Canal Saint-Martin

Waterfront · Quai de Jemmapes / Récollets (10th)Paris,France

An open tree-lined canal through eastern Paris, nine locks stepping it down to the Seine under high iron footbridges built for barges.

Canal Saint-Martin is an open, tree-lined stretch of water through the tenth arrondissement, and the eastern districts treat it as their outdoor meeting place. High iron footbridges arch over it, built that high so barges could pass underneath. Nine locks step the canal down twenty-five metres from the basin at its top end to the Seine. Watching one fill shows how it works: the gates close, the water rises, and a boat that was below you comes up level with the path. On Sundays the quays are closed to cars. People sit along the stone edge with their feet over the water, and from early evening the bars behind them send their customers out onto the bank. The canal was dug to bring Paris clean drinking water, on a decree Napoleon signed in 1802 and paid for with a tax on wine. The water comes from the Ourcq, a hundred kilometres north-east, and the canal opened in 1825. Barges carried grain, coal and stone along it for a century and a half.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Do not swim here — Boats work their way through these locks, and the stone edge has no ladder to climb out by. People sit on the edge with their feet over the water, but nobody goes in.
The daylight stretch is the northern half — Further south the canal runs under the street, so a walk that starts at Bastille begins with nothing to see.
The quay fills up in the evening — In warm weather people bring bottles and food down to the stone edge from early evening, and the bank near the locks fills first.
Winter opens up the view — With the plane trees bare you can see the whole run of the canal, the locks and the footbridges from one spot, and in summer the leaves hide all of it.

Things to do

1
Watch a boat go all the way through a lock
Choose one of the locks and stay until a boat has passed all the way through. The gates close behind the boat, valves open under the water, and the water pouring in lifts the boat a couple of metres while its crew hold the ropes. The whole thing takes about ten minutes. Stand on the footbridge over the lock, where you can look down into the chamber.
2
Cross on one of the high iron footbridges
Several arched iron footbridges cross the canal, and they are built high enough for a barge's cabin to pass underneath. Climb one instead of using the road bridge alongside it. From the top you look straight down the canal in both directions, with a line of plane trees along each bank.
3
Follow the canal to the point where it goes underground
Walk south along the quay until the canal runs into a low arch and vanishes under the street. From that point the boulevard carries straight on above the water. Look for the round metal grilles set into the middle of the roadway: they are air shafts, and the canal runs directly beneath them.