In the middle of the nineteenth century, île de la Cité, the heart of old Paris had changed little since the Middle Ages. It was still very residential – a maze of narrow streets, where people lived in overcrowded conditions and extreme poverty. Disease was rife, and spread quickly. It is estimated that 5% of the population of the area died during the cholera outbreak of 1848. The district was completely gridlocked and carts and wagons could barely circulate in streets that were 5 metres wide at their widest and just a couple of metres wide at their narrowest. The area also had a bad reputation as a hotbed of revolutionaries and discontent. 
It is often suggested that part of Baron Haussmann’s job was to quell any opportunities for revolutionaries to erect barricades and block access to streets and strategic locations. In reality, this was not a particular consideration. Apart from opening up the area around Hotel de Ville and covering the canal Saint Martin to make access easier for troop, very few of the works undertaken were exclusive for security reason. Indeed, if they had been, the results were disappointing because in just 1870, it took official troops an entire week to reclaim the city from the Communard revolutionaries when the Paris Commune declared the city free. 
The new île de la Cité was anything but residential. 25,000 people were evicted as hundreds of old residential buildings and small churches were demolished in order make room for what would become the administrative heart of the French capital. Here you can see the Tribunal de Commerce, the Palais de la Justice courthouse and the Préfecture de police. The Boulevard du Palais replaced the winding rue de la Barillerie, the forecourt of Nôtre Dame de Paris was enlarged six-fold. Some vestiges of the former buildings, such as foundations and wells can be visited in the crypt at Notre Dame. 
This was part of the second phase of work by Haussmann. While the first phase, the widening of the major arteries to allow easier transport of people and goods across the city, improvements in sanitation, the construction of the system of sewers and the introduction of street lighting had been introduced to almost unanimous approval, Baron Haussmann had no intention of stopping there. He was building a modern city for the future and he was not prepared to remain backward looking to the past. At this point, in the 1860s, he began to meet with more and more opposition to some of his radical changes to the city landscape. The major alterations to île de la Cité were widely contested and remain the subject of hot debate to this day. Many people felt that they were akin to ripping out the old heart of the city and denying its 1,000 year old past.

Ile de la Cité

The transformations wrought by Baron Haussmann’s works upon the landscape of Paris involved building wide tree-lined avenues that would be able to accommodate a large volume of traffic and offered impressive perspectives. Each wide avenue or boulevard that was built was expected to lead to an important monument that could be seen from a distance. 
The main thoroughfares that were part of the first phase of his works were two major north-south and east-west arteries based along the lines of the ancient Roman Cardo and Decumanus roads. Boulevard Sebastopol was part of the north-south artery and the Pont au Change was built as an extension of it to give direct access to Île de la Cité. Work began in 1854 when it was still called boulevard du centre. It was renamed in September 1855, just days after French and allied troops claimed a famous victory at the port of Sebastopol as part of the Crimean war. It was inaugurated in 1858. 
While construction of the road was in progress, Haussmann realised that the road did not lead to any particular monument, unlike the Opera Garnier at the top of avenue de l’Opéra, place de la Concorde at the end of rue de Rivoli or the Arc de Triomphe at the top of all the avenues branching off place de l’Etoile. What could be done to rectify this? 
Baron Haussmann decided to ask the architect Bailly to change his plans for the Tribunal de Commerce which was also being built at the time on Île de la Cité. He had the position of the cupola or dome moved to the right so that it would be visible from a distance for traffic moving along the boulevard de Sébastopol. Today it continues to be a busy thoroughfare, with three lanes of traffic and one bus lane all heading one way – north. What a pity that all those drivers have their backs turned to the view of this monument after all the trouble that went into making it visible to them! 
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Pont au Change

The central point of Haussmann’s new Paris was Place du Châtelet. It is at the junction of the north-south and the east-west axes. He moved the fountain, the Fontaine du Palmier which had been built under the first emperor, to its centre and built two new theatres that still face each other today across the square. The Cirque Imperial was inaugurated in 1862 in the presence of the Empress Eugenie. Today the Theatre du Chatelet is run by the City of Paris and presents a wide programme of musical performance. Opposite it is the Theatre de la Ville – Sarah-Bernhardt, originally the Theatre Lyrique, and today a renowned contemporary dance performance space. The two buildings were designed by Gabriel Davioud at Haussmann’s request and were built in just two years between 1860 and 1862.

