Canal Saint-Martin

The Canal Saint-Martin cuts a deep, stone-lined trench through the city, spanned by delicate iron footbridges that arch high above the dark water. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its construction in the early nineteenth century to bring fresh drinking water to a thirsty, cholera-ridden Paris. During the winter of eighteen thirty, the city froze solid, and the canal workers discovered a corpse trapped in the ice, a gruesome find that local newspapers turned into a sensation, cementing the waterway’s reputation as a place of mystery.