Wooden paving in Paris

The paving in this small and charming Paris passageway is unremarkable at first glance. On closer inspection, it is actually a rare survival of a nearly forgotten feature of Paris and London: wood as a road surface. That might seem a strange choice, but it did make a certain sense. As the cities had moved to paved roads, one negative effect was hard to miss: the noise. The ceaseless sound of iron…