Lock on the Canal St. Martin

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Most visitors to Paris don’t realize that there are canals in the city. In fact, there are several canals in Paris, and this photograph shows a barge passing through a lock on one of them, the Canal Saint Martin. This canal passes through the northeastern portion of the city, running from La Villette all the way down to the Seine River. Part of it even runs underground. The connection with the Seine is through the Bassin de l'Arsenal, a tiny harbor-like lake filled with pleasure boats very near the Opéra Bastille.

A lot of freight passes through this canal, and the locks are busy every weekday. My engineer’s personality causes me to be fascinated by the operation of locks—and as you can see from the people watching from behind the railing on the left, I’m not alone in this respect. This being so, I always stop to watch boats come and go while walking through this area. There are various types of moving bridges to watch, too. There are several sets of locks (nine altogether), allowing for a change in level of 25 metres between the level of the Saint Denis and Ourcq canals and the Seine.

It is possible to tour this canal on an excursion boat. I have a photo of one such boat in a lock, if you’re interested.

This picture was taken in the midafternoon of a cool and slightly overcast Thursday in July, in the square Eugène Varlin, which surrounds this set of locks. You are looking north-northeast (upstream) in the photograph.

The barge in the photo is descending downstream. Most barge operators appear to be couples without children. In this case, though, Dad manned the rigging at the bow with Daughter’s diligent help, Mom piloted the boat from the helm, and a little dog kept the family company. This barge was empty of cargo, so I presume it was on the way to pick up a new load. Father and daughter are chatting with one of the lock attendants as they wait for the barge to drop low enough to allow the attendant to open the front gate of the lock.

If you’d like to see what this lock looks dry, I have a picture of that as well.

I also have a video that shows the canal, if you're interested.

Photographed on July 22, 1999.