#haussemann

Opéra de Paris, Palais Garnier, Paris, France.

Melanie and Kevin - European Travels

Paris, France - 10th Arrondissement  Oct. 4, 2016

First look at our AirBNB. It’s located adjacent to the Gare du Nord.

Haussmann House———

Napolean III was looking for someone to partake in his grand vision to rebuild Paris as a modern capital that was worthy of France.From 1800 to 1850 the population of Paris doubled. In 1850 the majority of Paris was still medieval style of narrow winding streets and open gutters for carrying sewage. Haussmann constructed wide boulevards, new parks, and expanded the sewer system.

Paris before Haussman was filled with disease and was overcrowded. Victor Considerant wrote: "Paris is an immense workshop of putrefaction, where misery, pestilence and sickness work in concert, where sunlight and air rarely penetrate. Paris is a terrible place where plants shrivel and perish, and where, of seven small infants, four die during the course of the year." Also traffic on the streets were horrible. The widest street was 5 meters and smallest street was 2 meters. Wagons and carts could barely move through the street.

To reach this goal Haussmann had to destroy entire neighborhoods. You could imagine that he was not a popular person because he was tearing peoples homes down and forcing them to move. Most people moved to the outskirts of Paris which is know today as the banlieue. Essenctially now the banlieue is the "project" "ghetto" of Paris.

A Haussmann House consist of some architecural rules about the height and the number of floors for buldings. Five stories to seven stories. The ground floor would be reserved for shops or other businesses, the next floor would be the actual living quarters for the wealthier people in France or the building shop keepers. The second floor was also for wealthy people( French "etage noble") High enough from the street low enough so you would not have climb a lot stairs. At this time elevators were still new and very expensive and only placed in places like hotels The top floor was reserved for the maids and was a small attic room.