The canals of ...Paris

The Bassin de la Villette, the largest artificial lake in Paris, is a beautiful place for an afternoon stroll or picnic.

It doesn't take a flight to Venice to wander along the canals, past the bridges and locks, and lounge with a coffee or a pastry at the edges of man-made pools of water. From where I live, a metro fare is all it costs to be able to wander along a series of canals. Located in the north-east side of Paris principally in the 10th Arrondissement, the Canal Saint Martin and the Bassin de la Villette just north in the 19th, are a very hip, trendy, and (as rent drops further north) bohemian area.

The Canal Saint Martin is a trendy place lined with young, alternative restaurants, bars, and shops.

When first constructed in the early 1800's, their design was to bring fresh water to Parisians and alleviate the water traffic on the Seine. Under Haussmann, the man responsible for razing much of Paris to eliminate winding medieval streets for the construction of wide Parisian boulevards like the Champs-Elysées, part of the canal was covered in the mid-1800's. Through much of its history, the canals were very much a part of poor, working class Paris. Only during the past few decades have the canals been "rediscovered" and transformed in the romantic, Venetian setting that brings tourists and young wealthy in search of a canal view from their apartment window.

A stroll across the picturesque high-arched bridges and past the canal locks hardly evokes the area's working class history.

The Canal Saint Martin has the most name recognition of the system of canals and artificial lakes which also include the Canal de l'Ourcq, the Canal Saint Denis, the Bassin de l'Arsenal, and the aforementioned Bassin de la Villette. Metro station Jaurès or Stalingrad is a perfect starting point to swing past the Romanesque circular building and the fountains that abut on the Bassin de la Villette for a picnic along the lake before heading toward the city center along the Canal Saint Martin. Not a bad way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

The Canal Saint Martin: the perfect place to while away a Sunday afternoon.