Passage de la Main d'Or

The Passage de la Main d'Or cuts through the eleventh arrondissement with a rusted iron gate at its entrance. Its name comes from a gilded wooden hand that once hung above a shop door here in the eighteenth century, serving as a sign for a master carpenter. While the neighborhood evolved into a hub for furniture makers and artisans, this narrow alleyway kept its old name and its tight, industrial scale, sheltered from the traffic of the nearby Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine.