Paris by night seems almost unbearably magical.
Motionless at first, the camera pans along former dwellings. Only here and there does a bright window shine myteriously between the branches of the winter willows. The trees that line the banks of the Seine intertwine with the filigree fragility of the architecture. Not a soul is to be seen on the quais. Only a statue, brightly illuminated, stands before a bridge. Then the Eiffel Tower appears, its top cropped, shining warmly against the cold and sterile light of the quais, like some fragile animal skeleton. Finally, a slow pan around the cathedral of Notre-Dame transforms the whole into a vast mystery. [...]
Instead of stopping the camera when the boat passes under a bridge, she actually makes these sections the most exciting in the entire film. The bridges seem like cosy dwellings, making such sights as the Eiffel Tower or Notre-Dame soar skywards all the more impressively.