The Seine is a slow-flowing major river and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie in France. It is 776 km (486 miles) long, rising at Saint-Seine near Dijon in eastern France near the Swiss Alps, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre.[1] It is navigable by ocean-going vessels for about ten percent of its length, as far as Rouen, 120 km (75 miles) from the sea, while over sixty percent of its length, as far as Burgundy, is negotiable by commercial riverboats and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating - Excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the Rive Droite and Rive Gauche within the city of Paris.
There are 37 bridges within Paris and dozens more spanning the river outside the city. Examples in Paris include the Pont Louis-Philippe and Pont Neuf, the latter of which dates back to 1607. Outside the city, examples include the Pont de Normandie, one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, which links Le Havre to Honfleur.