Quai de l'Horloge, Riverfront at Île de la Cité, Paris, France

The quai de l'Horloge is a riverfront on the north side of Île de la Cité in Paris, running along the Seine between Pont au Change and Pont Neuf. Along the entire length of the quay, the heavy stone walls of the Conciergerie and the Palais de Justice form a continuous facade that rises directly from the embankment.

The embankment was built in stages from the late 16th century onward, as the island was gradually developed and its edges formalized. Over the following centuries the quay walls were reinforced and raised several times to protect the buildings behind them from flooding.

The quay takes its name from the Tour de l'Horloge of the Palais de la Cité, but the clock face is not on the side facing the quay: it looks out over the boulevard du Palais. Along the Conciergerie, old gas street lamps remain, now running on electricity, each fitted with a horizontal metal bar that once supported the lamplighters' ladder during maintenance.

The quay runs along the north edge of Île de la Cité between the Pont au Change and the Pont Neuf, and can be walked from either bridge. The section beside the Conciergerie keeps old gas lamps converted to electricity, fitted with a horizontal metal bar that once held the lamplighters' ladder during maintenance.

Throughout much of the 19th century, opticians and spectacle makers set up shop along this quay in such numbers that it became nicknamed the 'Quai des Lunettes'. Today none of those shops remain, but the nickname still appears in old descriptions of Paris.