La Petite Ceinture du 19ᶱ (accès Gaston Tessier / Curial)

The iron tracks of the Petite Ceinture run through this trench, overgrown with wild grasses and wildflowers. Built in the eighteen fifties as a circular railway line to connect the major train stations of Paris, it once hummed with steam engines hauling freight and passengers around the city outskirts. When the metro system expanded, the line lost its purpose and the tracks fell silent in nineteen thirty-four. Today, sections of this former artery serve as a public nature trail and an urban habitat.