Canal St. Martin

Saturday afternoon I went with Tien-Chien to the Canal St. Martin. We started off with lunch at Gaudeamus, where Tien had this really good dish with black lemons, and then we walked over to the metro.

We got off at the Republic Metro Station, and I probably passed the canal the night I went out walking with Khalil, but since it was like 2am and it looked like the perfect place to get mugged, it's not like I stopped to admire the view.

But in daylight, the area is adorable. Canal St. Martin is a long waterway in the middle of the avenue with a bunch of little bridges to get from one end to the other. The canal takes you to the

port, and from there you can access the Seine. Movie trivia: it's also the place where Amelie liberated the sad-looking goldfish.

The canal also has a series of locks, so that when boats go by, they have to wait for each one to be either emptied or filled to keep moving. So we did pass a few tourist boats that were just lingering there waiting.

The area is a little, ummm...bohemian, but on the whole very charming. There were people sitting on the banks reading or having picnics, and others just hanging out on the bridges. And a bunch of little ducks just swimmimg around.