Paris, City of Dreams
Paris, City of Dreams
Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Creation of Paris
Mary McAuliffe
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
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Copyright © 2020 by Mary S. McAuliffe
Unless otherwise noted, all translations are by the author.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McAuliffe, Mary Sperling, 1943– author.
Title: Paris, City of Dreams : Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Creation of Paris / Mary McAuliffe.
Other titles: Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the creation of Paris
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Traces the profound transformation of the City of Light during Napoleon III’s Second Empire, as he and Georges Haussmann completely rebuilt Paris in less than two decades.”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019045560 (print) | LCCN 2019045561 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538121283 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538121290 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Paris (France)—History—1848–1870. | Urban renewal—France—Paris—History—19th century. | Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, 1808–1873—Influence. | Haussmann, Georges Eugène, baron, 1809–1891—Influence. | Paris (France)—Social life and customs—19th century.
Classification: LCC DC733 .M48 2020 (print) | LCC DC733 (ebook) | DDC 944/.36107—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045560
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045561
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
For Mavyn, Jay, and Tyler
Contents
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Map of Paris, 1860–1870
Introduction
Chapter 1 From Barricades to Bonaparte (1848–1851)
Chapter 2 Blood and Empire (1852)
Chapter 3 Enter Haussmann (1853)
Chapter 4 A Nonessential War (1854)
Chapter 5 A Queen Visits (1855)
Chapter 6 What Goes Up . . . (1856–1857)
Chapter 7 More and More (1858)
Chapter 8 Dreams of Glory (1859)
Chapter 9 Suddenly Larger (1860)
Chapter 10 Turning Point (1861)
Chapter 11 Les Misérables de Paris (1862)
Chapter 12 Scandal (1863–1864)
Chapter 13 Death and Taxes (1865)
Chapter 14 Crisis (1866)
Chapter 15 A Setting Sun (1867)
Chapter 16 Twenty Years Later (1868)
Chapter 17 Haussmann in Trouble (1869)
Chapter 18 Finale (1870)
Chapter 19 An End and a Beginning (1870–1871)
Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
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Guide
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Map of Paris, 1860–1870
Start of Content
Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
Illustrations
Map of Paris, 1860–1870
Barricade at the Rue Saint–Martin in Paris, French Revolution of 1848
Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte as president of the Second French Republic (1852)
Georges Haussmann
Empress Eugenie
Pavillon Baltard
Haussmann-style building, Boulevard de Courcelles
Old Paris, Rue des Marmousets
Cité Napoléon
Reception of Queen Victoria by Empress Eugenie at the Château de Saint-Cloud
Empress Eugenie and the Imperial Prince
Demolition of Rue de la Barillerie and piercing of Boulevard de Sébastopol
Courtyard of the Hôtel-Dieu
Annexation of the outer communes into Paris
Claude Monet
Demolition of the barriers of the Farmers-General wall at the Place de l’Etoile
The Great Drawing Room of the Napoleon III Apartments
Cosette, from Les Misérables
Georges Clemenceau
Edouard Manet
Sarah Bernhardt
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
Emile Zola
Arrival of the Emperor and Empress at the 1867 Paris Exhibition
Château de Ferrières
Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
Berthe Morisot
Meeting of Napoleon III with Bismarck after Battle of Sedan
Léon Gambetta leaves on a hot-air balloon during the siege of Paris
Prussian troops march through the Arc de Triomphe into Paris
Acknowledgments
When I began writing about Paris, with Dawn of the Belle Epoque, I had no idea that more books would follow, creating what amounts to a history of Paris during the eventful years of the Third Republic. Now, Paris, City of Dreams creates a prequel to the four that follow, an unexpected development that has opened up new vistas for me and, I hope, for my readers.
Throughout this entire process, I have been grateful for the support I have received from the New York Public Library, which has provided me, as a resident scholar, with a place in its much-coveted Wertheim Study Room. Without this, my research in the NYPL’s vast resources would have been far more difficult. Special thanks to Melanie Locay, the NYPL’s research study liaison, for her ongoing support and assistance in matters large and small. I have also appreciated aid from of a number of the NYPL’s fine research librarians, especially Fernando Martinez and Deirdre Donohue.
In Paris, I am grateful for the assistance of Bérengère de l’Epine at the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris, as well as the introduction that Juliette Jestaz gave me to this research treasure. Also in Paris, I would like to extend my thanks to Gilles Thomas for his remarkable insights into the history of Paris and his accompanying on-site trips, especially his introduction to the Petite Ceinture. My thanks as well to the staunch crew of ASNEP (l’Association Sources du Nord—Etudes et Préservation), led by Gérard Duserre and Jean-Luc Largier, for sharing their extraordinary knowledge of the history of Paris’s water and its ancient aqueducts, which I have been privileged to visit. Thanks, too, to our good friend Ray Lampard, who has made our stays in Paris especially enjoyable and who has braved Paris traffic to cart us around to various historic locales.
