Mastering water to distribute it better: the ecological concept is topical. Yet it was he who, from the 19th century, presided over the construction of the canals of Paris – a vast network of 130 kilometers, the longest canal of which has its source in Mareuil-sur-Ourcq (Oise), 96 kilometers away. northeast of the capital, by river. And which, since then, has continued to evolve to continue to fulfill its environmental and economic missions.
However, “Parisians do not know what [the network] is for or where it comes from,” says Etienne Mazeaud, of the Paris canals department. They are not the only ones. Tourists or not, the vast majority of those who rub shoulders with the banks of the canals or sail on their waters will be able to fill in their gaps over the course of this ingenious documentary, both historical and technical, and a true ode to French engineering. That’s good: the country lacks engineers.
According to legend, the story begins with the walk of two men in the unhealthy Paris of that time, Doctor Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal (1756-1832) and Napoleon Bonaparte, who, as First Consul (1799-1804 ), wishes to please Parisians. ” But how ? “, he asks. “By giving them water,” the scientist replies, as the population dies of repeated epidemics caused by the ingestion of unsanitary water (mains drainage does not exist).
Either. Digging and developing the Ourcq, to make it navigable and supply the capital with clean water, will be the first project. A titanic work carried out by the sheer force of men, an abundant workforce of prisoners simply equipped with shovels and wheelbarrows. It will be followed by the digging of the vast La Villette basin (inaugurated on December 2, 1808) then, heading north again, the Saint-Denis canal, which connects it in 6.6 kilometers to the Seine, in order to allow the arrival barges and barges from Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) and Rouen.
3D Animations
The Saint-Martin canal will be more complex to design, with its 4.5 kilometers in the middle of homes and traffic, which is moreover on unstable ground. For each difficulty, a solution is found – including to oppose, in the 1960s, its replacement by a motorway. Each innovation, such as the mechanisms of the twenty-six locks then in use, the cogs to turn the largest waterwheel in Europe, or the principle of raising a bridge by the mere flow of a trickle of tap water, is detailed using realistic 3D animations and annotated satellite maps.
There are also reports on emblematic sites – such as the Grange-aux-Belles bridge, in the 10th arrondissement, the only one of the four swing bridges in the network classified as a historic monument –, while the aerial views show industrial landscapes or unsuspected bucolic.
A lot of water has flowed under the canal bridges of Paris since the 19th century. Remarkable bridges, turning or lifting (like the one, still in use, of Crimea, in the 20th). Industrial activity has given way, in part, to leisure. The network has constantly adapted to the increase in population, the drought of 1865, changing needs… From now on, 1,500 yachtsmen per year are welcomed at the port of Arsenal. And for the second year in a row, it is possible, every Sunday until August 20, to swim in the Canal de l’Ourcq. You can not stop progress.