TRAVEL Ducasse sur Seine

Revered French chef ALAIN DUCASSE has brought his unique vision to the Seine and, as tama lung discovers, guests are in for an all-around delicious experience

Imagine cruising down the Seine River, your boat gliding silently past the Eiffel Tower and Musée d’Orsay en route to Notre Dame and your turnaround point at Île Saint-Louis. Now imagine a couture-clad waiter placing a glass of grand cru Château Latour and an artfully presented dish of warm guinea fowl and duck foie gras pâté in front of you, courtesy of none other than the esteemed French chef Alain Ducasse.

If it sounds too good to be true, Ducasse himself has assured me it is in fact for real – and the realisation of a long-held dream. “It’s such a unique proposal in Paris, I must say. An electric boat: no pollution, no noise, no bad smells,” the multi-Michelin-starred chef remarks when we meet at his Hong Kong restaurant, Rech, at the InterContinental. “There’s a restaurant on the Seine, in the middle of Paris. It’s unique.”

Ducasse sur Seine is a joint venture between the Ducasse Culture division, river and harbour tourism experts Citysurfing, and anchor investor La Caisse des Dépôts. It’s the first fully electric boat built to receive guests (i.e. not solely for private use) and to offer a complete fine-dining experience with its fully equipped kitchen as well as 36 cooks and pastry chefs preparing everything on board during each 100-minute cruise.

“Not many people thought we could succeed in having a 100 percent electric boat,” says Ducasse, who brought his passion for the environment and preserving our natural resources to the project. “Even the architect of the boat thought it was a joke at first. But by the end of the meeting, he was convinced I was serious.”