The Square du Vert-Galant
The water-level green triangle at the island's tip — a sunset picnic of Parisian-secret rank, the river forking around you.
Sumit Surai — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rmrfstar — CC BY-SA 3.0 · FreCha — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jean-Pierre Dalbéra — CC BY 2.0
Two characters, no contest: Alexandre III is gilded pageantry, Pont Neuf is stone, history and river life. Half an hour's bank-side walk separates them — walk it and judge yourself.
The most famous cruise fleets dock at its lower quay by the island's tip — the one-hour sunset circuit passes every riverside landmark and is the best first-evening investment in Paris.
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Its name means "New Bridge," and it is the oldest standing bridge in Paris — a four-century-old irony. Completed in 1607 under Henri IV, whose bronze equestrian statue holds its centre today, it was revolutionary then: the first stone bridge without houses on it, and the first with pavements for walkers — instantly becoming Paris's open-air theatre of vendors, jesters and idlers. The bridge crosses the river in two spans over the western head of the Île de la Cité, and its rounded half-turrets — the "balconies" carved into its sides — make perfect river-watching seats, crowned by 381 mocking stone masks, no two alike. Its loveliest secret is below: a stair behind the Henri IV statue descends to the Square du Vert-Galant at the island's tip — a green triangle at water level many Parisians call the city's finest sunset spot, the river splitting before you, the Louvre to your right, the Académie to your left.
The water-level green triangle at the island's tip — a sunset picnic of Parisian-secret rank, the river forking around you.
The rounded half-turrets are river-view benches, and under their cornices grin 381 mocking 17th-century stone faces — hunt for the strangest.
The king who finished the bridge has ridden its centre since 1614 — melted in the Revolution, recast from the bronze of Napoleon's statues, a story that summarises France.
Western tip of the Île de la Cité, 75001/75006 Paris