A "MASTERLY LINE" CUTS THROUGH THE WORKING-CLASS EAST

"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 that shrouds part of the Saint-Martin canal...

-- On the  canal  

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

Un jour de plus à Paris, without more information

The canal at place de la Bastille before it was covered over

...which obstructed the army's entrance into the working-class east during the June insurrection:

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.)

# # #

Covering over 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

City Museum, not exhibited

...and would let troops enter the industrializing east, correctly predicted to become more turbulent still:

Barricade in Ménilmontant, 1871 / zoom

So:

Adapted from a Google map

 

# # #

Haussmann transforms the entire area to allow the overpass:

• He demolishes 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

All that remains is the Théâtre Dejazet, on the other side of the street.

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

A classic film evokes the ambiance.

• ...so that soldiers can assemble on a huge place, now "place de la République." 

• The gigantic lion fountain suitable to Empire was moved (to place Félix Éboué in the 12th)... 

By Michel Charles Fichot, toward 1880 / zoom 

 ...and replaced by the giant Homage to the Republic once it was clear that the Third Republic would remain (in 1879, statue 1883).

.

• As at Notre-Dame Cathedral and City Hall, space for the army is huge...

... and that for daily use, insignificant:

# # #

Today the "masterly line" is 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 Miserables, Fantine is a grisette whose lover, a student, takes her to a luxurious déjeuner. He promises a surprise to follow, which urns out to be his 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 evokes the poor 

and reminds patriarchs of the girlfriends of their youth,

while the gardens make the violence that brought the passage

almost inconceivable.

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A once blue-collar neighborhood's unexpected open space