UFOs on the Seine.

Paris without the flat boats on the Seine? For capital-tourists unthinkable. The "Bateaux-Mouches" are among the four most popular attractions of the metropolis and have been in use for 60 years. The founder was responsible for his enlightening ideas notorious.

 

Paris - You belong to the classic Paris-visit as a stroll on the Champs Elysees or a trip on the platform of the Eiffel Tower - the excursion boats "Bateaux-Mouches on the Seine. On Wednesday, they are 60 years old and to celebrate the day, the trip cost for adults only six instead of ten euros. Over the past 60 years more than 120 million visitors, thanks to the flat boats with large glass panes of the French capital from the Seine discovered. Particularly impressive is the view of the venerable cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.

The trips are also because of the main attractions in Paris: On the ranking of tourist attractions, they come with around two million passengers per year in fourth place - after the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Georges Pompidou Center, with its Museum of Modern Art. In the high season travel excursion boats in the 15-minute rhythm, then a total of daily 30 rides offered. To put the boats back a distance, which corresponds Erdumrundungen Five times a year.

The ingenious business idea had Jean Bruel, a Paris original. He bought 1949 a ship named "The old Mouche", named after the shipping company Mouche in Lyon, a remnant of the Paris World Exhibition in 1900. Bruel converted it into a cruise ship and offered to the first rides on the Seine at. The success was so convincing that he had built new ships, which today's models with their flat transparent roof.

From crisis to feel nothing

Today, the fleet included 14 vessels, reported the daughter of the founder, Charlotte Bruel-Matovic. The family-owned company, depending on the season from 200 to 400 employees and its owner seems that nothing of the crisis to be felt. The "Bateaux-Mouches" are in many films to see, for example, in "The Lovers of the Pont Neuf with Juliette Binoche. Since 1950 her name is a registered trademark.

For 60-year anniversary of the tour operation has Bruel-Matovic lots of anecdotes ready by the business acumen of her deceased father's 2003 show. Thus, the enterprising Frenchman, long before the Seine bridges and the magnificent buildings along the shore were illuminated in darkness, its own lighting technology: He was on the plane ships strong headlight install - and so startled at the Paris. "The police received calls from people who thought they had seen a UFO," reports the company's owner.

She remembers even good the first day trips with lunch on board: "We have picnic baskets herbeigeschleppt of the bridges." So it is certainly long gone: Five of the boats have their own restaurant. Who in the ride on the Seine to eat, this can be for around 100 euros to do so.