Hotel Seine River


	At water level, some 30 feet below street level, the river is bordered--at least on those portions not transformed into expressways--by cobbled quays graced with trees and shrubs. From street level another line of trees leans towards the water. Between the two levels, the retaining walls, usually made of massive stone blocks, are decorated with the great iron rings of a past ages commerce and sometimes pierced by mysterious openings (water gates for old palaces or inspection ports for subways, sewers and underpasses).The old buildings, the riverboats, the changes of colour reflected by the water, the gardens, and the 32 bridges (many of them handsome) compose one of the worlds grandest, yet most endearing cityscapes. . The first sweeps down from the Palais de Chaillot on the Right Bank, crosses the river to the Eiffel Tower, and continues through the gardens of the Champ-de-Mars to the 18th-century Ecole Militaire; the other begins at the Seine and marches up a broad esplanade to the golden dome of the Invalides.