Paris Journal 2001 - Page 13

Yesterday we walked practically the entire length of the Canal St. Martin through the 10th and 11th arrondissements of Paris.

We realized that we have spent almost no time in these two arrondissements, and the weather was perfect, so it was time to make amends.  Off to the top of the tenth we went.

At Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad, we looked out at the Basin de la Villette, which is big because it is where several canals merge. (photo at right)

The high rises are in the 19th arrondissement.  They are an unfortunate feature of that area.

At the top of the tenth, we found ourselves at the top of a long, gently sloping hill.   This canal goes down to the Seine, so there are several locks that boats must pass through in order to get from one end to the other.  We realized right away that this must be a part of a network of canals connecting rivers in northern Europe, because the first two boats we saw were the Adagio, from Brussels, which was headed in the same direction we were going (toward the Seine), and another boat, shown here, which was going home to Antwerp (the opposite direction).

The Michelin guide says this is the Rotonde de la Villette (circa 1784-87), one of a ring of tollhouses that now serves as a storehouse for archeological finds.

Other reading tells me that this was also the place where, on March 1, 1814, France capitulated to the Russians and Prussians who entered the city of Paris the next day.

You can just make out an elevated Métro line behind the Rotonde.  Vibrations from the train cracked the building, necessitating restoration work before it could be used for the archeological treasures of the Museum of Paris.

And currently, this area is one of the hottest nighttime drug trafficking sites in the city.  Even in the daytime, we saw a number of people hanging around who looked like they were looking for customers, but not finding them, among the throngs of tourists and Parisians out for their Sunday strolls.

Looks like Monsieur of the Adagio has had a bit too much sun today.

We were delighted to find that on Sundays, or at least on some Sundays such as this, the roads alongside the canal are reserved for pedestrians and bicyclists.  So, in addition to the little parks scattered along the canal, we had a street without cars at our disposal.

The area along the canal, especially on such a beautiful Sunday, was a comfortable place to be.  But being in the 10th and 11th and noticing certain things that were similar to (but not as bad as) the 19th and 20th arrondissements made me realize a fundamental truth about Paris.  Especially when I later thought about things in the 12th and 13th arrondissements (left bank) that I also did not like as much as the rest of Paris, I suddenly noticed that I was including all of the easternmost parts of the city, from northeast to southeast, in my less favorite places.  Of course there are lovely spots in each of these arrondissements -- like the Parc de Bercy in the 12th.  But the sum total is that the east is dirtier and less comfortable than the west.  What caused this difference?

The east has a history of having been home to some places of misery, like the Bastille, La Villette (back in the days when it was a huge, putrid slaughterhouse), and the Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière where Paris once  incarcerated the least desirable ten percent of its population (40,000 people in a city with 400,000 people at that time).   Huge areas devoted to railroad tracks attracted undesirable industries. 

While industry was also attracted to the 15th, the 15th remained the only arrondissement on the west side to develop in that way, so that now, surrounded by swankiness, the 15th is becoming trendy and nice, too.  That trend was also helped along by the disappearance of the factories of the 15th.  The last big one to go was the Citroën car factory.

We weren't alone in watching the boats go through the locks.  Lots of people were doing the same thing, and not all of them were tourists.  This is just a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon.