Canal Saint-Martin: the locks and the iron bridges
The double locks, the arched footbridges, and the canal that gets wider all the way to the Rotonde. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Quai de Valmy
Drop down to the water from Jacques Bonsergent and turn north along the *quai* (canal embankment). The independent shops on this side — homeware, secondhand books, small fashion — are the reason to walk the bank rather than the boulevard.

2. Hôtel du Nord
The 1885 facade made famous by Marcel Carné's 1938 film, even though the film was shot in a studio. Sit on the canal edge opposite if the stone steps are dry; it's the best people-watching on the whole stretch.

3. Écluses des Récollets
The double lock where the *péniches* (canal barges) rise and fall. Wait for one to come through if you have ten minutes — the gates, the rush of water, the slow lift, all unchanged since the 1820s.

4. Passerelle de la Grange-aux-Belles
One of the arched iron footbridges that arc over the canal. Stand at the top for the view down the water to the next lock; this is the shot everyone takes, and rightly.

5. Bassin de la Villette
The canal opens into the widest stretch of water in Paris. Cafés and a cinema line both quays; in summer there's swimming and pedalos. Cross to whichever bank has the sun.

6. Rotonde de la Villette
Ledoux's 1788 customs pavilion at the head of the bassin — one of the few survivors of the wall that once ringed Paris to tax goods coming in. Now a restaurant under the metro arches. Jaurès station is right here.

Canal Saint-Martin: the locks and the iron bridges