When people think of water in Paris they think of the River Seine. But, there is a 120 km network of canals, conceived by Napoleon, actually in Paris. The prime purpose of Napoleon’s Ourcq canal system was to provide Paris with drinking water, and a less hazardous means of moving wood, stone, sugar beet and flour into the capital. The Port de Plaisance end of the canal St Martin was enclosed in 1835 for military purposes, to provide the army with free movement in or out of the city, where, five years earlier, uprisings, barricades and revolution was rife. That area is now where the marina is situated.
The canal was abandoned as a source of supply for drinking water in 1832, after an outbreak of cholera, but to this day the Ourcq provides water for the public gardens and for cleaning the streets of Paris. We decided that we would take a guided tour of the canals, from the marina, on one of the tour boats based here. We could have gone by our own boat but the low roof level, in the 2 km tunnel, would have meant that we would need to lower the radar arch. Also the four double locks, that we needed to go through, would raise the boat by 25 m above the level of the Seine. That is more than we were raised, by all of the locks, during our entire journey up the Seine to Paris. We therefore decided to let somebody else take the strain.
The canal was abandoned as a source of supply for drinking water in 1832, after an outbreak of cholera, but to this day the Ourcq provides water for the public gardens and for cleaning the streets of Paris. We decided that we would take a guided tour of the canals, from the marina, on one of the tour boats based here. We could have gone by our own boat but the low roof level, in the 2 km tunnel, would have meant that we would need to lower the radar arch. Also the four double locks, that we needed to go through, would raise the boat by 25 m above the level of the Seine. That is more than we were raised, by all of the locks, during our entire journey up the Seine to Paris. We therefore decided to let somebody else take the strain.