Canal de l'Ourcq

The Canal de l'Ourcq is defined by its wide, straight channel of water that cuts through the urban landscape, flanked by former industrial warehouses and factories now repurposed for creative and cultural use. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its construction in eighteen hundred and two, intending to solve Paris's dire water supply issues and establish an economic artery for moving goods like coal and building materials into the capital. Workers finally completed the route in eighteen hundred and twenty-two, and the canal’s arrival physically bisected Pantin, leaving the town’s agricultural lands isolated from its village center.