IV.3.2. PERSPECTIVES AND POINTS OF FOCUS

BASIC AT THE CITY'S GRANDEUR THEY ARE ANOTHER GIFT OF KINGS

The Opéra at the end of the Avenue de l'Opéra harks back to the palace of Versailles at the end of the Avenue de Paris. 

Carolyn Ristau

The design comes from...

• The space that leads to the monarchs' tombs.

• The straight streets that lead to symbols of monarchy.

• A probable plan for an urban complex, which culminates with a statue of a king. 

• The straight lines that converge toward the dome of the Invalides, which was meant to harbor the Sun King's tomb.

• The Grand Axis.

They...

• Amplify prestige:

Claude Abron

 Les Invalides

• Highlight power:

The Senate

• Link the secular and sacred:

The Chamber of Deputies seen from the church of the Madeleine

• Add clout:

    The Bank of France in the 2nd district

    A branch of the BNP bank in the 9th

The Chamber of Commerce

Notre-Dame de Lorette, 9th

Saint-Bernard, 18th

• Add drama:

Barbès

• Are used today

Eurodisney website

Eurodisney

# # #

Those perspectives were due to one man (the Baron Haussmann, active 1854-1869), to whom Emperor Napoleon III entrusted the city's transformation:

The Baron Haussmann in 1860 / zoom

He stood up to the ruler. When the latter remarked that in London streets served only for traffic, Haussmann answered,

"Sire, Parisians are not English. They need something more."  

 -- Memoirs

 "Something more" 
is the memory of monarchy.

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Next,
4.3.3.

"Places" stay royal