La Petite Ceinture du 16e

The Petite Ceinture in the sixteenth arrondissement is a sunken, overgrown trench carved directly into the stone of the city. This two-mile stretch was once part of a thirty-two kilometer circular railway built in the mid nineteenth century to connect Paris's major train stations. By nineteen thirty-four, passenger service ended here as the Metro took over. Today, nature occupies the rusted tracks, turning this industrial scar into a quiet, tangled corridor where wildflower meadows replace the rush of steam engines.