THE WORLD'S BIGGEST MUSEUM
Welcome to Boulevard Haussmann. There are two version of Paris:
The one before Haussmann and the one after.
So, who is George Eugène Haussmann?
Above all, he’s an authoritarian giant
and under Napoleon III, he’s known as the Ripper Prefect.
He and his team ripped Paris apart so much, as did his successors,
that this unsanitary medieval city...
PARIS PHOTOGRAPHED IN HAUSSMANN'S TIME
...was to become the most beautiful city in the world, within 40 years.
That’s who Haussmann really is. And it’s quite something. Let’s go!
I'm with Alexandre Gady, hello. - Hello.
You're a historian and a lecturer at the Sorbonne.
So, here we're on the corner of Sébastopol and rue de Rivoli.
Is it symbolic of Haussmann? - It’s the major Haussmann development
with part of a road that was started before his time, the rue de Rivoli
and the opening of Boulevard de Sébastopol leading to a station,
as Haussmann’s idea revolved around traffic in Paris and getting from A to B
and the development of the railway and connections between stations.
This major crossroads, Rivoli-Sébastopol the planning of a garden,...
HISTORIAN, ARCHITECT
...the famous Haussmann squares. - At the foot of St. Jacques Tower?
Yes, which is also very symbolic of the Haussmann period.
A monument is being retrieved to make a gigantic ornament for the square.
He clears everything away from Notre Dame, he wants the clutter out.
He wants to keep the medieval monuments
to enhance this 19th century city.
Haussmann often liked avenues to open up onto public monuments
for sight-seeing, still within the logic of the city's image,
but it's contradictory to getting around the city.
If you put a monument in line with a street, you'll get a traffic jam
which is why the Haussmann squares are spectacular with very dense traffic.
Who's dream is this Paris?
According to research, Napoleon III
was the man behind this ambition for Paris.
So, what’s the principle? Large open avenues,
with great views from Montparnasse to Saint Lazare.
Is that the aim? More space?
Yes, draw two red lines across a map and there’s nothing left in the middle.
You evict people, refund their houses,
demolish them and plot the new avenue.
For example, this section of the start of Sébastopol.
You reorganize the space, sidewalks,
benches, bollards, street lamps, the alignment of planted trees
and then you sell off the serviced land in the new avenues
to private owners.
So, Haussmann will impose a set pattern.
Buildings must be in stone and vary in height,
If you're allowed five, you go up to five.
If you want one or two, you're not allowed.
The next requirement will be what everybody notices in Paris: the balcony.
A balcony along the first floor, above the mezzanine
and one on the top floor.
You might think it's strange for a prefect to deal with installing balconies,
but Haussmann’s idea is more general rather than focusing on specific cases.
He wants smooth, horizontal lines.
Alexandre, I can tell you don’t like Haussmann.
As a citizen and pedestrian of Paris, I see the system's limitations
like Avenue Victoria, which is a dead end because it's unfinished
and has to link up to old Paris
because there's no other solution to Haussmann's failure.
I’m always a bit embarrassed by Haussmann’s lack of artistic awareness.
When as prefect, you're lucky enough to deal with Paris,
realizing there’s no soul at all in it, is a sad state of affairs.
So, with more space in our city today, what are its qualities?
This is a 19th century city and capital.
The advantage is that it's extremely structured and imposing.
These large avenues have worked well.
The backbone of Paris is very resistant
to all the onslaughts of modern architecture.
Paris's image stems from its limitations.
Haussmann didn’t like the poor.
In his letters he says he wants rid.
It's not very nice.
You can't blame Haussmann as that was the atmosphere at the time,
the idea of public health, cleanliness and flowing traffic
which was also linked to capitalism.
You need to exchange, move around, travel, and goods need to travel.
It all merges together. As one MP famously said:
"The avenues are straight because idiots can’t do a left turn."
However tempting, it would be unfair to criticize Haussmann.
I'm on the Seine wharfs with Nicolas Chaudin.
You’re the author of a biography on Haussmann.
Tell me briefly, who was Haussmann
before becoming the Seine prefect chosen by the Emperor?
He was a civil servant. He slaved away at his career
after studying for a law degree in a very ordinary way.
Nineteenth century bureaucracy is about to characterize France.
