Is the Canal Saint-Martin area safe to stay in?

The Canal Saint-Martin is a waterside area of promenades and hotels, and the sources do not support a verdict on its safety either way. This page sets out what they do say: the 2025 police figures for the 10th arrondissement, the advice of foreign ministries, the context around the Stalingrad end of the canal, and the places where our files are silent. It is not a ranking, and no source we read ranks the area as safe or dangerous.

What the police figures show

The statistics service of the interior ministry publishes recorded offences by arrondissement, divided by the resident population. The canal quarter we use is the part of the 10th around the quays of Valmy and Jemmapes, but the figures cover the whole arrondissement, which includes the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l’Est.

Photo: Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 10th reads above the Paris average for physical violence, violent theft and theft without violence, and below it for burglary. Two cautions apply. The rate is per 1,000 residents and does not count visitors, so an area that receives many visitors, workers and station users reads higher: the 4th reads 93.0 for theft without violence, a little above the 10th. And the table says nothing about a given street at a given hour. For Paris as a whole, theft without violence fell by 41.5% between 2019 and 2025. Our page on the safest area to stay in Paris gives every arrondissement.

What foreign ministries say

The British Foreign Office reports that thieves and pickpockets work in the metro, on the RER lines and in the major stations, and that several serious assaults have taken place on RER B, which serves Charles de Gaulle, Orly and the Gare du Nord, the Eurostar terminal. It does not name the district around the station as an area to avoid, and neither does any official page we could read; the police prefecture pages we tried were not readable. Japan and South Korea point to the metro, the RER and the busiest sights, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre; the canal is not among the places we saw named.

Photo: Myrabella, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The northern end: Stalingrad

At the north end of the canal, place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad, in the 19th arrondissement, has been described since the 1990s as a place of crack trafficking and use, according to Wikipedia. The scenes later moved to the porte de la Chapelle, the jardins d’Éole and Forceval, which was cleared on 5 October 2022. Wikipedia is our only source for this account, and none of our nine hotels is there.

Photo: Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Swimming and the quays

We publish nothing on swimming in the canal, because we found no official source on it. The quays are closed to cars on Sundays and public holidays, from 10 am to 8 pm between April and September and from 10 am to 6 pm between October and March, according to Wikipedia. The same source says the canal is open 363 days a year and is used mainly for tourist cruises.

Where to sleep, by what worries you

The nine hotels in our file lie between the canal and the two big stations. Distance to the quays differs: Citizen is on the water, Àmoi and Little Hôtel are a minute from Jacques Bonsergent, and Les Deux Gares and Bloom House stand nearer the stations than the canal.

If the station area worries you, choose the southern end: Jacques Bonsergent (line 5) and République (lines 3, 5, 9 and 11; line 8 does not stop there from 22 July 2026 to April 2027, because of works) are a short walk from the quays and reach the centre without the RER. If you arrive by RER B, you will pass the Gare du Nord, one of the big stations where the British Foreign Office reports pickpockets, sometimes working in groups with one person distracting and another stealing. For a longer comparison, see the Canal Saint-Martin hotels, the hotels near the Gare du Nord and the 10th arrondissement list.

How it works as a base

Our sheet rates the area recommended for couples and budgets, possible for a first visit, families and nightlife. Of 112 classified hotels in the 10th, 54 have three stars and 19 two. The Louvre is 25.5 minutes away by median transit time and Notre-Dame 25, the Eiffel Tower 41. RER B runs direct from the Gare du Nord to Charles de Gaulle; for Orly, a change is needed. A flat-rate taxi from the right bank costs €56 from Charles de Gaulle and €45 from Orly. The other places that sources name are in our page on areas to avoid in Paris.