"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 obstructed the army's entrance into the working-class east:
-- On the canal
My canal Saint-Martin by Pascal Payen-Appenzeller (1984 (in French)
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Covering over the canal pierced through the faubourg Saint-Antoine, the artisans' territory that was the traditional epicenter of revolt.* It would let troops enter the industrializing east, correctly predicted to become more turbulent still:
* A Balzacien character springs up"like an insurrection in the faubourg Saint-Antoine."
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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, so that soldiers can assemble on a huge place, now "place de la République."
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The Faubourg du Temple by Adolphe Martial Potémont, 1862 / zoom |
All that remains is the Théâtre Dejazet, on the other side of the street.
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The Children of Paradise by Marcel Carné (1943) with Arletty and Jean Marais / Trailer |
A classic film evokes the ambiance.
By Michel Charles Fichot, toward 1880 / zoom
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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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