In 19th-century Paris, wooden paving blocks replaced stone on some streets to reduce the noise of horse-drawn carriages. The Passage Saint-Maur still preserves

In 19th-century Paris, wooden paving blocks replaced stone on some streets to reduce the noise of horse-drawn carriages. The Passage Saint-Maur still preserves some of the city’s last surviving examples of this unusual street surface. Wooden paving became an innovative answer to one of the biggest …