Place du Châtelet

Where place du Châtelet meets the boulevard de Sebastopol and rue de Rivoli one of the ancient monuments that escaped demolition during Baron Haussmann’s ruthless gutting of the city can still be seen. The Tour Saint Jacques, built in the flamboyant Gothic style, is the remains of a 16th century church, the somewhat sweetly named church of St Jacques de la Boucherie (Saint James of the butchery). It is so-called after its patrons, the wholesale butchers at the nearby covered market of Les Halles. The church itself was destroyed in the aftermath of the French Revolution. The tower was rebuilt and the small park constructed at the same time as rue de Rivoli was being built and it was declared to a Historic Monument in 1862. This landmark tower is to this day a starting point for pilgrims walking the roads of The Way of Saint James, the roads that lead to the pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. 
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Tour Saint Jacques

Widening and extending the ancient Roman east-west route of decumanus was part of the 1st phase of Baron Haussmann's works, between 1853 and 1859.The 1850s and early 1860s were the golden years of his reign as master builder of the new Paris. The westerly part of the rue de Rivoli already existed, the part that runs alongside the Louvre palace and the Tuileries gardens with its signature arcades. Haussmann extended it eastwards to rue Saint Antoine to create a major east-west axis from place de la Concorde to place de la Bastille. It was known as the Grande croisée de Paris, the grand cross begun by Napoleon I. Napoleon III made the completion of rue de Rivoli a priority ahead of the Universal Exhibition to be held in Paris in 1855. In order to meet the deadline, 3,000 workers worked 24 hours a day under electric lights to complete the job and Napoleon III was able to welcome his guests to the Exhibition in a new hotel, the Grand Hotel du Louvre. The success of the Universal Exhibition was held as proof that the great expenses incurred and the inconvenience of multiple construction projects across the city were well worth it. 
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Rue de Rivoli

Picturing the crowds of people chatting, laughing and meeting at the Fontaine des Innocents or taking the escalator into the depths of the vast underground Forum des Halles shopping centre or losing oneself in the busy shopping streets in this area all seems to be a far cry from the original purpose of Les Halles. But now close your eyes, and imagine that the cries of fishmongers, the song of the butcher’s blade, and the scents of a multitude of fruit and vegetables are added to this hustle and bustle. This was once home to the central Parisian food market, where wholesale products were on sale, a place described by the writer Emile Zola as “the belly of Paris”. 
We all know how French people love their food and fresh produce is essential to creating the kind of gourmet cuisine that has made the country’s reputation. 
Today, the biggest food market in the Paris region has relocated in the suburbs in Rungis, but from the 12th century and until 1971 it was right here in the heart of Paris that restaurant owners and retailers would come to choose, squeeze and sniff the produce and haggle over the prices.

Fontaine des Innocents

Decongesting and simplifying the access to the food market Les Halles at a time when the population was increasing, as well as road and railway traffic were crucial elements in the plans for the new Paris in the mid-19th century. The market needed to be easily accessible from both within Paris and from the newly built train stations that were essential parts of Baron Haussmann’s urban planning. Opening up the roads to the market coincided with a complete facelift for the buildings that housed it. 
The first pavilion of the new market by architects Victor Baltard and Félix Calle was inaugurated in 1853. The former stone building here on place des Innocents was demolished in favour of a construction made of iron, zinc and glass along the English model. Baron Haussmann is famously said to have demanded “Iron, iron, nothing but iron!” of Baltard in his plans. In total 10 pavilions were erected between 1853 and 1870, each devoted to a different category of produce. The activity at Les Halles also attracted other food shops to the area. 
Nothing can be seen today of Baltard’s pavilions which were dismantled in 1971 when the market was moved to Rungis. Just two of the pavilions were saved from destruction: one is now in the Paris suburb of Nogent sur Marne and the other in Yokohama, Japan. In the years since then the area has seen a huge amount of excavation and building work. In 1977, work was completed on the busiest underground railway hub in the city: Châtelet-Les Halles, servicing 750,000 passengers every day. The Forum des Halles shopping centre was completed in 1979 and a public garden behind it in 1986. After criticism of this area by former mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, a new rehabilitation project was launched and the area around Les Halles is set for yet another facelift.

