Petite Ceinture du 14e (accès 2)

The Petite Ceinture tracks in the fourteenth arrondissement sit below street level, hemmed in by high stone retaining walls overgrown with wild ivy and buddleia. This section of the old circular railway once connected Paris to the French countryside, hauling freight and passengers around the city perimeter for decades. Passenger service ended in nineteen thirty-four, and the rails fell silent. Nature reclaimed the gravel beds, turning them into a corridor for rare wildflowers and bees while the city hummed along above them.