This is not (just) a staircase. With its 14 steps, rue des Degrés, in the 2nd arrondissement, is the shortest and smallest street in Paris. And don't expect to see a letter carrier here: this unusual Paris street has neither front doors nor windows!
5.5 m long, 3.3 m wide. By way of comparison, the longest street in Paris, rue de Vaugirard, crosses 3 arrondissements over a length of 4,360 meters. Now that you've got all this information, you're wondering " Why not wall off this tiny street or replace it with a small building ? Well, rue des Degrés has many stories to tell...
Whether you're on the Rue de Cléry or the Beauregard side of the street, there's no escaping it: our Rue des Degrés is sloping. This difference in level is far from being the work of the Holy Spirit. The difference in level between the two streets is explained by the fact that Parisians are dirty.
Put away the pitchforks, not us medieval Parisians! For 5 centuries, our forefathers had the annoying habit of dumping all kinds of garbage in the streets, more precisely along theCharles V enclosure (see above), around today's Place de la Bastille / Place de la République and Place du Carrousel. As a result, a mound of all kinds of filth gradually took shape.
Named Mont-Orgueil by Parisians at the time, this fragrant hill was regularly covered over to limit the damage. It wasn't until 1820, during construction of theNotre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle church on rue de la Lune, that the open-air dump was discovered. Workers dug up no less than 16 m of garbage!
Fortunately, all this dirt has aged well, and so have the technologies. We've smoothed it all out, leaving only a few visible traces of the garbage mound, including our famous Rue des Degrés, the smallest street in Paris (in case you've lost track).