Les Halles

There was a great deal of unseen work that was an integral part of the transformation of Paris, the work that was taking place underneath the city. Baron Haussmann was extremely thorough in his plans for rebuilding Paris. Prior to the mid-19th century, the Paris water supply was drawn from the Canal de l’Ourcq in the north-east of the city. The Baron is said to have described the water from the canal as being “cold in winter, hot in summer and dubious in any season”. Plans for the new Paris included the provision of water to the new buildings, the provision of water for industry and, very importantly, the evacuation of waste water. 
The engineer Eugène Belgrand is credited with the creation of the first modern sewer system in Paris. Modern, because the original Parisian sewers were in fact built by the Romans back when the city was known as Lutetia. They were located under what is now the boulevard Saint Michel, but were abandoned in the Middle Ages for an above ground system where the denizens threw their waste water onto the street, where it collected (and often stagnated) in central gullies. Belgrand began work on this immense project in 1854. When new roads were built, the pipes to take away waste water were installed beneath them and when new buildings were built, they had to connect to the pipes. The waste water was taken north-west of Paris, to Clichy, before being siphoned into the Seine. 
The installation of a sewer system in Paris instantly turned the city into a modern one. The sewers have been celebrated in literature, in Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” and in film, in Disney’s animated film “Ratatouille”. They have been open to visitors right from the start and are as popular and unusual a visitor attraction today as they were in the 19th century.

The Underground Sewer System

The Garnier Opera House is the most spectacular and imposing building built during the Second Empire. Its neo-Baroque style is very representative of the eclectic architectural style in vogue in the second half of the 19th century. Work began on it in 1861, and it officially opened in 1875. 
The Emperor, Napoleon III, decided that he wanted a new opera house the day after an attempt was made upon his life at the then opera house on rue Le Peletier which left 8 dead and more than a hundred wounded. Baron Haussmann was very specific about the location of the future building and he was deaf to the many requests for flexibility made by the architect, the young Charles Garnier, who was forced to make a number of changes to his plans. 
Building of the Opera was fraught with difficulties, such as the discovery of a body of water beneath the building. This river inspired Gaston Leroux when he wrote his novel The Phantom of the Opera. Construction was also interrupted by the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. 
Baron Haussmann wanted the Opera House to be the crowning glory of the magnificent Avenue de l’Opéra that runs from the Comédie Française theatre on what is now place André-Malraux in the 1st arrondissement to place de l’Opéra. The road would allow the Emperor to ride straight from the Louvre palace where he lived to the Opera House, and he would step into the building at the back directly from his carriage, thereby avoiding any would-be assassins. The avenue was supposed to be called Avenue Napoleon in the Emperor’s honour, but the fall of the Second Empire in 1870 meant that Napoleon would never have his own street named after him. It was renamed avenue de l’Opéra in 1873. 
To accommodate the large width of avenue de l’Opéra, Haussmann demolished a number of streets and their houses. He also levelled two small hills, the Butte Saint Roch and the Butte des Moulins and a fountain, the Fontaine d’Amour. 
The avenue de l’Opéra is unusual in that it does not have any trees planted on it. They were planned and indeed some trees were planted, but the architect Charles Garnier finally got his own way when they were removed so that an unspoiled view of the Opera House could be enjoyed by approaching traffic.

Palais Garnier

On place d’Estienne d’Orves in the 9th arrondissement is the church of the Sainte-Trinité, the Holy Trinity. Baron Haussmann’s plans for the new Paris may have included the demolition of many old monuments and churches, but he also planned several new churches. Some of those built as part of the urban renewal were Saint Ambroise in the 11th arrondissement, Saint Augustin not far away in the 8th arrondissement just off boulevard Haussmann and this, the new church of the Trinity, reconstructed a few hundred metres from its previous location on rue de Clichy, where the Casino de Paris stands today. 
Baron Haussmann chose this location and Théodore Ballu was the chosen architect. Work began on the church in 1861 and it was completed in 1867. It was designed to be visible from the Garnier Opera house. Baron Haussmann was often criticised for his extravagant spending, but he considered the estimated 3.2 million francs that it cost to build this church to have been very reasonable, economical even, especially in view of its sumptuous décor. 
The square on which the church stands was designed by Jean-Charles Alphand, who was responsible for the parks and gardens that were built during the transformation of Paris. The exterior of the church is inspired by the Italian Renaissance and the symbolic nature of the number 3 is reflected in the three figures of Faith, Hope and Charity. The church of La Trinité is strongly associated with music. The funeral mass of the composer Hector Berlioz was celebrated there in 1869, and that of Georges Bizet in 1875. It is also internationally recognised due to its association with the 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen who was chief organist from 1931 to 1992.

