La plus petite maison de Paris

You are standing before the smallest house in Paris, located at thirty-nine rue du Chateau-d'Eau. This building measures only about one and a half meters wide and stands five meters tall. Its existence is the result of a bitter inheritance dispute in the nineteenth century. When family heirs could not agree on the ownership of a narrow passageway between two larger properties, they resolved the conflict by constructing this tiny house to physically block the path. The structure remains an independent residence today, retaining its own street number as a symbol of its distinct status. In its early days, the ground floor served as a small workshop for a local shoemaker, while the upper level contained a nursery where a single cradle occupied the entire room. While the interior is not open to the public, the facade stands as a testament to this unusual piece of Parisian property history.