Haussmann is one of its prototypes. - Isn’t he from the middle class?
From a well-established one.
they're a late 18th century family of indienne and cotton fabric manufacturers.
HAUSSMANN BIOGRAPHER
They were accredited by Queen Marie-Antoinette.
They're middle class people who've already applied the social codes of their class.
THE WORLD'S BIGGEST MUSEUM BARON HAUSSMANN
The one who imagined Paris was Napoleon III.
What's his project? What does he want to do with the capital?
He wants Paris to be the showcase of his reign.
He wants it to be the world capital of diplomacy
and therefore, he wants to give it a modern face.
Why does Napoleon III choose Haussmann?
When Napoleon III is Prince-President and travelling around France,
he stops in the Gironde, in Bordeaux where Haussmann is prefect.
Haussmann's reception contributes so much to the success of this tour,
that Napoleon is very grateful to him.
When it's time to appoint a new Paris prefect,
Haussmann seems to be the perfect leader with the decision-making skills
to accomplish Napoleon’s project.
This man is only a prefect of Paris and many never achieved posterity,
so how does he become indispensable?
He only wants to answer to the Emperor.
From the start, he tells the Emperor that, if he wants renovation work to move fast,
it’d be best to limit the intermediaries and people having their say
and he suggests dealing directly with him.
He’s not really a favorite.
He's not accepted into the intimate circles of the imperial couple.
Nevertheless, Napoleon III definitely appreciates
his inflexible and unswerving devotion.
He's a go-getter who sweeps aside all obstacles
on behalf of the Emperor.
Haussmann is always reassuring him of his loyalty.
SEINE PREFECT 1853 TO 1870
Who is Haussmann in real life?
He’s an athlete and a giant. He's almost 6 foot 7 tall with huge hands.
Two men your size would fit in his coats.
Furthermore, his nickname of Ripper Prefect really suits him.
If he's not ripping crowds apart, he's separating them,
quashing the opposition, with a strong voice
and winning any ongoing debates.
It’s always brutal, cutting and very well thought out.
But, he has set his goals and thinks of nothing but achieving them.
He aims to make history with the immensity of his renovation works.
How will Baron Haussmann survive the fall of the Second Empire?
Only just. He barely survives.
Firstly, he is deposed before the fall of the Second Empire
at the beginning of January 1870.
He's a rather discreet man who'll try to get involved in business
without much success.
It's now the bicentenary of Haussmann’s birth,
why are there no celebrations at all?
Haussmann was already not a very nice man,
but then his name was linked to the fall of the Second Empire
which also ended in total military and social disaster.
Ultimately, the fall of the Second Empire was down to the Paris Commune.
We're in the Musée du Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Métiers,
right next to République in Paris.
This is a model of one of the Haussmann buildings under construction.
I have an architecture historian with me. François Loyer, hello.
What are the characteristics of the Haussmann buildings?
They have to be resistant and made out of cut stone
Thanks to the way it's extracted and transported via railway...
ARCHITECTURE HISTORIAN
…you can build whole cities with cut stone.
These big slabs of stone were cut at the quarry
and moved to the site almost complete. The building comes in kit form.
In terms of security, Haussmann buildings are a huge improvement.
Buildings used to be wooden, so they burnt easily.
Nineteenth century buildings had fireproof walls
and the floors, made out of iron joists, were sunk into heaps of plaster,
plaster slabs,
which soundproof one floor from another
but also prevent fire from spreading
so that if one apartment burns, the neighboring ones won't.
The apartment kitchens are always as far as possible from the living area.
This is medieval tradition.
Anything that's dirty or smells bad
must be as far away as possible from the living area.
Cooking smells in the living room
are a total embarrassment in these apartments.
Nowadays, everybody wants a fifth or sixth floor apartment
because of the view, but those floors weren’t always popular.
Quite the opposite. If you had to walk up five sets of stairs,
you were obviously poor.
So, the first floor was considered the prestige floor.
It was called the first floor but it was actually the second
because there was the ground floor, the mezzanine and then the first floor.
Today, this is no longer the case.
The "bel étage," or the second floor, as we now know it, had rich clients.
Poor people lived higher up in the building.
There were small apartments the size of two maid’s rooms
with shared sanitary facilities,
which would be deemed suitable for a widow.
