Canal Cruise: Locking into a Paris Secret

 Where are we when you … 

• See the city through an integration of hidden history and iconic monuments.  

Is this a Disney thrill ride? A John Wick film? The beginning of a mission of the impossible kind? 

Although any of these answers might be true, you are actually on the Paris Canal Cruise, connecting the Musée d’Orsay with the Parc de la Villette/Canal de l’Ourcq, via the Canal Saint-Martin. What is hard to believe, however, is that this particular cruise is still a bit of a secret.  

The Paris Waterways

With a timeless river like the Seine interwoven into Paris life for centuries, boats and bridges have become an integral part of the landscape. 

You can stroll along the quais or enjoy one of the many boat options, from the bargain Batobus to luxury boats serving lunch or candlelit dinners. You will always benefit from a unique water-level perspective.

The Paris Canal Cruise, however, is unique. The journey shows you the iconic Seine-side monuments, but also travels through the 2.5–mile Canal Saint-Martin, with its nine locks built under Napoleon Bonaparte’s rule. Add to that a few mysterious kilometers in the tunnel waterway beneath the Bastille area and Boulevard Richard–Lenoir, and you have one of the most interesting and relaxing cruises in Paris. 

The Paris Canal Cruise

There are several companies offering canal cruises, but the one featured in this article departs from either the Musée d’Orsay or the Parc de la Villette. 

In either direction, you will cruise along the Seine, passing the most famous icons at an engine-churning clip. There is the Louvre, where the guide points out the window that allowed the jewel heist of 2025; then the Île de la Cité with its sweeping, weeping willows of the Square du Vert-Galant, the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris), the Conciergerie (perhaps most famous as the prison where Marie Antoinette spent her final 10 weeks before execution), and Notre-Dame de Paris at the eastern tip of the island (still surrounded by cranes and scaffolding). Finally comes the quieter elegance of the Île Saint-Louis.

The Seine connects with the Canal Saint-Martin through the Port de l’Arsenal, where you might dream of living on a Paris boat while staring up at the Colonne de Juillet, a monument to liberty.

The Canal Saint Martin

The main section of the cruise is the Canal Saint-Martin, built in the early 1800s and opened in 1825. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the canal’s construction to bring fresh drinking water from the Ourcq River into the city. Water was also needed for sanitation, street cleaning, and firefighting. The canal soon became an important commercial artery, carrying food, building materials, and other goods into a growing city. 

A dramatic change occurred in 1860 when Napoleon III and Haussmann began to reshape Paris. Part of the canal was lowered and covered with a vaulted structure, allowing the creation of the broad boulevard above — today’s Boulevard Richard–Lenoir. 

Now, you officially enter (or prepare to leave) the canal near Bastille. You go under the streets of Paris for almost two kilometers, through a dimly lit vaulted underground passage, made even more mysterious and theatrical as the darkness is interrupted by sudden pools of light.  

The main section of the canal is the open-air portion, which slows life down a bit, as each of the nine locks (several arranged in pairs) takes time to empty or fill with water— an engineering feat that makes one admire the 19th–century engineers who designed and constructed them.

On a nice day, it is lovely to spend time on the canal, with the chestnut trees leaning protectively over the water and the elegant iron footbridges creating graceful arcs, as well as serving as pedestrian passerelles. 

There is also something quite meditative about seeing the water power its way through the locks in different formations, all of them beautiful.

The good news … if you haven’t quite gotten the engineering gist after the first lock, there are eight more to go. 

The other good news is the guide (in our case, the excellent Luc who had a passion for French history and did not look at a note through the whole 2.5-hour journey). He had stories to tell about each of the locks, whose names have connections to Paris places and history.  

For example, while in the Écluse des Morts (Lock of the Dead), he shared a few stories related to death — including the punishment for regicide (dismemberment by four horses pulling in different directions), as well as the introduction of the guillotine, which was first used in France in 1792 to provide a cleaner and more egalitarian method of execution. Before that, French execution methods varied by class. We were all glad to move on to “happier” locks. 

Throughout the tour, Luc also mentioned the many films that have had scenes or themes related to the Canal Saint-Martin. From the Écluse des Récollets, you will see the famous Hôtel du Nord, immortalized by Marcel Carné’s 1938 film Hôtel du Nord (although the canal and the hotel were recreated in a studio). 

You will also see the lock–crossing bridge where Amélie skipped stones in the 2001 film Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (although Audrey Tautou couldn’t master the art of skipping stones, so that effect was added digitally).  

A Unique Way to Spend a Few Paris Hours

Paris reveals itself differently from the water. But the Paris Canal Cruise adds another dimension as it travels beneath the city, rises and falls through its locks, and introduces neighborhoods that many visitors have not seen from this perspective. For a few hours, familiar Paris gives way to another Paris — timeless, unexpected, and still surprisingly secret.

Special Note: I find the north to south passage (embarking at Parc de la Villette) more interesting for the action of the locks. It’s easier to see from the back of the boat. It should also be noted that not everyone can “meditate” on the artistry of the locks for all nine locks. Come with friends. 

More information on the Paris Canal Cruise.

Several other canal cruises offer excursions, including Canauxrama.