A leeky boat

We decided a perfect way to appreciate little Venice was to see it from the river. For €8 you can book online boat trips, in precarious looking, low, wooden, flat bottomed boats.

When we arrived for our scheduled trip, the queue, at the bottom of the Saint-Pierre Bridge, looked a bit haphazard, but we soon realised it’s all very carefully administered. After a very short wait, Brian’s name was called, as our boat arrived at the quay, and we were directed to our seats.

The trip first took us along the lush, tree-lined river, past some of the fantastic art nouveau houses that were built in the 1920’s by wealthy merchants and businessmen.

Along the way, our boatman explained the importance of the river to the market gardeners and boatmen of years gone by. The river Lauch, which translates to leek, carries a tale that it was named that way due to the frequent flooding of the area, and uprooted leeks being seen floating down the river. I’m really not sure how true that is, or whether it’s one of many tales possibly made up by the, rather amusing, boatmen to share with the tourists. What we can be sure of though is that vegetables were transported by the flat-bottomed boats, along the waterway, to the markets.

We turned around at one point, and slowly, and quietly, motored back to the little Venice district, where there is still a market today, in the area known as Quai de la Poissonnerie. It’s a beautiful area, where wealthy fish merchants built their houses to be close to the market place.

The trip takes around 30 minutes, and is well worth the €8 ticket price, but beware of the low bridges!