Quartier de la Mouzaia

You are entering a neighborhood that feels like a rural village hidden in the heart of Paris. The Quartier de la Mouzaia was built directly over a network of former gypsum quarries that were mined from the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century. These deep, unstable tunnels beneath your feet made it impossible to build the heavy, multi-story stone apartment buildings that define the rest of the city. As a result, the area developed into a unique collection of low-slung, individual houses that never exceed two or three stories.