View from Roof of La Samaritaine

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This is a view from the roof of La Samaritaine, one of the leading department stores in Paris, and a store that formerly included an observation deck on the roof of its main building, which is located in central Paris.

You are looking west in this photograph, in the late afternoon. In the foreground at the bottom of the picture, you can see the rooftop restaurant operated by La Samaritaine, where you can eat and enjoy the view at the same time. Beyond that, you can see the sunlight glinting off the Seine River. The bridge closest to the camera is the pedestrian Pont des Arts, and you can see one of the Bateaux-Mouches excursion boats approaching it from upstream (i.e., from the left). In the distance, near the middle of the photo, is the golden dome of the Invalides; on the right is the obvious silhouette of the Eiffel Tower. The dome to the left of the flagpole in the foreground is the Institut de France. The tall buildings way off in the distance in the center are the Front de Seine district.

It was raining intermittently on this day, and that's why you see the menacing clouds in the distance. I was going to try to get a better picture one of these days, but the store's new owners closed the rooftop platform. That, plus large and unpleasant changes in the store's style and inventory, have removed it from my list of places to visit.

Photographed in April, 2001.