Back then, there was the main staircase and then the service staircase behind.
The service staircase is left over from another time when people had servants.
In the 19th century, despite your level of middle class,
it was inconceivable to even think about living without servants.
From 1860 to 1880, well after Napoleon and Haussmann,
was this kind of scaffolding found everywhere in Paris?
The city was a permanent building site for at least 20 years.
It must've been hell living in Paris with all the streets under construction.
Imagine the amount of earth being moved and the dust everywhere,
buildings being demolished
while new buildings were being constructed.
So, when you lived at a certain address,
six months later, the whole area could've changed drastically.
Does it take 15 years to build?
A building like this takes six to twelve months.
Did people buy their floors in advance?
No, because back then, co-ownership was illegal.
One of the major difficulties of the Haussmann system,
was finding people who could afford to buy a building.
Buildings were bought one by one
and if you didn’t have the means, the technique was rather strange.
Companies would partner to construct buildings.
Then, they would rent them out for two years,
while the plaster was still damp, which made them less desirable.
After the two years, they'd sell the building on the real estate market.
So, that’s why people talk of “wiping the plaster”?
Yes, it means living in a brand new apartment
that still smells of damp plaster.
The expert was Balzac
who rented luxurious flats for free
in a barely finished building,
leaving his prestigious name behind when he left.
It was quite clever, actually.
Do we know today, how many of these buildings
were built on this large building site that lasted nearly 30 years?
There are 100,000 large buildings in Paris.
At least 60,000 were built in the period between Napoleon III and World War I.
It's huge. Of course, it's the capital of the 19th century. It’s amazing.
London wasn’t as impressive as that.
There was no city as dynamic until New York came along.
This is the sewer system of Paris and I'm with Lionel Decaix.
Hi, Lionel. - Hi, Eric.
So, you're in charge of the public tour of the sewers.
We're on the corner of Quai d’Orsay and Pont de l’Alma.
When do Haussmann and Belgrand...
ENGINEER
...get involved in the Paris basement?
When they arrive, there are already some sewers, but not many.
The problem goes back to the Middle Ages.
In the early 19th century, when Belgrand took over,
there were 20 miles of sewers,
some of which were badly designed, and very few were indexed.
When he died, how many were there? - He built over 373 miles of sewers.
We’re right under rue Cognacq-Jay, which is no place for tourists.
All these pipes are from the buildings in rue Cognacq-Jay.
They open up on this sloping sewer which carries on a bit further.
We’re on a high slope, but 50 m along, things will get worse fast.
WATER PURITY MANAGEMENT
You, mean it'll start smelling bad? - Yes and we’ll even be walking in it.
These pipes on the left provide the buildings with drinking water.
The blue pipe is drinking water and the other is non-drinkable water
that the street cleaners use by opening a water valve.
PASSY NON-DRINKABLE WATER RESERVOIR
It's just river water flowing through the pipes for cleaning purposes.
Back then, I imagine Paris is no longer haunted by foul smelling odors.
It changes everything for Paris. - Yes, it’s a revolution.
Life in Paris completely changes.
Quality fresh water supplies are finally available in sufficient quantity.
No more need to climb five sets of stairs with buckets of water?
No, and it puts an end to water carriers
who had buckets strapped to a pole on their shoulders
selling water from the Seine.
They were actually selling death as the river water was very polluted
and those who drank it were victims of epidemics like the plague and cholera.
In the 1860s, it wasn’t tap water, so where did it come from?
When the water reaches Paris,
the richer classes had quality water at home
but the poorer classes still didn't have access to this quality water.
That's when an important man stepped in: Richard Wallace.
He installed water fountains that are named after him.
Eighty of them were installed in 1870
for poorer people to have clean water within reach all over Paris.
They’re still here and they're part of our heritage.
Where does this water for Paris come from?
That's Eugène Belgrand’s field. He’d already done it elsewhere.
He created a network of fresh water supply.
He built 373 miles of aqueducts
right to the source of the Parisian basin, more than 60 miles away.
LA VANNE AQUEDUCT
There are two major ones: La Vannes Aqueduct and La Duisse Aqueduct.
La Vanne leads to the south of Paris and La Duisse, more towards the east.
So, he's diverting the course...
He diverts 48 sources to supply water to the capital.
