# The Canal de l'Ourcq bathtub race turns 15

> Dear organizers, dear participants, dear onlookers who came to cheer from the banks, I'm writing this letter the day after the 15th

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Open letter
- Published: 2026-07-06
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/la-course-de-baignoires-du-canal-de-l-ourcq-fete-ses-15-ans

## Key takeaways

- The race is organized by the APJC association and held on a 150-meter course on the Canal de l'Ourcq near the Quai de Copenhague.
- Participants must wear a mandatory life jacket and prove they can swim 25 meters.
- The day offers free family activities, and a boat-decorating contest runs alongside the timed race.
- The City of Paris authorized a temporary suspension of river traffic on the canal from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
- The author argues the event shows the value of local volunteering, accessibility, low environmental impact through reuse of salvaged tubs, and a more positive image of Seine-Saint-Denis.

## Introduction: a letter to those who dared to float in a bathtub

### A can't-miss date on the northeastern Paris calendar

Dear organizers, dear **participants**, dear onlookers who came to cheer from the banks, I'm writing this letter the day after the **15th edition** of the **floating bathtub race** held on **Sunday, July 5, 2026**, on the **Canal de l'Ourcq**, in **Les Pavillons-sous-Bois**, **Seine-Saint-Denis**. Fifteen years is long enough for an event born from a slightly crazy idea to become a genuine local institution.

This race, organized by the **APJC** association, once again brought together dozens of participants this year, ready to defy the laws of buoyancy with vessels rigged from **bathtubs**, under the amused gaze of families gathered along the **Quai de Copenhague**. It's this collective, free, and popular spirit that I want to salute today.

### Why this open letter, and why now

I'm writing this **open letter** because I believe **small local traditions** deserve as much attention as the major international events that dominate media coverage. A bathtub race on a Parisian canal is no geopolitical summit, but it says something essential about a community's ability to create **free collective joy**.

I'll say upfront that I was not physically present on the **canal banks** that Sunday. This piece rests on **verified reporting** and **public information** available about this event, sticking strictly to established facts.

*There's something deeply refreshing about a city that still knows how to organize an event as absurd and free as a bathtub race. In a world saturated with commercial spectacle, that free-of-charge spirit deserves to be celebrated for exactly what it is.*

## Fifteen years of a tradition born from a simple idea

### The origins of a contest that became a summer ritual

The **Les Pavillons-sous-Bois bathtub race** traces its roots to the early 2010s, championed by the local **APJC** association, which wanted to give neighborhood families a festive, free, and accessible event during the summer season. What started as a modest initiative has become, edition after edition, an eagerly awaited fixture across **northeastern Paris**.

According to information available on **tourisme93.com**, this year's edition indeed marks the **15th anniversary** of this local tradition, a symbolic milestone for an event that has managed to survive the years without ever losing its lighthearted spirit.

### A rare longevity for a neighborhood event

Few **free local events** manage to sustain themselves this long without losing their audience or their funding. That longevity likely comes down to the sheer simplicity of the concept: you don't need a massive budget to organize a **bathtub race**, just creativity, a handful of motivated volunteers, and a canal available for the occasion.

It's this **simplicity** that, in my view, explains the **event's resilience** against the budget constraints so many local cultural initiatives in the **Île-de-France** region have faced in recent years.

*Fifteen years of survival for a purely local, free event, in a region where so many cultural initiatives struggle to find lasting funding, deserves a sincere tip of the hat to APJC's volunteers.*

## How the 2026 edition unfolded, minute by minute

### A 150-meter course under the watch of families

This year's race ran along a **150-meter course** on the **Canal de l'Ourcq**, near the **Quai de Copenhague** and the **Allée de Berlin**, in the town of **Les Pavillons-sous-Bois**. Organizers ran **elimination heats** throughout the afternoon, ahead of a **grand final** scheduled for **5:30 p.m.**

Every participant had to follow strict safety rules: mandatory **life jacket** and proof of the ability to swim **25 meters**, basic but essential requirements for an event held directly on the water of an urban canal.

### Family activities all around the basin

Beyond the competition itself, the **day-long program** offered numerous **free activities** for families: inflatable games, pedal karts, traditional wooden games, face painting for kids, and fishing games, turning the canal's edges into a genuine **neighborhood block party** for the afternoon.

A **boat-decorating contest** ran alongside the **timed race**, rewarding participants' creativity beyond their athletic performance alone, a clever way to widen the celebration to those who prefer tinkering to rowing.

