This post is dedicated to a walking (or cycling) journey along Canal de l’Ourcq, one of the city’s most open, colorful, and liberating urban arteries.
Stretching from northeast Paris toward the suburbs of Pantin and Aubervilliers, the canal follows a wide promenade that invites you to walk, ride, and photograph every few steps.

On both sides of the water, endless walls are covered with graffiti, paste-ups, spray techniques, and abstract compositions. Some are new, others already washed by rain or painted over by new layers. It feels like an ongoing visual dialogue among artists who know each other’s work, constantly exchanging shapes, colors, and messages, without curators, without permission, without rules.

Living Art, Changing Every Day
What makes this stretch of the canal so unique is its ephemeral nature.
No work lasts here for long. Local and international artists come every week to paint, erase, add, and transform. Each wall becomes a multilayered diary, a living record of artistic reactions, political moments, and cultural conversations.

Over the past decade, Pantin has turned into a hub for contemporary street art. What used to be a sleepy industrial zone is now a creative area full of galleries, studios, and community spaces.

What makes Canal de l’Ourcq so special is its freedom. There’s almost no municipal oversight, no boundaries or fines, quite the opposite, a quiet encouragement.
Both the city and the local community understand that these walls are not a problem; they’re a cultural breath.

This is a space where artists can experiment, touch, make mistakes, and create again. Standing before a four-meter-high wall covered in bright, vibrant paint, you can’t help but feel that energy, a total freedom of expression, raw urban aesthetics, and a deep love for the city itself.

Canal de l’Ourcq – Just Color, Water, and Open Space
Here, art lives and dies under the sky.
Only color, water, and open air, where anyone can leave their mark until the next rain.