A CANAL IS COVERED OVER

"I RARELY SAW MY AUGUST SOVEREIGN SO ENTHUSIASTIC, SO MUCH DID HE VALUE THE MASTERLY LINE THAT COULD TAKE 

THE FAUBOURG* SAINT-ANTOINE FROM BEHIND"

-- The baron Haussmann 

 in Éric Hazan, The Invention of Paris, 2001

*"Faubourg" or "false burg," that is, suburb. 

That line becomes the passage over part of the Saint-Martin 

canal, which in June hindered the army's march east: 

-- On the  canal  

My canal Saint-Martin by Pascal Payen-Appenzeller (1984 (in French)

Un Jour de plus à Paris, without more information

Place de la Bastille before the canal was covered over.

History of the Révolution of 1848 by Daniel Stern

No soldiers, horses or cannons are crossing the bridge because it cannot carry their weight (look attentively to see the cannon just above the arrow.)

# # #

The canal pierced through the faubourg Saint-Antoine, the artisans' territory that was the traditional epicenter of revolt.* 

* A Balzacien character springs up"like an insurrection in the faubourg Saint-Antoine."

-- César Birotteau, 1837, cited by Hazan

     Attack on a Barricade of rue Saint-Antoine and the Death of General Négrier on June 25 1848 by Gaspard Gobaut / zoom

Musée Carnavalet, not exhibited

*For a painting of the same drama in 1830, please click and scroll down.

Covering the canal would remove the obstacle that kept troops from entering the east as a whole, which, because its industrialization was attracting a new working class, was  expected to become a new center of turbulence. 

Adapted from a Google map

 

# # #

To allow the overpass, Haussmann transformed the entire area:

• He demolished the "Boulevard of Crime," named after the melodramas produced in the theaters that lined the street...

     The Faubourg du Temple by Adolphe Martial Potémont, 1862 / zoom

       The Children of Paradise by Marcel Carné (1943) with Arletty and Jean Marais / Trailer

• He built a huge void to let the army assemble, now place de la République:

Adapted from Mappy

As at Notre-Dame Cathedral and City Hall, space for the army is huge and the street for daily use insignificant:

 

# # #

Today the "masterly line" is the covered over canal. It has become a series of gardens, with the July Column at one end and the statue "The Grisette* of 1830" at the other:

 

*Grisette: a working-class girl, who wore "gris" (gray) because gray cloth was cheapest. 

By Jean Descamps, 1911

In Les Misérables, Fantine is a grisette whose lover, a student, invites her to a luxurious déjeuner. He promises a surprise to follow, which turns out to be leaving without paying the bill. He returns to his province, makes a useful marriage and never thinks of her again. She is pregnant... .

The statue charmingly reminds patriarchs

of the girlfriends of their youth,

while gardens make the violence

 that led to the passage almost unimaginable.

*     *     *

Next,

The great eastern voids and their symbols