Underground Canals in Paris Make for Historic Boat Trip w/ Canauxrama

You’re going to Paris!  Do yourself the favor of doing the underground canal boat tour with the Canauxrama outfit on the St. Martin Canal.  Of course you can take a trip down the River Seine, but who wants to be crammed into a water tour bus?  Not you, that’s for sure!  You’re looking for a historic canal tour.

This is the sort of boat tour most locals have never heard of; let alone tourists.  It’s one of the better kept secrets in Paris.  It takes you under Paris at the end.  You read correctly.  For the last 20-30 minutes you’ll be underground in historic tunnels.  Some of the sections of the tunnel date back to the reign of Napoleon III.  See the photo above.

Though the trip departs from two different places, I suggest beginning at the northern edge of the 10th arrondissement at the Parc de Villette at the Arsenal Marina.  By staring at the Parc de Villete, you we be taken down to the Place de la Bastille (that’s right about where the Seine and the St. Martin canal connect at the base of the giant gold Bastille statue in the roundabout in the heart of the Bastille area).

The trip sits between the Ourcq Canal and the Seine and is approximately 3 miles/5 km long.  Keep in mind that these this one-way tour lasts about 2.5 hours and is quite relaxing.

Here’s how you get there:

• take the Metro lines 2, 5 or 7  to Jaures station
• make a u-turn out of the station and walk towards the water to Arsenal Marina

For more details in English and French, go the the Canauxrama canal tour website.

So that you can become fully excited for a trip to Paris, you should listen to this glorious song below called “Champs Elysees” by Joe Dassin (tre cool 70’s guy from France).  If this song doesn’t get you fully excited about jumping on the Canauxrama boat, jamming over to the Bastille area, drinking your way across the 10 arrondissement or hitting the Champs Elysees, then you are probably a flawed human.

Feast your ears on this: