Petite Ceinture in the 15th

Under the Second Empire, Paris was ringed by a railway. The Petite Ceinture, the ‘little belt', was built in stages between 1852 and 1869, just inside the fortifications of Thiers, to link the great terminal stations and move goods between them without crossing the city centre. Passengers came too, and for decades the loop was an ordinary way of getting round the edge of town.

Competition from the Métro finished it. Passenger trains stopped in 1934, replaced by a bus line; freight lingered for decades longer and then dwindled away. In the 15th arrondissement the line had served the Citroën car works and the Vaugirard slaughterhouses. Both are gone, replaced by parks, the parc André-Citroën and the parc Georges-Brassens, and the railway between them was left to the birds.

Nature moved in without being asked. Oak, sycamore and elm seeded themselves on the embankments; meadow grasses filled the ballast. In 2013 the City opened the stretch between rue Olivier-de-Serres and place Balard as a public walk, with the rails left in place, and it is managed now as a nature reserve in miniature: the City counts some 220 species of plants and animals along it, and some twenty species of birds nest on the wooded banks, among them the spotted flycatcher. Meadows are mown only once or twice a year, dead wood is left for fungi and beetles, and there are no lights, so that the night belongs to the animals.

Until recently the walk ended at the mouth of a sealed tunnel. In August 2026, after safety work by SNCF funded by the City, the 300-metre tunnel was opened to walkers, joining the Balard stretch to the one running past the parc Georges-Brassens. The result is about two kilometres of continuous walking on an old railway bed, the longest unbroken stretch of the Petite Ceinture open to the public. Walking it, you see the backs of the 15th arrondissement: garden walls, workshop roofs, the upper floors of flats at eye level.

What to look for

• The rails and sleepers left in place under the path.
• The 300-metre tunnel opened in 2026 between the Balard and Brancion stretches.
• Self-sown trees on the embankments, including the rare field elm the gardeners are encouraging.
• Piles of dead wood and stumps left deliberately for insects and fungi.
• Views down into back gardens and across to the parc Georges-Brassens.

Timeline

1. 1852First section of the Petite Ceinture opens
2. 1867Left-bank section, through the 15th, opens
3. 1869Ring completed
4. 1934Passenger service ends
5. 2013Olivier-de-Serres to Balard stretch opens as a walk
6. 2026300-metre tunnel opened, creating a continuous 2 km walk

Plaques within 250 m

• 73 Boulevard Victor · 170 m

  À cet emplacement se situait / l'atelier de / l’EQUIPE GORDINI / où furent conçus et réalisés / de 1945 à 1974 / des monoplaces de Grand Prix, / des voitures de Sport / et des moteurs spécifiques.

Commemorative plaques, Ville de Paris open data (ODbL); transcriptions as published, in French.

Sources

• Ville de Paris: Petite Ceinture du 15e (PC 15)
• Ville de Paris: Un nouveau tronçon de la petite ceinture ouvre dans le 15e
• Wikipédia: Ligne de Petite Ceinture
• Petiteceinture-info: réunion publique 15e (PDF)
• Sortiraparis: The Petite Ceinture expands in the 15th arrondissement
• Wikidata Q14912114 (coordinates, CC0)