It's Not A House, Man, It's A Haussmann!

Until I was planning this trip, I didn’t know anything about Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann.  He was given the task of modernizing Paris in the mid-19th century, particularly the Right Bank.  

Haussman is notable to me for two achievements.  His main achievement was clearing out large chunks of the cityscape and replace the medieval jumble of streets with wide, straight boulevards highlighting magnificient buildings.  

Not only did it lead to the beautiful cityscape that is Paris (but to be honest, the higgledy-piggledy of the Left Bank is more my speed – it’s to feel like an aristocrat on the Right Bank, but the Left Bank is more evocative of the past).

Part of the reason Haussmann was given the charge to change the narrow streets is that it was easy for angry rioters (a common occurrence in Paris) to set up Les Miserables-esque barricades to hold back government forces.  Now, with these wide, straight boulevards, government troops were harder to block.  And, a few shots of grapeshot would clear out revolutionaries much more quickly than the rabbit warren of old Paris.

But what I found most interesting about Haussmann is that he built a series of five story grand buildings with angled, black slate roofs and facades featuring balconies on the second and fifth floors that matched the others on the building.  There were often towers at one or both ends of the buildings.

I had found some blog posts highlighting Rue Reaumur as a good street to see any number of interesting Haussman buildings.  

So after the Louvre tour with Sara, and after lunch (having an upset stomach, I wasn’t eating much), we headed up to Rue Reaumer and gawked at the buildings.  You’ll get a decent sense for them from my photos in the next blog post.

Just as we finished our blocks long walking tour of the Haussmann architecture, Carol spotted one of the five victory arches in Paris, so we headed over to see it for a couple of minutes.  It is the Porte Saint-Denis, in the 10th arrondissement, one of the city gates from the days of the wall of Charles V.

(A little known fact: Charles V had his own detective agency with three beautiful women doing the investigations and fighting crime.  The King was an informal guy, so the agency was known as "Charlie's Angels.")

(Editor: How do you come up with this stuff?  Writer: I, I don't really know.  Editor: More importantly, how does Carol put up with this stuff?  Writer: I, I don't really know.)

Then Carol and I realized we need to get across the city to use our 4:00 pm Eiffel Tower tickets.  Uber drivers dropped us twice, so we grabbed a cab, making it to the Tower just in time.  Taking a cab proved to be a break, as our cabbie was able to drive in the bus lanes, while Uber would be stuck in the main, backed-up lanes.  Sometimes it’s better to be lucky rather than good.