Canal Saint-Martin - not too well-known to tourists, but extremely picturesque waterway Paris. The peculiarity of it is that, going on a boat trip from the northeast of Paris, sudёnyshko magically comes up with travelers in the heart of the city on the Seine, half a kilometer from the Ile Saint-Louis.

The channel is part of a water supply system, construction of which began Napoleon. The fact that at the beginning of the XIX century Paris experienced a terrible shortage of water. In the hot summer Sung sometimes dry up, and then the townspeople had tight. Bonaparte decided to implement the idea of ​​Leonardo da Vinci More about the construction of a canal linking the influx of affluent Marne River Urk, the Seine.

Design and supervision of the works were entrusted to the engineer Pierre Simon Girard, who had accompanied the emperor in the Egyptian campaign. Completion had been at the time of the Emperor Charles X, to finance the construction had to be introduced in Paris a special wine tax. As a result, zucchini Montmartre and Montparnasse, which are then located outside the city, have gained a competitive advantage - the beginning of the rapid development of these areas.

Channel not only supplied the capital with water, but it has become a new shipping route. Saint-Martin - a final four and a half kilometer channel Urk, stretching almost a hundred kilometers. However, it is in line with the short-Saint-Martin, between the Seine and the Place de la Bastille, Arsenal is the port, which can accommodate up to 180 boats.

Once in the XX century, Saint-Martin has lost its economic importance, it would all fall asleep and make highways, but the public was outraged, the channel survived.

Today, Saint-Martin go only pleasure boats. The journey from the outskirts to the center of the area of ​​Stalingrad starts from the rotunda de la Villette, which was once an outpost at the entrance to Paris. Beach quickly converge to almost the width of the ship. Over Water Humpback hanging footbridges. The area here is not tourism, almost rustic atmosphere around: small bars, grassy slopes of embankments, quiet and sleepy.

Waterway nine times interrupted the old gateways. At Boulevard Jules Ferry channel dives into the tunnel. Two kilometers down the echoing tunnel - and a pleasure boat emerges into the sunlight of the Place de la Bastille. And here is the Seine!