One lovely place to take a leisurely stroll is along St. Martin's Canal. This old canal is still used by tourist boats but seems to be less frequently used by the traditional canal boats to haul goods. The canal begins at the River Seine, heads directly north and then disappears underground at Bastille. It remains underground until it emerges several blocks NE of Place de la République, which is where I started. The Place de la République is one of the enormous métro hubs, an area offering cheaper hotels--for a reason--it's just a tad dicey at times. The day was heavily overcast, promising and delivering rain, lots of it.
Most of these photos have the theme of water because I used a telephoto to take photos of buildings and people on the other side of the fairly wide canal. There is also something interesting about murals painted illegally on buildings, and their colors become vivid when the lighting is not too bright.
I took the métro to République, headed for the canal, and just started walking.
I was fascinated by the graffiti in this area. Some of it was quite handsome.
