A Year in Paris: A Boat Trip on the Canal

April 20th, 2018

We continue to have fun with Kate's visitors this week. Kate took them to the standard sights---Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Louvre---while Glenn and I worked. And then yesterday, I took the afternoon off to accompany them on a cruise down the Canal Saint-Martin and along a bit of the Seine. It was quite an interesting and non-standard tourist boat trip. For one, there was a significant altitude difference between our starting point and the Seine (something like 27 meters), so we needed to navigate through a series of locks. It was fun watching the locks work (but it did slow down the trip). The canal also went underground for a significant stretch, which was awesome. There were oculi along the tunnel, and the light that reflected from them onto the water and then from the water onto the walls of the tunnel was really cool. When the boat plied the water, disturbing the reflections, the resulting shapes were beautiful. My first attempt of adding video to this blog appears below and is a short clip of these shapes. (Not at all sure it's going to work.)

We learned a fair amount of history as well. We saw a building that was originally built as a tollhouse for anyone wanting to enter Paris (and learned that there were three others as well). We learned about the canal network around Paris and how the bridges and locks worked. We went through an area that used to be the site of gallows where 60 people could be hanged simultaneously (!). (I suppose the desire to carry out so many executions might have fueled the invention of the guillotine.) We saw a bar famous for its street art and the only remaining crystal maker in Paris. We also saw a building said to have inspired the architect of the White House.