Formerly an active dock where much of the materials for the building of the Eiffel Tower and then the surrounding quarters of Paris were unloaded, the Port de Suffren is situated where the Avenue de Suffren begins on the left bank at the river. Just upriver (to the left in this photo) is the Iena Bridge where the Chaillot Palace and the Trocadero Gardens face the Eiffel Tower from across the Seine. Downriver, a short promenade on the tree-lined Isle of Swans, the Statue of Liberty welcomes river traffic coming up from the cities of Honfleur and Rouen.
     The Simpatico was built in the north of Holland in 1916 and, powered by sail, she worked the inland seas and waterways of the Netherlands carrying cargoes such as steel, coal and grain. Outfitted with diesel power in the mid-fifties, her tonnage was increased and she continued to work northern Europe and the Rhine Basin well after her 162-ton capacity was no longer competitive. Converted to a "living boat" in the early seventies, the Simpatico continues to be a completely functional and fully autonomous river boat with her home port in Paris since 1975.