Eglise de la Sainte-Trinite

The invention of the steam engine and the spread of a railway network are hugely symbolic of the Industrial Revolution. Although rail travel was originally considered to be a novelty, it soon became clear that this was a means of transport that was going to last. The building of railway stations was to change the face of Paris. To this day, there are six major railway stations in the French capital, each servicing a different section of the country. 
Haussmann was responsible for building the gare de Lyon in 1855, and the gare du Nord in 1865. He dreamed of linking the train stations together with a railway line, but he had to settle for facilitating access to them by widening the roads that led to them. The Saint Lazare train station was actually the first to be built in Paris in 1837. Today it is the second busiest station in the city. It services Normandy in the west of France and is a major suburban railway hub. 
A first phase of extensions to the original station was completed in 1853, the year of Haussmann’s nomination, and a second phase of extensions was carried out in 1867. They were inaugurated by Napoleon III, in the company of the Austrian Emperor and the Russian Tsar during the Universal Exhibition held in Paris that year. The interior of the station building was a model of the considerable technological advances made in the use of iron and glass in recent years and which were also put to good use in the construction of the Les Halles covered market. 
The Gare Saint Lazare train station has seen many changes over the years since Haussmann’s renovation of Paris. Its size was increased in 1886 and 1889, and it was restored in 1936. In 2012 a new shopping centre was built within its walls, and yet the building retains its monumental appearance and some decorative details that are reminiscent of the glory of the heyday of rail travel. The impressionist painter Claude Monet was fascinated by the station and painted many pictures of it, the most famous of which is on display in the Musée d’Orsay in the 7th arrondissement, itself a former train station which is now a museum of 19th and 20th century artworks.

Gare Saint Lazare

Boulevard Haussmann, home to the two most famous department stores in Paris, Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, is named after Georges-Eugene Haussmann, the driving force behind the transformation of the urban landscape of the city in the middle of the 19th century. 
It is just over 2.5 km long, from the crossroads of the boulevard des Italiens and boulevard Montmartre in the 9th arrondissement in the east, where many banks have their headquarters, to avenue de Friedland in the west, one of the avenues that leads to the place de l’Etoile and the Arc de Triomphe. 
Although the boulevard was not completed during Haussmann’s lifetime, the decision to name the street in his honour was made in 1864, when he was at the height of his powers. As with the other major roads built by Haussmann, many buildings had to be demolished in order to widen the street (it is over 33m wide at its largest), including the house in which the Baron was born in 1809 on the corner of rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré. 
 
Below is a list of some of the points of interest that can be seen along the 2.5 kilometres of this boulevard: 
 
- the headquarters of the Le Figaro daily newspaper at number 14 
- the two department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps 
- the headquarters of a company manufacturing dynamite that was founded by Alfred Nobel were formerly located at number 67 
- the author Marcel Proust lived at number 102 from 1907 to 1919 as can be seen on a commemorative plaque outside the building 
- the bas-relief on the outside of number 107 were sculpted by the well-known 19th century painter and sculptor Aimé Millet 
- there is a statue of Baron Haussmann at the corner of rue de Laborde at number 132 
- the headquarters of the fictional criminal organisation SPECTRE from the James Bond books were located at number 136 
- the beautiful Jacquemart-André Museum is a public art museum at number 158. It is housed in the former home of Edouard André and Nélie Jacquemart and the art they collected throughout their lives is on display in a splendid setting that is well worth the visit

