Bridge over Water

Bridges of Paris

As promised in my post about rivers, this post will be about bridges that go over them (and over other bodies of water too). I love bridges and wish I had one or some to walk over regularly on my way somewhere. London and Paris are the reasons I love walking over bridges. The Seine, as I said in my previous post, is my favourite river in the world. When I lived in Paris, I lived one on side of the river but often went over to the other side to meet friends, go to cafes, etc. Walking was one of my favourite things to do in Paris, and I would happily go for long walks to get to a place (and then walk home too). My favourite bridge in Paris is the Pont des Arts but I like all of the bridges. The Pont des Arts is a walking bridge only which is nice because you don't have to worry about cars. Indeed, the walk I enjoyed doing the most in Paris was from my apartment on rue des Batignolles to the Jardin des Tuileries; then through them all the way to Cour carrée (one of the most beautiful places in Paris in my opinion) of the Louvre and then out and across the Pont des Arts. Doing that walk never failed to put me in a good mood. Pont des Arts is classically very pretty and is even mentioned in this song, which I really like. You can also see the Eiffel Tower from it, which is always a treat. Back in 2007 when I lived there, I went for two picnics on the Pont des Arts. At the time, I remember rolling my eyes a bit at the idea of having picnics on a bridge in the middle of Paris but it was then (and probably still is) a very fun and popular thing to do. Both picnics I went to took place at night and it was lovely to eat and drink wine on top of the Seine with the lights of Paris all around us.

Pont des Arts in the rain

The Pont des Arts

The sublime Cour carre (one of my favourite spots in Paris)

London has so many wonderful bridges - each with its own personality. Although I know the names of a few bridges other than the Pont des Arts in Paris, and though I like walking over other ones as well, I don't feel like I know any bridge in Paris as well as I know the Pont des Arts. In London, on the other hand, during the 4 weeks I spent there in summer 2011 I walked over quite a few different bridges and so got to know many more. I stayed in the borough of Southwark which borders the Thames. I was taking a course that summer which was located on the other side of the river. For the first week, I always walked the same way and crossed over the Millennium Bridge. This is a great bridge. It's unique looking, it's for pedestrians only, and it leads right to the Tate Modern museum.

Here's the Millennium Bridge

By the second week I was bored of the same route everyday and so started switching it up. I walked across the Southwark Bridge once which is featured in the TV show Luther multiple times, including the final scene of the show when Alice tells Luther to meet her there and he does.

Alice and Luther on the Southwark Bridge in Season 1

Alice and Luther on the Southwark Bridge in Season 2

But then I started walking over Blackfriars Bridge and decided I liked that route best. The bridge itself was quite nice - wide sidewalk for pedestrians but also space for cars, has bright red trim, and great views of the Thames and London.

Blackfriars Bridge - I love the red trim.

Other things I love about the bridges of both Paris and London are: 1. how many bridges there are in both cities! It's so cool to have a long river running right through the centre of the city which requires lots of bridges. It's also very cool to see all of the other bridges from the bridge you're on. Especially on the Pont des Arts I loved leaning over the railing and looking at other bridges, and what was going on on either side of the river too. 2. How you can look over the sides and watch all the boats - the tourist boats, pleasure boats, cargo boats, police boats - go by. 3. There's something cool and exciting about standing on a bridge and knowing there's water beneath you and that you're safe above it.

Three bridges in Paris all in a row

The two main bridges of the Bay Area  - the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge - are very different from the bridges of Paris and London but I love them too. When I went to Berkeley, one of my favourite places on campus was the bottom of the Campanile from where, on a clear date, you could see the Golden Gate Bridge. If I wasn't in a hurry, and sometimes on days when I was near there and could purposefully walk to that spot, I loved standing there and looking out at the bridge. Even on days I was hurrying past, I would never walk by that spot without trying to see the Golden Gate. S. and I used to sometimes walk up to the Big C (literally this big concrete C (for California, and painted yellow which is one of the school's colours) in the hills above campus) an hour before it got dark and then watch the sun set and the lights come up all over the whole Bay Area from way out in the peninsula to San Francisco. We got amazing views of the two bridges from there.

If you look carefully you can see the yellow C up near the top of the picture.

View from the Big C

The Golden Gate Bridge gets so much of the attention but I love the Bay Bridge too. It's double decker and looks so pretty at night all lit up. I've also always associated it with excitement because whenever I went on it I was going either into San Francisco (which was usually for a fun reason) or to the airport and thus home, also exciting. I have to admit though that I was always a bit scared going across it in case there was an earthquake. But at least that never prevented me from going on it. When I first moved to Austin I had coffee with M., a grad student who taught my Portuguese class my last semester at Berkeley, who was originally from Texas and had moved back to Austin to write her dissertation. She told me that when she lived in Berkeley she drove all the way up the east bay out to the Golden Gate Bridge at least once a week. Ignoring the fact that I didn't have a car in Berkeley and probably wouldn't have made that drive once a week regardless, I totally wished I had done something like that while living in Berkeley. I think my admiration of the Golden Gate from the bottom of the Campanile, however, was my equivalent.

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Campanile

The Bay Bridge with San Francisco behind it

To sum up, I love bridges and miss the days they were a more regular part of my life. Even though I don't see and/or walk over any bridges on a regular basis now, that just serves to make it all the more special when I do go somewhere where I can do so.

Bridges of London