Bièvre (river)

You are walking over a ghost. Beneath the pavement and the city streets of the Quartier de la Salpêtrière, the Bièvre River still flows, though it has been completely hidden from view since nineteen twelve. Long ago, this was a vibrant, open-air waterway that served as the industrial backbone of this part of Paris. While the Seine is famous as the soul of the city, the Bièvre was its hardworking younger sibling, snaking through the landscape to power the mills and workshops that built the local economy.