Zouave (Pont de l'Alma)

The stone Zouave soldier stands guard on the central pier of the Pont de l Alma, his feet dangling just above the Seine. Sculpted by Georges Diébold in eighteen fifty-six, he commemorates the infantrymen who fought in the Crimean War. Parisians use him as a folk instrument to measure flood levels. When the river rises to his boots, officials close the embankment roads. If the water reaches his thighs, the river is considered in major flood stage.