The Hidden Rooms Beneath Paris’s Rooftops 🇫🇷 Before the 1850s, many domestic workers in Paris slept wherever they could find space inside their employers’ homes, whether in a hallway or a small corner near the kitchen. That changed when Baron Haussmann began reshaping Paris under Napoleon III. His grand urban redesign introduced apartment buildings where wealthy families occupied entire floors, while household staff were moved into tiny rooms beneath the roofs, accessible through narrow back staircases. Known as chambres de bonne, these former servants’ quarters were often just 7 square meters in size. Over the decades, their residents changed. By 1968, approximately 66,000 people lived in these rooms, including students, workers and newcomers seeking an affordable place in the capital. Today, Paris still has around 100,000 such rooms. However, many are too small to meet France’s minimum rental housing requirements. As a result, some remain vacant while others are rented out illegally. Since 2016, the city has worked to combine certain rooms into more suitable small apartments. Look up on almost any Haussmannian street in Paris, and you may spot these tiny spaces tucked beneath the iconic zinc rooftops a forgotten chapter of the city’s architectural and social history.