*This attention to safety, mandatory life jackets and swim certificates, shows that even the most whimsical event can be run with the seriousness it requires. Fun and rigor aren't mutually exclusive, and that's a good thing.*

## The Canal de l'Ourcq, a backdrop turned full-fledged character

### A waterway at the heart of northeastern Paris's identity

The **Canal de l'Ourcq**, which runs through several towns in **Seine-Saint-Denis** and eastern Paris, has for several years been at the center of a genuine cultural and festive revival, hosting numerous free events throughout the summer aimed at families and local residents.

The **City of Paris** formally authorized, through an official navigation notice, the temporary suspension of river traffic on the canal between **2 p.m. and 6 p.m.** on the day of the event, a necessary administrative measure that nonetheless reveals the logistical scale required even by an event that looks modest on the surface.

### A symbol of togetherness by the water

This kind of **festive event** contributes, on its modest scale, to changing the sometimes austere image some still associate with urban canals, turning them into genuine **spaces of collective togetherness** rather than mere transport or water-management infrastructure.

It's this **gradual shift** in how **urban waterways** are used, from a purely functional purpose to a festive and communal one, that strikes me as one of the most interesting aspects of this floating-bathtub tradition.

*A canal that serves as a stage for a bathtub race rather than solely for freight transport is a sign of urban good health. Cities that know how to reinvent their infrastructure into spaces of collective joy have something to teach the rest of us.*

## The participants, between clever tinkering and playful spirit

### Vessels as varied as they are improbable

The **race's core concept** rests on a fun technical challenge: turning an ordinary **bathtub** into a floating vessel capable of covering 150 meters without sinking. Participants compete in ingenuity with improvised floats, homemade propulsion systems, and decorations as goofy as they are colorful.

This element of **collective tinkering** is undoubtedly one of the event's **main draws**: unlike many sporting competitions that require costly, specialized equipment, the bathtub race remains open to anyone with elbow grease, a bit of imagination, and a salvaged tub.

### A competition that excludes no one

The event draws both **seasoned regulars**, who return year after year with increasingly sophisticated vessels, and **first-time families** discovering the race for the first time, in a resolutely non-elitist atmosphere where athletic performance often matters less than shared enjoyment.

This **accessibility**, rare in a landscape of **contemporary sporting events** often marked by performance and fierce competition, is in my view one of the essential ingredients behind the lasting success of this **summer tradition**.

*In an increasingly professionalized and commercialized world of sport, a competition where the main goal is simply not sinking in your own bathtub keeps something irresistibly human and democratic about it.*

## The volunteer commitment behind the event

### The central role of the APJC association

Since its **creation**, this race has rested entirely on the volunteer commitment of the **APJC** association, whose members devote considerable time each year to the event's logistical organization: securing the course, coordinating with municipal authorities, managing registrations, and hosting the day's general festivities.

This kind of **local volunteer commitment**, often invisible in **big national media narratives**, is nonetheless the essential fabric that allows traditions like this one to endure year after year, despite generally limited financial resources.

### Necessary coordination with local authorities

**Organizing such an event** also requires close coordination with the **City of Paris** and prefectural authorities, notably for the temporary suspension of navigation on the canal, an administrative step that's a reminder that even the most festive events require rigorous institutional planning.

This collaboration between **volunteer associations** and **municipal institutions** illustrates a model of local governance in which civil society and public administration work together to offer a free cultural service to the public.

*We often talk about Paris's major cultural institutions, but too often forget to salute these neighborhood associations that, with next to no resources, deliver moments of free collective joy to thousands of families every summer.*

## What this tradition says about neighborhood life in Seine-Saint-Denis

### A territory too often reduced to clichés

**Seine-Saint-Denis** still too often suffers, in national media discourse, from a reductive image focused solely on its socioeconomic difficulties, obscuring the richness of its local associative and cultural life, of which this **bathtub race** is a telling example.

**Events like this one**, which bring together hundreds of local residents every year in a **warm, intergenerational atmosphere**, deserve visibility at least equal to that given to the very real difficulties this department also faces.

### Local pride as an engine of cohesion

This kind of tradition helps foster a sense of **local pride** among residents of **Les Pavillons-sous-Bois** and surrounding towns, a sense of belonging that, while no miracle cure for the area's social challenges, undeniably contributes to the cohesion of the local community fabric.

It's this dimension of **social cohesion**, often underestimated in **purely economic analyses** of local territories, that I wanted to highlight in this letter devoted to an event that, beneath its playful appearance, says a great deal about a community's ability to celebrate together.

*I reject the view that reduces Seine-Saint-Denis to its difficulties alone. A community capable of organizing fifteen consecutive years of a free, popular celebration deserves to be told through that success, not just through its negative headlines.*

## The small inconsistencies of collective memory around the event

### An edition count that varies slightly by source

In the interest of **journalistic honesty**, I should mention a minor nuance found in my research: some earlier sources cited a slightly different number of editions for previous years, which could point either to an **occasional interruption** of the race, or simply to a variation in how successive editions have been counted since its creation.

