Île aux Cygnes

You are standing on a landmark that did not exist until the nineteenth century. The Île aux Cygnes was constructed in eighteen twenty-seven as an artificial dike designed to protect the nearby port of Grenelle from the strong currents of the Seine. This narrow, man-made strip of land reaches nearly nine hundred meters in length but remains only eleven meters wide at its broadest point. It was never intended to be a public space or a promenade, but rather a functional piece of river infrastructure that eventually became a unique, elongated park.