20 notecards,
four each of five images in beautiful colors inspired by vintage
toile fabric, in a keepsake box. The five views of Paris on these
notecards include:
• the Arc de Triomphe and environs
• the Luxembourg Gardens, des Invalides, Ecole Militaire, and environs
• The Place de la Concord, Tuileries, Louvre, and environs
• the Madeleine, Opera, and environs
• the Ile de la Cite, Notre-Dame, and environs
When Louis-Napoleon (soon to become Napoleon III) returned to France
from exile in 1848, he brought with him a map of Paris painstakingly
marked in red, blue, green, and yellow inks. This document, now
lost, was the plan for no less than the full-scale modernization
of Paris. At that time, Paris was a fetid medieval city of
dark, winding streets. Courtyards of buildings were used as garbage
dumps, chamber pots were emptied from windows, and two-thirds of
the streets contained open sewers. In 1853, Napoleon III appointed
an unknown provincial prefect, Baron Georges Haussmann, to realize
his vision. Haussmann razed the ancient Ile de la Cite; the only
buildings left standing were Notre Dame, the Sainte-Chapelle, the
Conciergie, and the Palais de Justice. Thousands of houses were
demolished; crooked streets were straightened or replaced by grand,
tree-lined boulevards, enabling Parisians to stroll, shop, and
socialize; bridges and magnificent public parks were constructed;
broad vistas were created for the enhancement of monuments; 15,000
gaslights were installed. The transformation took only seventeen
years. At the end, Paris had become the City of Light. |
