Bassin de la Villette

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This is the bassin de la Villette, a large, rectangular, completely artificial lake in the northeastern portion of Paris that is part of the canal system that includes the canal Saint-Martin. As with many Paris sights of interest, the lake is well known to the locals, but almost completely unknown to tourists.

Constructed at the start of the nineteenth century, this lake still has the atmosphere of those times, even though most of the warehouses and the water-treatment plant that once surrounded it have been demolished. Somehow whenever I walk along the banks, I get the feeling that I have travelled back in time a bit.

This photo was taken from the southeast corner of the lake, on the small bridge overlooking the first set of locks on the canal Saint-Martin, into which the lake drains. Along the banks of the lake on the right are a few businesses, including some excursion-boat companies that run tours of the lake and canal system. On the opposite bank are some restaurants and a movie cineplex. The northern end of the lake (almost invisible here) is fed from the canal de l’Ourcq, which leads straight up to the park and cultural complex of La Villette, about 900 metres away. There is a cool drawbridge dating from the nineteenth century at that end of the lake.

Photographed on May 28, 2001.