Elaine Sciolino came to Paris as a young foreign correspondent for Newsweek Magazine and fell in love with both the city and the Seine. Please join us as Elaine Sciolino takes us on an intimate tour of the Seine and explains why it is the worlds most romantic river. 

In her revelatory, brilliantly researched new book she shows us just how indelible the river is not only to Paris and to the French but also to the world at large, its rich history, resources, romance, and natural beauty.

Traveling from the source of the Seine on a remote plateau of Burgundy, to the estuary where its waters meet the sea, and to cities, towns, tributaries, islands, ports, and bridges in between, Sciolino tells the story of the Seine through its rich history, mythology, eminence in art, literature and film and its lively charactersa bargewoman, a riverbank bookseller, a houseboat dweller, a famous cameraman known for capturing the rivers light. She discovers the story of Sequana, the Gallo-Roman goddess who healed pilgrims at a temple at the rivers source and gave the river its name. She patrols with river police, rows with a restorer of antique boats, and even dares to swim in the Seine. This book is a compelling story of how a river brings to life a city, reminding us of why we are enchanted by it and how necessary it is to the vitality, street life, and economy of Paris and the other towns and cities along the river and their people.

Just as Sciolino delivered her final manuscript of this book, on April 15, 2019, Notre Dame began to burn. As we watched in horror, few were aware of the floating firefighting station docked along the riverbank beneath the cathedral, furiously pumping water from the depths of the Seine into hoses that fed fire stations on land. In an Afterword added only in time for the finished books, Sciolino tells the extraordinary story of how it was that the Seine, the life giver of Paris, saved the monument that sits at the citys historic and geographic heart: Notre-Dame.  

Elaine Sciolino is a contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times who has lived in Paris since 2002. She has written several books, including La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life. Her most recent book, The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs, was a New York Times best seller. She has been decorated chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the highest honor of the French state, for her special contribution to the friendship between France and the United States.

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