This **minor discrepancy** does not, however, undermine the **central message** of this anniversary: the Canal de l'Ourcq bathtub race is, this year, indeed a tradition solidly established in the summer landscape of **northeastern Paris**, with or without a perfectly unanimous count of the exact number of editions.

### The importance of rigor even on light subjects

I firmly believe that even the lightest, most festive subjects deserve a **minimum of factual rigor**, rather than giving in to the temptation of rounding numbers for greater dramatic effect. It's this demand for **journalistic precision**, even in a piece about a bathtub race, that guides this entire work.

This **journalistic rigor** takes nothing away from the pleasure of recounting such a joyful event; it simply guarantees that the account stays true to what can be verified in the **available sources**, rather than giving in to easy approximation.

*Even in a piece about a bathtub race, I refuse to round up the facts to make them more dramatic. Rigor isn't reserved for serious topics, it should apply everywhere, including when the subject makes you smile.*

## The local media echo of a nonetheless modest event

### Local coverage rather than national headlines

This bathtub race remains primarily covered by local outlets like **Le Parisien**, **France Info**, and **BFM TV** in their regional editions, rather than by major national headlines, which fits perfectly with the very nature of an event rooted in a specific territory rather than aiming for national reach.

This **local coverage**, often less prestigious than **major national reporting**, nonetheless plays an essential role in showcasing **local festive heritage**, giving deserved visibility to initiatives that would otherwise remain largely invisible beyond the circle of directly involved residents.

### The role of social media in spreading the word

Beyond **traditional press**, **social media** now plays a growing role in promoting this event, with photos and videos shared by participants themselves, gradually helping to widen this local tradition's audience beyond neighboring towns alone.

This **digital dynamic**, characteristic of our era, allows an event as modest as this bathtub race to gain **greater visibility** than it could ever have hoped to achieve through traditional media coverage alone fifteen years ago, when the event was created.

*I find it reassuring that social media, so often criticized for its superficiality, can also help spread the word about a neighborhood tradition as sincere as this bathtub race. Every technology has its noble uses.*

## The quiet environmental dimension of this summer celebration

### Recycled tubs rather than new equipment

One of the least highlighted aspects of this race lies in its implicitly **environmental** dimension: the vast majority of the vessels are built from **salvaged bathtubs**, otherwise headed for the landfill before finding a second, playful life for an afternoon on the canal.

This form of **creative reuse**, though probably not the organizers' primary motivation, fits into a broader trend of giving new value to discarded objects, a practice increasingly promoted in municipal waste-management policies across **Île-de-France**.

### An event compatible with today's environmental imperatives

Unlike many **festive events** that generate significant waste or require costly temporary infrastructure, this bathtub race remains, by its very nature, a **low environmental footprint** event, relying essentially on already-existing materials and an already-available public space.

This **logistical restraint**, which its founders probably never conceived of as an **environmental argument**, now turns out to be perfectly aligned with the growing demands for **event sustainability** increasingly voiced by citizens and local officials alike.

*Nobody likely invented this race with the environment in mind fifteen years ago, but the result speaks for itself: a festive event with a very small footprint, built on recycling rather than consumption. Sometimes popular wisdom gets there before public policy does.*

## The invisible logistical challenges behind the celebration

### Water safety, an absolute priority

Organizing a race on a **navigable urban canal** imposes considerable safety constraints, often invisible to the public who simply came to enjoy the show: qualified lifeguards on hand, safety boats positioned along the entire course, and close coordination with the **prefecture's** services to guarantee the safety of all participants.

This **logistical rigor**, largely invisible to spectators, is nonetheless the **essential condition** for the event's continuity: the slightest serious incident could jeopardize the very authorization to hold this race in years to come.

### Cleanup and restoring the site after the celebration

Once the **celebration ends**, **APJC** volunteers must also handle the complete cleanup of the site and restore the canal banks, a less glamorous but equally essential task compared to organizing the race itself, in order to maintain good relations with municipal authorities.

This **behind-the-scenes work**, rarely highlighted in reports on the event, deserves to be recognized as an integral part of the **volunteer commitment** that makes this tradition possible year after year.

*We're happy to celebrate the joyful images of the race itself, but we too often forget the hours of invisible cleanup and logistics that follow. That's also what real volunteering looks like: the part you never see in the photos.*

## A tradition within a Parisian summer packed with popular events

### The Canal de l'Ourcq, epicenter of a festive summer

This **bathtub race** is just one of many free events organized every summer along the **Canal de l'Ourcq** and its surroundings, part of the broader summer programming offered by neighboring municipalities to energize neighborhood life during school holidays.