Boulevard Haussmann

On the corner of rue de Laborde and the boulevard that bears his name stands a statue of Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the man responsible for transforming Paris from an overcrowded and unsanitary city to the model of unity and beauty that we know today. From his nomination as Prefect of the Seine in 1853 to the height of his success at the end of the 1850s and his fall from grace in 1870, he remained unwavering in his vision of Paris as an organic whole and ruthless in his willingness to demolish anything that stood in the way of carrying out that vision. Who was this man? He was not an architect. He was not an engineer. But he was a visionary and an upstanding man of great intellect who took his nomination to public office with the utmost seriousness. 
Born on March 27th 1809, in a house that he happily had demolished to make way for his new Paris he studied law after leaving school and was also a pupil at the Paris Conservatory of Music. At the age of 22 he received his first nomination to public administration. 
He was introduced to Napoleon III by the Emperor’s interior minister Victor de Persigny. Both men were impressed by his vigour, his energy and his clever mind. Haussmann would go on to make use of his imposing appearance and great height as weapons in his fight to renew Paris in the face of opposition and without counting the cost. By the time Haussmann was dismissed in 1870, the city was 1.5 billion francs in debt. 
In his memoirs, he wrote “In this eyes of the Parisians, who like routine in things but are changeable when it comes to people, I committed two great wrongs; over the course of seventeen years I disturbed their daily habits by turning Paris upside down, and they had to look at the same face of the Prefect in the Hotel de Ville. These were two unforgiveable complaints.” 
Considering the legacy that he left for future generations, it is hard to picture the baron’s fall from grace. The title, by the way, was given to him by Napoleon III, but in reality he had little regard for titles. A protestant by birth, he was known to be of a sober and dignified nature. 
It is astonishing to think that the changes to the Paris landscape instigated by Baron Haussmann were carried out in just 17 ½ years, without any of the modern machinery that is available today. His work both over and underground facilitated the opening of the first lines of the Paris underground, the Métropolitain, in 1900, making Paris a model of what a modern city should look like.

Statue of Baron Haussmann

Boulevard Malesherbes is a fine example of a “Hausmannian” street. It cuts through the wealthy 8th and 17th arrondissements, from place de la Madeleine to boulevard Berthier. It offers a fine perspective of the church of Saint Augustine, which was also built as part of the works of Baron Haussmann. 
There are also many typical examples of the residential buildings that were built as part of the renovation process on this street, the buildings that are so characteristic of Paris for many visitors to the city. At the time, Baron Haussmann came under heavy criticism for the standardised appearance of these buildings, for gentrifying the city with these privately owned buildings and driving working-class Parisians out to the extremities of the city in search of more affordable accommodation. Apartment living also became more organised at this time. The new apartments were self-contained, whereas in the past, a family might have several rooms on different floors of a building, with a kitchen on one floor, a dining room on another and bedrooms on yet another. 
Although no specific edict or law imposed that new buildings resemble each other, there were strict recommendations in place, designed to give a unified, homogenous and elegant appearance to the major public thoroughfares. Their facades or exteriors were considered to be part of the street and as such, they had to conform to a number of restrictions. This uniformity can be noted in the buildings to this day. For example, number 81 on boulevard Malesherbes is a typical example of the Haussmannian style. Some of its distinguishing features are as follows: 
 
The building is made of stone, where plaster had been used in the past. 
 
The facade is flat. 
 
There are balconies on the second floor and on the fifth floor which extend along the whole length of the building. 
 
The French windows are standard in size. Most buildings in this style also have louvered shutters. 
 
The buildings go straight up from the ground to the 5th floor cornice, at which point they begin to slant inwards. This allows light to filter down to the lower floors. At first there was just one last floor at this level, but later, up to three more floors were allowed. The inward slant meant that from the street all the buildings seem to have the same height. 
 
Although the buildings at first appear to be very uniform, on closer inspection it can be seen that each architect would add small details to give his own personal stamp to the building. 
 
The buildings often have small interior courtyards and this is where the pipes, the lift machinery, ventilation shafts and all the unsightly necessities were hidden.

Boulevard Malesherbes

Jean-Charles Alphand was the man in charge of renewing the green spaces of Paris during Baron Haussmann’s transformation of the city. As part of the urban renewal, the two lungs of the city, the Bois de Boulogne wood to the west and that of Vincennes to the east were landscaped, and more than 80 public parks, squares and gardens were renovated or created. 
Some of the larger public parks created to Aphand’s plans include: 
 
Parc Montsouris south of the Seine (14th arrondissement) 
 
Parc des Buttes Chaumont in the north-east (19th arrondissement) 
 
Parc de Monceau in the north-west (8th arrondissement) 
 
Parc de Monceau was the first new public park to be redesigned. The land on which it stands was originally the property of the Duke of Chartres. It was confiscated after the French Revolution, in 1793, but was restored the family of Orleans after the Restoration. The family sold sections of the park to other wealthy families to build luxurious townhouses. The city of Paris bought the remaining land in 1860. Part of it was sold for development and the other part was landscaped by Jean-Charles Alphand. 
 
The impressive ornamental park grille stands over 8 metres tall and was designed by Gabriel Davioud who also designed the twin theatres on place du Châtelet. There are two main alleys that run from east to west and north to south and they intersect in the centre of the park. The alleys were wide enough for carriages to pass along them. Smaller paths for strolling were also laid out. The Pavillon de Chartres was also altered by Davioud who added a dome. He also built a bridge over the stream that is reminiscent of the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Haussmann also added a collection of exotic plants and trees. 
 
