Magical Mystery Cruise - Stalingrad to Bobigny
Jul 30, 2012 18:51:45 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2012 18:51:45 GMT
For the past two years, the suburban département of Seine-Saint Denis has been organising emminently cheap cruises along the canal de l'Ourcq during the Paris Plages festivities of mid-July to mid-August. For a grand total of 1€, you can cruise from the Bassin de la Villette in Paris to Bobigny, the préfecture of the department.
You need to know a few things about Seine-Saint Denis and Bobigny to understand why the concept is practically revolutionary. Seine-Saint Denis is perhaps the most unloved département of France, with the highest unemployment, the highest percentage of immigrants, one of the highest crime levels... What more can you ask for? While it does have two prime tourist attractions -- the Basilica of Saint Denis, where almost all of the kings of France are entombed, and the Stade de France, the national stadium, it is basically considered to be a total shithole by everybody in France, including its extremely close neighbours like Paris. Nobody ever goes there voluntarily and particularly not to Bobigny, which has its own claim to fame with the Tribunal de Bobigny, one of the most infamous courts in the country. While being overloaded with drug and assault cases (murders still being relatively rare compared to many countries), it is even more famous for its devastating deportation cases. Charles de Gaulle airport is under the jurisdiction of the Bobigny court, so each and every month there are heartbreaking cases of family separations, small children being held in detention, and refugees being sent back to an awful fate. (We are hoping that our new government will be more humanitarian at least for the next 5 years.)
So why take a lovely little boat trip to horrible Bobigny? Because you can! I paid my euro and got on the boat. It all starts out very nicely. After all, we were still in Paris.
We started up the Bassin de la Villette and admired Paris Plages.
Here is the Holiday Inn Express and the Saint Christopher's hostel.
The pont de Crimée rose to let us through. You've seen this wonderful bridge on other threads.
There is only one bridge like this in Paris and probably not a whole hell of a lot elsewhere.
I watched the fishermen and admired the graffitti walls.
At the Parc de la Villette is the huge intersection of the canal de l'Ourcq and the canal Saint Denis. Our excellent tour guide (short haired communist lady -- everybody is a communist in Seine-Saint Denis -- no, that's not true, but it is one of the last communist strongholds in France, being extremely poor and industrial) mentioned that during a lot of the 19th century, the bassin de la Villette was the 3rd largest port of France, after Le Havre and Marseille.
Then we cruised through the Parc de la Villette.
I had never seen this floating pontoon bridge before. It swung aside to let us through.
I must find out more about this exhibition.
The Géode is such a whore that it demands that you take multiple pictures of it.
It is the Imax theatre of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie.
People dipped their toes in the questionable water or biked along the canal.
Near the end of the park is the Cabaret Sauvage, a major music venue.
And then our boat exited Paris and headed into the wilds. Would pirates attack us? Would the locals stone us? Would we arrive without severe injury? Who knows?
You need to know a few things about Seine-Saint Denis and Bobigny to understand why the concept is practically revolutionary. Seine-Saint Denis is perhaps the most unloved département of France, with the highest unemployment, the highest percentage of immigrants, one of the highest crime levels... What more can you ask for? While it does have two prime tourist attractions -- the Basilica of Saint Denis, where almost all of the kings of France are entombed, and the Stade de France, the national stadium, it is basically considered to be a total shithole by everybody in France, including its extremely close neighbours like Paris. Nobody ever goes there voluntarily and particularly not to Bobigny, which has its own claim to fame with the Tribunal de Bobigny, one of the most infamous courts in the country. While being overloaded with drug and assault cases (murders still being relatively rare compared to many countries), it is even more famous for its devastating deportation cases. Charles de Gaulle airport is under the jurisdiction of the Bobigny court, so each and every month there are heartbreaking cases of family separations, small children being held in detention, and refugees being sent back to an awful fate. (We are hoping that our new government will be more humanitarian at least for the next 5 years.)
So why take a lovely little boat trip to horrible Bobigny? Because you can! I paid my euro and got on the boat. It all starts out very nicely. After all, we were still in Paris.
We started up the Bassin de la Villette and admired Paris Plages.
Here is the Holiday Inn Express and the Saint Christopher's hostel.
The pont de Crimée rose to let us through. You've seen this wonderful bridge on other threads.
There is only one bridge like this in Paris and probably not a whole hell of a lot elsewhere.
I watched the fishermen and admired the graffitti walls.
Then we cruised through the Parc de la Villette.
I had never seen this floating pontoon bridge before. It swung aside to let us through.
I must find out more about this exhibition.
The Géode is such a whore that it demands that you take multiple pictures of it.
It is the Imax theatre of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie.
People dipped their toes in the questionable water or biked along the canal.
Near the end of the park is the Cabaret Sauvage, a major music venue.
And then our boat exited Paris and headed into the wilds. Would pirates attack us? Would the locals stone us? Would we arrive without severe injury? Who knows?