This concentration of popular, free events, from **water games** to **outdoor concerts**, helps make **northeastern Paris** a summer destination in its own right, far from the clichés that sometimes reduce this part of the Paris region to its difficulties alone.

### A model that could inspire other territories

The **lasting success** of this bathtub race could legitimately inspire other **towns along navigable waterways** across France to offer free, unifying summer programming without requiring considerable financial investment.

This **model** of a **low-cost but highly unifying celebration** shows that you don't need massive municipal budgets to create lasting local traditions cherished by several generations of residents.

*I would be delighted to see other French cities draw inspiration from this simple, inexpensive model rather than multiplying oversized, costly events that, quite often, don't survive their own budget once the initial grants run out.*

## Residents' indirect testimony on the day's atmosphere

### A family atmosphere praised by local observers

Accounts available on **local social media** and neighborhood publications describe a resolutely **family-friendly, lighthearted** atmosphere throughout the day, with laughter, applause, and a sense of togetherness that seems to transcend the generations present along the canal banks.

This **convivial atmosphere**, consistently described across the various accounts available, confirms that the event fully accomplishes its original mission: offering a moment of **free collective joy** to a local community, with no ambition beyond the shared pleasure of a summer Sunday.

### A fixture residents look forward to every year

Several residents of **Les Pavillons-sous-Bois** and surrounding towns now consider this race a **can't-miss fixture** on their summer calendar, alongside other local traditions deeply woven into the territory's social fabric.

This **year-after-year loyalty** from the public is likely the best proof of the **success** of this community initiative, far more eloquent than any official attendance figure organizers might cite.

*Nothing beats the spontaneous loyalty of an audience that comes back year after year without needing to be won over by an expensive ad campaign. That may be the finest reward APJC's volunteers could receive after fifteen years of effort.*

## What this small celebration says about a West that can still laugh at itself

### A capacity to celebrate the absurd that isn't universal

In a **global geopolitical context** marked by tension, wars, and multiple crises, a society's ability to calmly organize a free, lighthearted **bathtub race** says something important about the democratic and cultural vitality of our Western societies. It's no accident that this kind of event flourishes in stable democracies rather than in authoritarian regimes obsessed with controlling public space.

The **unapologetic lightness** of this tradition, far from being a sign of frivolity, actually reflects a **collective confidence** strong enough to devote an entire day to shared pleasure alone, with no security ulterior motive or political exploitation of any kind.

### A telling contrast with other international contexts

While some countries devote most of their collective energy to **survival** or **resistance** against existential threats, our **Western societies** still retain the ability to celebrate the absurd and the whimsical, a privilege we would be wrong to take for granted forever.

It's this **ability to laugh at ourselves**, to organize a celebration as free as it seems pointless on the surface, that may be one of the surest markers of a **society still in good democratic and social health**.

*I sincerely believe a society capable of devoting an entire day to a free bathtub race is, overall, doing pretty well. Let's never lose this ability to celebrate the absurd, even during the darkest stretches of international news.*

## Conclusion: a letter of gratitude for a tradition still afloat

### A modest tribute to a great popular tradition

Dear organizers of **APJC**, dear participants who once again braved the waters of the **Canal de l'Ourcq** in your improvised vessels, this letter is meant as a modest tribute to fifteen years of free, festive perseverance. You've managed to turn an object as mundane as a bathtub into a symbol of collective togetherness, and that's no small thing.

May this **tradition** continue for many more years to bring together families of **northeastern Paris** around an event as simple as it is universally shared: the pure pleasure of floating, laughing, and celebrating together on a summer Sunday.

### A wish for editions to come

As I close this letter, I hope this bathtub race keeps steering clear of the commercial logic that has taken over so many contemporary popular events, preserving the **free spirit** and **simplicity** that have been its charm for fifteen years.

See you next year, on the **canal banks**, for a **sixteenth edition** that, I hope, will keep this lighthearted spirit that has made this beautiful **northeastern Paris** tradition such a lasting success.

*I close this letter with a smile, thinking of all those improvised bathtubs that, for one Sunday afternoon, became vessels of collective joy on a Parisian canal. Long live this tradition, and see you next year on the banks.*

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- Sortir à Paris — Guide de la course de baignoires du canal de l'Ourcq

- Tourisme93.com — La course de baignoires des Pavillons-sous-Bois fête sa 15e édition, juillet 2026

### Secondary sources

- Voltage.fr — Une course de baignoires sur le canal de l'Ourcq, 2 juillet 2026

- Ville de Paris — Notice de navigation sur les canaux parisiens

- Le Parisien — Actualités Seine-Saint-Denis

- France Info — Actualités locales Île-de-France

- BFM TV — Actualités Paris et Île-de-France

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Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/la-course-de-baignoires-du-canal-de-l-ourcq-fete-ses-15-ans