Petite Ceinture du 13e arrondissement

The Petite Ceinture of the thirteenth arrondissement represents a quiet chapter in the industrial history of Paris. While the city grew rapidly in the nineteenth century, the various railway companies operated as competing fiefdoms with their own private stations, refusing to connect their tracks to one another. To resolve this logistical deadlock, the city commissioned this circular railway beginning in eighteen fifty-two to physically link the major hubs and transport goods across the capital. This modest section you are approaching is a remnant of that grand effort to unify the city, though today it serves a very different purpose as an ecological corridor where nature has quietly reclaimed the iron tracks.