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AliJo
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Globetrotter
Aug 27, 2008
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The Paris Plages (beaches) run from late July to late August every summer and are loved and hated in equal measure; Parisians appreciate them as a place to see and be seen, but many complain that the plage on the Seine, near Hotel de Ville, is far too crowded. Sand is trucked in by the tonne,...
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plage
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dancing
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
After travelling all this time in the narrow confines of a canal, the river Seine seemed huge. Upon entering, we could see Notre Dame in the distance. We passed on the right side of Ile Saint-Louis, and then went past the Ile-de-la-Cité. The boat offered good views of the Orangerie, the Louvre,...
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canal
boat
saintmartin
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
By the 1960s, the canal had fallen into disuse due to competition from rail and truck traffic. The factories and warehouses that had once lined the canal slowly disappeared. In the early seventies, the city of Paris floated the idea of filling in the canal and building an inter-urban autoroute in...
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I looked at the clock. The boat left the Parc de La Villette at 2:30 in the afternoon. I had plenty of time to get up, run a few errands, have lunch, and still catch the boat before it left. I looked at the Paris Canal website. It said that reservations were required, and offered a phone number....
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
We pushed on until we reached the Temple locks, where the canal enters its subterranean domain. The tunnel is lit by windows in the ceiling, which let in spots of daylight at strategic points along the canal. This, along with the vaulted ceiling and the green water gave a strange, eerie...
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
The construction of the canal was ordered by Napoleon in 1802, and was completed in 1825. At the time, the water supply of the city of Paris was unsanitary, with the Seine and Bièvre rivers being extremely polluted. Napoleon saw the canal as a way to bring fresh water to Paris and avoid the...
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napoleon
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I arose on a beautiful, sun-filled May morning in Paris, and I had the urgent desire to float upon water in a boat. I had already done numerous bateaux-mouches on the Seine, so I was hungry for something different. I looked on the Internet under “Boat Trips, Paris” and I found Paris Canal....
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
We travelled along in this fashion, watching the bystanders on the dock taking pictures of the boat, watching sun-bathers working on their tans, and seeing people just out for a stroll on a beautiful day. We passed the Hotel du Nord, which played a prominent part in the film of the same name by...
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
The Canal Saint-Martin stretches from the La Villette basin, by way of the Canal d’Ourcq, all the way to the basin of the Arsenal, which in turn feeds into the Seine. The overall length of the canal is 4.55 kilometers, more than 2 kilometers of which run in a subterranean tunnel underneath the...
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
After a short wait while the remaining passengers boarded, the boat left the dock at La Villette and we were on our way down the canal. The boat drifted down the waterway at a leisurely pace, and I was able to enjoy the Parisian cityscape as we floated by. We entered our first set of locks. The...
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I arrived at the Paris Canal boat about fifteen minutes early, and paid my fare. Currently, the boat only accepts checks and cash: no credit cards or bank cards. The boat leaves from the Parc de La Villette, at a point on the canal just past the Grande Halle, next to the bridge that goes over the...
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canal
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