Petite Ceinture du 12e arrondissement

The path you are approaching is a remnant of the Petite Ceinture, a circular railway line that once acted as the industrial artery of Paris. Constructed between eighteen fifty-two and eighteen sixty-nine, this thirty-two kilometer track was originally built to link the city's major train stations and supply the massive military fortification walls that stood along the capital's perimeter. At its peak during the nineteen hundred Universal Exposition, this railway moved thirty-nine million passengers around the city, serving as a vital predecessor to the modern metro system.