The real star of the Paris Olympics: the Seine

Here are things you need to know about the storied waterway. From Vikings to D-Day From wars to revolutions and the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the seismic events in French history have played out along the banks of the Seine. The Vikings travelled up the river on their longboats in the 9th century, torching Rouen in 841 and later besieging Paris. In 1944, Allied forces bombed most of the bridges downstream of Nazi-occupied Paris to prepare the ground for the D-Day landings which led to the liberation of western Europe.