Passage du Chantier

The Passage du Chantier is a long, narrow cobblestone alley tucked between the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and the Avenue Daumesnil. Its name comes from the nineteenth century, when the area hummed with the noise of lumber yards and furniture workshops. While the steam saws and sawdust piles are gone, the passage remains lined with the cramped, wood-fronted showrooms of master cabinetmakers. You can still smell the polish and shaved cedar clinging to the low-ceilinged workshops that crowd along the path.