In terms of public health and sanitation, it’s mind-blowing.
He probably saved thousands of lives.
Definitely. The last cholera epidemic in 1832
took 18,000 lives in Paris.
There was roughly one every 10 to 20 years.
It was either cholera, the plague, etc…
I'm with Bernard Landau. Hello. - Hello, Eric.
We're in Buttes-Chaumont Park in east Paris, another Haussmann project.
So, you're an architect then? An architecte voyer, in Henry IV's terms.
The term was used by Henry IV for great urban surveyors of the time.
They deal with roads, as cities are first built along roads.
They need to be tidied up. It's early policy.
Was Haussmann eco-friendly? - He was green before green existed
because he conceived a coherent network,
from the woods to the squares via tree-lined avenues,
providing a green network in the city. Almost 90,000 trees were planted,
along boulevards, which are city walks
which George Sand describes very well, amazed by this new attraction...
HEAD URBAN PLANNER OF PARIS
...which is a good place to while away the time.
The green spaces are dependent on four areas:
the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes.
The large parks like this one, the 25 hectare Buttes-Chaumont,
the 17 hectare Montsouris, in south Paris and Monceau Park...
He redefines the Jardins du Luxembourg
and then, on a smaller scale, the squares that we all know:
Square du Temple, des Batignolles, the squares behind the town halls
and links them all up with a network of tree-lined avenues.
At the time, they had a municipal Department of Green Areas.
There are nurseries where the trees are cultivated
before being replanted in the city.
Haussmann wants organized nature, not like today’s gardens.
These gardens are arranged and very well tended to
for the new middle classes
who enjoy walking in their city.
So, it’s all very well tended to.
There's also an army of gardeners
transforming public spaces because...
PARIS CONSTRUCTION MANAGER
...Alphand, in charge of the walks and plants,
will create so many, that his work will become the benchmark.
Olmsted, an important American landscaper,
who created Central Park, comes to Paris to see how it's done
and takes his inspiration from Paris.
It became a model to copy
that everyone came to see and use as a source of inspiration.
Bernard Landau, we're in Place Gambetta in the 20th precinct.
We've chosen here because the town hall is from Haussmann's time,
a 20th century town hall.
The town hall belongs to communes annexed after 1860.
One of the major initiatives of Napoleon III and Haussmann
is to extend Paris to the Thiers fortifications
and add on suburban communes.
So, this was between the communes of Belleville and Charonne.
They were communes? - Yes, they were.
This is where the former town hall of Belleville stood.
Haussmann's architecture has a kind of administrative dimensioning.
The town hall immediately gets this administrative structure in its new area.
It's a good example. You could see it from a helicopter,
because there’s the town hall and behind it, it spreads out
into a square, which is an element of Alphand’s system
and behind that, there's a big hospital and, a bit further up, a fire station.
So, the town is punctuated with these public services
but the thoroughfares together, rue des Pyrénées, rue Belgrand,
named after the engineer who did the underground work,
leading to Bagnolet, are thoroughfares from the Haussmann plans.
Haussmann dies in early 1870, months before the fall of the Empire,
but his system continues to be used under the Third Republic
and a friend of Haussmann, Alphand, is the one to take over.
You're right. Haussmann’s detractors during his reign,
keep the services and consolidate them.
Alphand becomes the undisputed boss
of Paris until 1891.
Under the Second Empire, Paris is extended to the small bordering communes
but is that far enough?
That's the dilemma. We inherited a fantastic situation for the period,
but then we come across the fortifications.
Where the ring road is now? - Yes.
Paris is the only European metropolis that's stayed within its city walls.
For the time, it was very ambitious but compared to today’s metropolises,
which is the subject of the "Grand Paris" debate,
Paris has stayed within Haussmann's limits and never gone beyond them.
So, well done, Haussmann!
But at the same time, we have to stretch those limits today.
Haussmann is not a very nice person.
His name is linked to the Second Empire which isn't very politically correct.
And yet, when we think of urban renewal,
and of “Grand Paris,”
we could maybe celebrate the man who made this unsanitary capital
the world’s number one tourist destination.
Even more so, as this year
is the 200th anniversary of Baron Haussmann’s birth.
See you next week.
Subtitles: Babel Subtitling - babelSUB.be