We have had a great day! We took the train to the far north eastern part of the city to an area called Parc de la Villette. We didn't intend to walk all the way home but it was so beautiful that we just kept going, and going and going ……
Parc de la Villette is where the Marne River flowing in from north east France, is diverted into a series of canals to eventually join the Seine at La Bastille.
Oooopps! I just noticed I have 63 photos attached to this post. I'd better do some severe editing or it will all get stuck in cyberspace.
This is the point at which two incoming "canalled" rivers meet to form the Bassin la Villette. These are the historic traffic waterways of France. These are the canals that have carried everything from food to coal to oil to wine to salt from one end of the country to the other, and beyond. It is possible to sail from London, Belgium and Holland via France's canals, directly to the Mediterranean. If you were coming from Belgium, as most apparently do, you would enter and exit Paris via this canal.
So off we go, just like these tourists on the boat. They are paying 18 euros each ($25.70 AUD). We are walking.
These guys aren't paying anything either. They are council workers from the Marie de Paris (local government) clearing debris from the water.
It is beautifully paved on either side of the canal, all the way to the Siene. The infrastructure and maintenance costs in Paris must be incredible.
Obviously, no boat or barge could get under this bridge, so all traffic (cars, trucks, motorcycles, push bikes and pedestrians) wait patiently while the bridge is raised.
Hydraulically these days!
And under they go.
The big "bassins" like this one, were for barges to queue to wait for the locks. They still do. The lock is in the centre, to the left of the collonard (which is a restaurant).
So .... here comes our tourist boat into the lock. It is a double lock. The first of four double locks. This in now Canal Saint Martin and we are in the middle of Paris.
Here is the double lock. It took the boat more than 10 minutes to get through here. No wonder barging is such slow business.
The boat comes into the lock.
Through the first lock - now in the second.
Leaving the second lock.
This is my first Lock Keepers Cottage. I've started a file. By the time our holiday is over I expect to have photos of many, many cottages. We might have a competition to pick the prettiest. I don't think this one is a contender!
The locks are pretty substantial.
Double lock No. 2.
The first section.
And the second section.
It looks too small for those big boats, doesn't it? It is a swing bridge.
This one won't win the competition either. This is the gent at double lock No.3, anticipating business.
And then the canal disappears .... UNDERGROUND. And this is what is on top!
Stay tuned. Part 2 follows.
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