After making the trek trough Paris, I am reflecting on the less cultural and more nautical aspects of the journey. The Seine is a heavily used industrial waterway, supplying the huge metropolis of Paris with a great deal of the heavy bulk things that are needed for construction and waste elimination. That means that the ship traffic mainly brings sand, stone, gravel and the like to Paris, and takes away recycling (mostly metals) and organic sludge from water treatment plants, but also construction waste, and such. The Oise is much less commercial, but is part of the connection between Paris and the north, including Belgium, so there is still significant commercial traffic.
unloading aggregates from the barge into one of the tens of concrete making units along the Seine and Oise
barges of aggregates awaiting unloading
using snow-making machines (not to make snow- it was +32C) to control dust and smell, I guess, as the machines load waste into the barge at a transfer station
a debris trap that skims floating debris from the water. They are common along the Seine, and make the appearance of floating garbage almost extinct. Awesome!
