Les Miserables, Wilbour Translation

FORTY years ago, the solitary pedestrian who ventured into the unknown regions of La Salpetriere and went up along the Boulevard as far as the Barriere dTtalie, reached certain points where it might be said that Paris disappeared. It was no longer a solitude, for there were people passing ; it was not the country, for there were houses and streets; it was not a city, the streets had ruts in them, like the highways, and grass grew along their borders; it was not a village, the houses were too lofty. What was it then? It was an inhabited place where there was nobody, it was a desert place where there was somebody ; it was a boulevard of the great city, a street of Paris, wilder, at night, than a forest, and gloomier, by day, than a graveyard.

It was the old quarter of the Horse Market.