Birth of a River, Birth of a City

Long before Paris was Paris, the Seine was already ancient. The river carved its valley during successive ice ages, creating the basin that would prove perfect for human settlement. When the Parisii, a Celtic tribe, established their trading post on what is now the Île de la Cité around 250 BCE, they chose this location for one reason: the Seine.

The river provided everything the early settlement needed—fresh water, fish, transportation, and protection. The island location made defense easier, while the river's relatively gentle current and numerous crossing points made it an ideal hub for trade routes stretching across Gaul. Even the Roman conquest couldn't diminish the site's importance; they simply renamed it Lutetia and continued to develop it as a river city.

"My grandmother used to say the Seine was Paris's first street," recalls Aminata Diallo, whose family emigrated from Senegal in the 1960s and has run a bookshop near the river for three generations. "Before there were roads, before there were bridges, there was the river. Everything else followed."