Here in the United States, I am grateful for the assistance of our friend Robin Taff in helping me to decipher the mysteries of triangulation and spot heights that plagued Baron Haussmann all those years ago. I am especially grateful to my daughter, Mavyn Holman, for responding to my cries for help on this and numerous other subjects that cropped up as the book progressed. Her ongoing support has been invaluable.
Special thanks goes to my longtime editor, Susan McEachern, who has patiently held my hand through a series of books that now extend from the Revolution of 1848 to World War II. Similarly, I am grateful to Jehanne Schweitzer, who has so diligently served as production editor for each and every one of these books.
Last, my thanks to my husband, whose aid in this and all my other books and articles has been immeasurable. Jack McAuliffe, as everyone who knows him is quick to acknowledge, is someone who makes things work—and who is a pleasure to work with as well. It has been a delight exploring Paris with him over these many years.
PARIS, 1860–1870
Key
A. Palais du Louvre
B. Palais des Tuileries
C. Place du Châtelet
D. Ile de la Cité and Notre-Dame
E. Les Halles
F. Place de la Concorde
G. Opéra Garnier
H. Place de la Madeleine
J. Place de la Nation (originally Place du Trône)
K. Place de la Bastille
L. Place de la République (originally Place du Château d’Eau)
M. Parc des Buttes Chaumont
N. Gare de l’Est
O. Gare du Nord
P. Parc Monceau
R. Arc de Triomphe and Place de l‘Etoile
S. Sorbonne and Latin Quarter
T. Parc Montsouris
V. Père-Lachaise Cemetery
Paris’s twenty arrondissements, as established in 1860, are indicated by number
© J. McAuliffe
Introduction
Paris—the Paris that inspires so many dreams—is a recent creation, the product of a charming playboy with imperial visions and his invaluable ally, a hard-driving bureaucrat with an extraordinary ability to get things done. The playboy was a Bonaparte, the nephew of France’s first emperor, and his dedicated right-hand man was Georges Haussmann. Together they completely rebuilt Paris from the ground up—from below the ground, counting the new water and sewer system—and created the city that Paris is today.
This breathtaking achievement had its origins on December 10, 1848, when Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, was elected president of France’s Second Republic. He did not remain in elected office for long. Three years later, on December 2, 1851, he carried out a bloody coup d’état, which a plebiscite of France’s adult male voters overwhelmingly endorsed. This in turn led, a year later, to Louis-Napoleon’s proclamation of the Second Empire and his assumption of the title of Napoleon III (having granted Napoleon I’s son, who died young, the title of Napoleon II). His reign lasted eighteen years, until he led France into a catastrophic war with Bismarck’s Prussia and was deposed and replaced by the Third Republic.
Politically, it was not a glorious time for Paris or for France. During these almost two decades of imperial rule, Napoleon III imposed an authoritarian government that severely limited freedom of assembly, speech, and publication, all the while claiming to act on behalf of the common man. Yet those who most benefited from the Second Empire were not the workers but rather those new men of commerce, banking, and the railroads, whose sudden wealth led to a gaudy era of excess, in which the emperor led the way.
Still, Napoleon III’s vision included a better Paris for one and all, and this meant a complete overhaul of the city, much of which at the outset of his reign still resembled the Paris of medieval times. Paris in the early 1850s was a densely packed metropolis, with narrow, winding, and often filthy streets lined by ancient and decaying housing. This was a Paris that Victor Hugo could rhapsodize over, but it also was a hellhole for those stuck there, especially in the eastern and central portions of the city. Napoleon III had a better idea for Paris, one that would improve the city’s housing and sanitation as well as encourage commerce by providing broad and wide avenues connecting the recently built railway stations with one another and with the city’s center. Napoleon III had a vision, and he soon found the man to carry it out—Georges Haussmann.
During the seventeen years that Haussmann served as the emperor’s prefect of the Seine, he tore up an astonishing amount of old Paris, both above and below ground, introducing a modernized water and sewer system as well as those broad and wide avenues lined with uniform apartment buildings that have since become known as “Haussmann buildings.” Uniformity was prized, not only as aesthetically desirable but also as an economical approach to rebuilding the huge swaths of the city that were being razed. This destruction and rebuilding of course displaced the poor, who could no longer afford to live in these cleaned-up areas, but order and prosperity marched together, as far as both Haussmann and his emperor were concerned. The fact that these broad streets made it far easier for troops to march—and far more difficult for the workers of Paris to build barricades—was an added incentive.