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Paris Walks: Canal St. Martin (10th Arrond.)

// August 25th, 2009 // Walks

I decided to take out my “City Walks: Paris” deck today and start diving into it. I randomly chose the walk for Canal St. Martin, which the card described as: “a stroll down the picturesque Canal St. Martin has long gone unnoticed by tourists, but makes for a pleasant outing.”

City Walks: Paris - Canal St. Martin

Canal St. Martin is a 4.5KM long canal in Paris, which connects the Canal de l’Ourcq to the Seine. Designed in the early 19th-century, this waterway’s purpose was to support the growing population of Paris by supplying fresh water and to help avoid disease such as dysentery and cholera. A series of footbridges cross over Canal St. Martin, where one can stop and watch boats rise and fall among the canal’s locks.

A series of cafes also line the canal, but many people choose to sit on the canal’s banks and have a beer or just watch the barges pass by. My favorite part of the walk, by far, was the Hôpital St. Louis, which was originally designed to house plague victims in isolation from the rest of the population. I won’t go into detail because I plan on following up with a separate post about this hidden treasure.

Overall, I found this walk to be very pleasant. The area was not at all crowded and is ideally suited for a leisurely stroll on any given afternoon.

Want to see pictures from my walk? Canal St. Martin