for its beauty, perhaps because of the beauty of the words used to describe it.
All three of these rivers the cities they are associated with, are distinct in their recreational uses of the rivers. In Cincinnati, baseball falls turn their attention towards the river for fireworks displays after Cincinnati Reds baseball games. Boating and fishing on the Ohio are also popular pastimes for Cincinnati residents. Swimming and watersports have also been enjoyed on the river. Festivals and events such as the Celtic Festival and Memorial Day celebrations are held on the banks of the river, and boaters come out to enjoy the celebrations alongside those on the banks of the river. Parks commissioned by the city also draw Cincinnatians to the shores. Sawyer’s Point Park and Yeatman’s Cove occupy a stretch of the banks and offer beautiful views of the river and the city, tennis courts, and a pavilion designed for performances of all kind. On the Kentucky side of the river, Newport on the Levee, an outdoor shopping center with restaurants, shops, entertainers, and an aquarium, affords spanning views of the skyline of Cincinnati, all including the Ohio River running just below the lights of the city.
In Boston, Duck Tours are a popular source of entertainment. These tours utilize amphibian trucks to tour around the city and then transition to water tours on the river. The Head of the Charles Regatta is one of the largest rowing races in the world, drawing competitors and fans from far outside the city limits. Like in Cincinnati, boating and water sports are also very common here. Sailing is especially popular, and sailboats against the background of the Charles form an iconic image of the city of Boston. A somewhat more unexpected use of the river that shows how multicultural Boston is a city is the annual Hong Kong Boston Dragon Boat Festival held every June.
Recreation on the Seine is somewhat more relaxed. Some swimming and water sports are enjoyed, such as the competitions held to swim across the Seine every year from 1905 to 1936. Since their appearance at the Universal Exhibition of 1867, Bateaux-mouche boating tours can take you around the city, pointing out legendary locations, as well as lesser known points of interest. Parisians line the banks of the river on pleasant days, enjoying the views as the eat dinner with friends, share a drink with a lover, or simply ponder the wonders of the city by themselves. The volume of pedestrians enjoying walks along the river increases during special events focused on the river like the Paris-Plages and the Paris-Respire.
Sources (URLs):
http://www.city-data.com/states/Ohio-Transportation.html
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cincinnati,_Ohio
http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-29523industrial_pollutants_and_the_ohio_river.html
http://www.crwa.org/charles-river-history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Roebling_Suspension_Bridge
http://bridgestunnels.com/bridges/ohio-river/
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/258214-so-quietly-flows-the-seine-that-one-hardly-notices-its
http://www.recr8ohioriver.org/map.aspx?name=watersports
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_River
http://www.secretsofparis.com/heathers-secret-blog/the-seine-before-paris-plages.html
http://cincinnatiparks.com/index.php/sawyer-point-yeatman