Cruisy day

Aujourd'hui il fait beau! Perfect for our canal cruise. Walked to Bastille to take the morning Canauxrama cruise along Canal Saint Martin and Canal de l'Ourcq. We had chairs on the front deck at a small, round table where we could have our morning cafe and listen to our guide, who was tres amusant.


The cruise begins with a 2km trip through an underground vault which runs under the Colonne de Juillet and the Boulevard Richard Lenoir - the voute du temple at de la Bastille. Then follows a series of locks and swing gates where we had to wait for the water to flow in through a gate so that our boat was raised and could proceed at the same water level as the next part of the canal. C'etait tres interessant.



Canal Saint Martin is lined with trees, apartment blocks, cafes and shops; Canal de l'Ourcq splits the Parc de la Villette in two, so is surrounded by landscaped gardens and parc structures. We stayed on the boat while it looped back to the Bassin de la Villette. There is a waterside cinema complex on both sides of the Bassin and we had lunch in the cafe there. This area is part of the 19e and is at the edge of the Paris district.










From the Bassin we walked to Parc des Buttes- Chaumont, which is a man-made parc surrounded by high-rise apartment blocks. The gardens were full of Parisiens enjoying the sun, many stretched out in swimwear - and I'm sure some underwear. One young girl in a bikini, stretched out and seemingly asleep, still kept hold of her jack russell's lead; a young man in nothing but tiny briefs (and a most enjoyable sight it was!) lay on the grass next to his motorcycle helmet - his clothes were probably close by, I just didn't notice them! There was also a fetching group of 60-somethings stripped down to their bare necessities. The parc benches were full of canoodling couples who every so often would separate on the pretext of looking at their text books; sleeping gents (not of the homeless kind); and people like us, just watching the world go by. Very cruisy day.