Some of the decorative elements installed by the previous owners were left intact. The Egyptian pyramid that still stands in the park dates back to 1778, the Naumachie, an oval pool surrounded by Corinthian columns and the rotunda by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. 
 
Parc de Monceau is very popular with families, joggers and strollers of all ages throughout the year. There are several statues dotted around it, including ones of the composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin, the author Guy de Maupassant and the poet Alfred de Musset. It was a source of inspiration for Claude Monet who painted 5 pictures of the park between 1876 and 1878. Other artists inspired by the natural and man-made beauty of the setting include the painters Georges Braque and Gustave Caillebotte and more recently the photographer Willy Ronis. 
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Parc de Monceau

From the summit of Napoleon Bonaparte’s victory arch at place de l’Etoile at the crossroads of the 8th, 16th and 17th arrondissements, the extent of Baron Haussmann’s transformation of Paris can be truly understood. Out of the chaos of streets that ran all over Paris, he brought symmetry by widening and straightening a large number of important axes to create the main thoroughfares of the new city, which are interconnected by a large number of secondary streets. 
 
Place Charles de Gaulle, more commonly called by its former name of place de l’Etoile is perhaps the crowning glory of this system. No fewer than twelve avenues radiate from this central point, including the most famous avenue in the world, the Champs Elysées. 
 
Avenue Hoche, which leads to Parc de Monceau, was originally a private road, but it was widened and transformed by the Baron in 1854. It was named avenue de la reine-Hortense after Napoleon III’s mother but was renamed in 1879 in honour or Lazare Hoche who was a general during the French revolution. 
 
Avenue de Friedland is an extension of the boulevard Haussmann, beginning at rue du Faubourg St Honoré near the presidential palace and ending at place Charles-de-Gaulle, the official name of place de l’Etoile. It was extended as part of Haussmann’s plans in 1857 and renamed in 1864 after the battle of Friedland, one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s victories over Russia. 
 
However, avenue Foch is probably the finest example of an avenue built to the Haussmann ideal. One of the most prestigious addresses in Paris, it runs from place de l’Etoile to Porte Dauphine and was opened in 1854. It was originally called avenue de l’Impératrice in honour of the Empress Eugenie. It is said that when Haussmann declared that the road would be named in her honour, she declared that it was not wide enough for an Empress. The Baron took her criticism on board and the completed avenue, with its gardens, measured 120 metres wide, truly fit for an Empress! 
 
Baron Haussmann was dismissed in 1870 when Napoleon III could no longer resist the cries of anger over the outrageous debt incurred by 17 years of ongoing work. Although many Parisians at the time held a negative view of some of the changes he made to their old city, few could deny that street lighting, transport, sewers and clean water could be considered bad things as they led to definite improvements in their quality of life and created the instantly recognisable neoclassical appearance of the city that is so familiar to visitors today.

Arc de Triomphe

The emperor Napoleon III, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor of France in 1852 after a coup d’état against the French republic, of which he was already president. A great admirer of British modernity, he set out to transform Paris into a leading light among European cities. In 1853 he engaged the recently appointed Prefect of the Seine, Georges Eugène Haussmann to oversee the work and apply the plans and recommendations of the Commission Siméon which had studied in detail the question of embellishing the city. Ably assisted by the engineers Eugène Belgrand and Jean-Charles Alphand, this trained lawyer set out to implement a massive public works programme that became known as Haussmann’s renovation of Paris. 
 
Fiercely criticised for his spending, the extent of his projects, accused of expropriating the citizens of the city and gentrifying the centre of Paris, he was unwavering in his commitment to change. The outcry led to his dismissal in 1870, but work continued until 1927 on project which he had instigated and the distinctive image of Paris with tree-lined boulevards, apartment buildings of handsome regularity and monuments that can be admired from a distance and which contribute greatly to Paris’ reputation as a beautiful city to visit can all be traced back to this indefatigable administrator. 
 
This tour will take you to a number of sites associated with Baron Haussman to give you an idea of Paris before and after the work carried out in the mid-19th century and the extent of his transformation of the city.

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Paris Before and After Baron Haussmann

Paris

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Paris

Paris Before and After Baron Haussmann

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