Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad and Bassin de la Villette
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Rotonde de La Villette

The Canal St-Martin goes underground again at the place de la Bataille de Stalingrad, dominated by the Neoclassical Rotonde de la Villette, with portico and pediments surmounted by a rotunda. This was one of the toll houses designed by the architect Ledoux as part of Louis XVI's scheme to tax all goods entering the city. At that time, every road out of the city had a customs post, or barrière, linked by a six-metre-high wall, known as "Le Mur des Fermiers-Généraux" – a major irritant in the run-up to the French Revolution. Backing the toll house is an elegant aerial stretch of métro, supported by Neoclassical iron and stone pillars.

Beyond here the canal widens out into the Bassin de la Villette, built in 1808. The recobbled docks area today bears few traces of its days as France's premier port, its dockside buildings now offering canal boat trips, and boasting a multiplex cinema, MK2, with a popular waterfront brasserie, Le Rendez-Vous des Quais. On Sundays and holidays people stroll along the quais, play boules, fish or take a rowing boat out in the dock, but despite the clean-up, the area retains a slightly industrial and seedy feel.