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50 free The Seine trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Seine trivia quiz follows the river from its source on the Langres plateau to the sea at Le Havre, with a long stop in Paris. The easy questions ask which country it flows through, which capital it divides into Left and Right Banks, which two natural islands sit in the middle of the city, which cathedral stands on one of them and what the Pont Neuf's name means. From there it moves through the bridges, the boats, the booksellers, the floods and the goddess who gave the river its name. The hard end is for people who have walked the quais more than once: the statue Parisians use to judge flood levels, the bridge Christo wrapped in 1985, the year the Vikings first sailed up to sack Paris, the parapet that collapsed under 45 tonnes of padlocks, the American who tested a steamboat beside the Tuileries, the century-old swimming ban that ended in 2025 and the count of boats in the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries on the Seine, Source-Seine, Sequana, the Pont Neuf, Pont de l'Alma, Pont des Arts, Pont Alexandre III, the Île de la Cité, Île Saint-Louis, the bouquinistes, the 1910 flood and the 2024 opening ceremony before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Paris, France and world rivers quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Seine flows through which country?
France
It runs 777 kilometres from the Langres plateau through Paris to the English Channel.
Q 02The Seine empties into which body of water?
The English Channel
It reaches the sea between Le Havre and Honfleur on the Normandy coast.
Q 03The Seine rises about 30 km northwest of which Burgundian city?
Dijon
The city of Paris has owned the source since 1864 and built a grotto with a statue of a nymph, a dog and a dragon around it.
Q 04Roughly how long is the Seine?
777 km
It is France's second-longest river after the Loire.
Q 05Ocean-going vessels can sail up the Seine as far as which city, 120 km from the sea?
Rouen
The tidal Seine Maritime from Le Havre to there is the only stretch used by sea-going ships; barges go on to Marcilly-sur-Seine.
Q 06How many bridges cross the Seine within Paris?
37
The best known are the Pont Neuf and the Pont Alexandre III; dozens more cross the river outside the city.
Q 07The name Seine derives from Sequana, who was what?
A Gallo-Roman goddess of the river
Offerings to her were found at the source, and her statue shows her standing in a boat with a duck-headed prow.
Q 08The city of Paris officially bought the source of the Seine in which year?
1864
Rumours of healing powers in the water had circulated since the 17th century, and a grotto to the Seine nymph was built in the 19th.
Q 09What does the name Pont Neuf, the oldest standing crossing of the Seine in Paris, literally mean?
New
It was 'new' because, unlike older bridges, it was not lined with houses; it was inaugurated by Henry IV in 1607.
Q 10Which king inaugurated the Pont Neuf in 1607 and has an equestrian statue where it crosses the Île de la Cité?
Henry IV
The park at the island's tip is the Square du Vert-Galant, named for the same king's nickname, the 'Green Gallant'.
Q 11In 1985 which artist duo wrapped the Pont Neuf in fabric after years of negotiation with the city?
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
The bridge has been a protected monument historique since 1889.
Q 12The Île de la Cité and which other island are the two natural islands in the Seine in central Paris?
Île Saint-Louis
The smaller island was once pasture used for grazing cattle, drying laundry and the occasional duel.
Q 13Which famous cathedral stands on the Île de la Cité?
Notre-Dame de Paris
The island also holds the Sainte-Chapelle, built by Louis IX to house the Crown of Thorns he bought in 1239.
Q 21The Pont des Arts, built 1802–1804 under Napoleon, was the first bridge in Paris made of what?
Metal
Its engineers wanted it to resemble a suspended garden with trees and benches, and crossing cost one sou.
Q 22The lavishly ornamented Pont Alexandre III is named after a tsar of which country?
Russia
His son Nicholas II laid the foundation stone in 1896 to celebrate the Franco-Russian Alliance, and it opened for the 1900 World's Fair.
Q 23The gilt-bronze Fames atop the Pont Alexandre III's pillars restrain which mythical creature?
Pegasus
The 17-metre masonry socles act as counterweights for the single steel arch, which was kept low to preserve views of the Invalides.
Q 14The Île de la Cité is home to the Hôtel-Dieu, which holds what possible distinction?
The world's oldest continuously operating hospital
The island was also where the Parlement of Paris first met in 1302 and where aristocrats were tried during the Revolution.
Q 15The Gallic settlement on the Île de la Cité that grew into Paris was known by what name?
Lutetia
The Parisii tribe were traders who minted their own coins and used the island as a river crossing and refuge.
Q 16Parisians gauge Seine floods by the water level on which statue at the Pont de l'Alma?
The Zouave
When the water reached his thighs the river was unnavigable; in 1910 it reached his shoulders.
Q 17The Pont de l'Alma is named after an 1854 battle in which war?
The Crimean War
Its tunnel was the scene of the 1997 car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales.
Q 18The 1910 Great Flood saw the Seine rise roughly how far above its normal level in Paris?
8 metres
The river did not overtop its banks in the city; the water came up through sewers, subway tunnels and drains instead.
Q 19After a flood alert in 2003, roughly how many works of art were moved out of Paris, the biggest relocation of art since the Second World War?
100,000
Much of the city's art is stored in underground rooms that a major flood would inundate.
Q 20What tourist practice on the Pont des Arts, begun in 2008, ended with a section of parapet collapsing?
Attaching love locks
More than a million padlocks weighing about 45 tonnes had been attached before workmen cut them all off in June 2015.
Q 24Thanks to the bouquinistes, the Seine is called the only river in the world that runs between what?
Two bookshelves
Around 240 of them use some 900 boxes holding roughly 300,000 books along more than three kilometres of riverbank.
Q 25Why did the booksellers first set up along the Seine's banks in the 18th century?
They were banned from the Pont Neuf to ease traffic
Itinerant sellers had worked the bridge since the early 1600s until the Council of State's 1756 ban pushed them onto the quais.
Q 26The excursion boats known as Bateaux Mouches take their name from what?
A district of Lyon where they were built
The literal translation is 'fly boats', but the name comes from the Mouche boatyards; the trademark belongs to a company founded by Jean Bruel.
Q 27A Viking army sailed up the Seine and sacked Paris in which year?
845
Its chieftain Reginherus may have been the semi-legendary Ragnar Lothbrok; Rollo led another attack up the river in 885.
Q 28Which last Grand Master of the Knights Templar was burned in 1314 on a Seine island?
Jacques de Molay
King Philip IV had the order suppressed after borrowing heavily from it.
Q 29After her burning in 1431, whose ashes were reportedly thrown into the Seine from a bridge at Rouen?
Joan of Arc
The Mathilde Bridge story is repeated in many accounts, though rival claims about the ashes persist.
Q 30Which American first successfully tested his steamboat on the Seine beside the Tuileries in 1803?
Robert Fulton
His 66-foot boat managed three to four miles per hour against the current, four years before his Hudson River success.