Canal St-Martin and around
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Canal Saint-Martin

Completed in 1825, the Canal St-Martin was built so that river traffic could shortcut the great western loop of the Seine around Paris. As it happened, it also turned out to be a splendid natural defence for the rebellious quarters of eastern Paris: the canal was spanned by six swing-bridges, which could easily be drawn up to halt the advance of government troops. Napoléon III's solution was simply to cover over the lower stretch in the latter half of the nineteenth century; the canal now runs underground at the Bastille, emerging after a mile and a half near the rue du Faubourg-du-Temple, and continuing up to the place de la Bataille de Stalingrad.

The northern reaches of the exposed canal still have a slightly industrial feel, but the southern part, along the quai de Jemmapes and quai de Valmy (M° Jacques-Bonsergent), has a great deal of charm, with plane trees lining the cobbled quais, and elegant high-arched footbridges punctuating the spaces between the locks, from where you can still watch the odd barge slowly rising or sinking to the next level. The bars, cafés and boutiques lining this stretch and the streets running off it have an alternative, bohemian feel, frequented by media types in black polo-necks. Inevitably, having acquired a certain cachet, the district has attracted property developers, and bland apartment blocks have elbowed in among the traditional, solid, mid-nineteenth-century residences. One of the older buildings, at 102 quai de Jemappes, is the Hôtel du Nord, so named because the barges that once plied the canal came from the north, and made famous by Marcel Carné's film, starring Arletty and Jean Gabin. Its facade has been restored and it now thrives as a bar and bistrot. On the other side of the canal, in the rue de la Grange-aux-Belles, the name of Le Pont-Tournant (The Swing-Bridge) café recalls the canal's more vigorous youth. It's a lively area – on Sundays the quais are closed to traffic and given over to strollers, rollerbladers and cyclists, and in summer people hang out along the canal's edge and on the café terraces. There's a strong sense of community in the area too and local residents are very active in the preservation of their neighbourhood – the square Villemin gardens abutting the canal just above rue des Récollets being one successful instance.

Some of the side streets off this stretch of the canal are worth exploring, such as rue des Vinaigriers, a little south of the gardens, where a Second Empire shopfront bears fluted wooden pilasters crowned with capitals of grapes and a gilded Bacchus. Across the street, the surely geriatric Cercle National des Garibaldiens still has a meeting place, and at no. 35, Poursin has been making brass buckles since 1830.

Just across the canal from here is one of the finest buildings in Paris, the early seventeenth-century Hôpital St-Louis, built in the same style as the place des Vosges. Although it still functions as a hospital, you can walk into its quiet central courtyard and admire the elegant brick and stone facades and steep-pitched roofs that once sheltered Paris's plague victims – the original purpose for which it was built.

South of here, the wide boulevard built over the covered section of the canal, Richard Lenoir, has recently been attractively landscaped all along its centre, with arched footbridges dotted along, reminding you of the water flowing underground. It's worth a wander on Thursday and Saturday mornings in particular, when a traditional food market, known for its choice range of regional produce, sets up on the lower stretch, near the Bastille.