Canal St. Martin

We started today's walk at the Place de la République.  It's an enormous square where 11 roads (by my count) converge.  At the center is a bronze monument to the third French republic designed by Léopold and Charles Morice.

Fans of the film Amélie will recognize the Canal Saint Martin from the stone-skipping scenes.

(Not having a professional cinematographer at my disposal, my shots are not nearly so saturated with color.)

The Canal Saint Martin is part of an alternative waterway to the Seine envisioned by Napoleon in the early 1800's.  The canal network would bring much-needed clean freshwater into the city, and also allow industrial boat traffic to bypass a long loop of the Seine river.

Here is a map (borrowed from the Canauxrama website) giving an overview of where the Canal Saint Martin fits into the waterway plan.  If we were to follow it north, we would pass through the Bassin de la Villette (where the Paris Plages event is going on) and into the Canal de l'Ourcq which goes through the Parc de la Villette (where we were the other day).  If we were to follow it in the opposite direction, towards the Seine, we would actually go underground until we reached the Port de l'Arsenal which leads out into the Seine.

The neighborhood around the canal was quiet today (most of Paris is still on vacation), but there were still quite a few people sitting on the benches or beside the canal enjoying their lunch.  We had thought ahead to bring some sandwiches, so we joined them.

 

Ever since we took our sailboat Solstice through the locks at the Dismal Swamp Canal, I've been fascinated by canals and lock systems.  The Canal Saint Martin has (I think) four of them.

After the last lock, the canal disappears underground until it reaches the Port de l'Arsenal.  Hopefully before we leave we will take one of the boat cruises and check out what's in the tunnel.

A few other things we saw on the walk today include some street art (literally -- the rose was spray painted on the sidewalk)...

...and a lovely courtyard at the Hôpital Saint Louis.