4.5.2. PERSPECTIVES AND POINTS OF FOCUS, KEYS TO THE CITY'S GRANDEUR

AT THE HEART OF THE CITY'S MAJESTY, 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

Origins: the space that leads to the monarchs' tombs, the straight streets that lead to symbols of monarchy, the possible plan for an urban complex that culminates with a royal statue,  the straight lines that converge at the dome of the Grand Axis. the Invalides.

The design:

• Amplifies prestige.

Claude Abron

 Les Invalides

• Highlights power.

The Senate

• Links the secular and sacred.

The Chamber of Deputies seen from the church of the Madeleine

• Adds 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

• Adds drama.

Barbès

Eurodisney website

Eurodisney

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

The Baron Haussmann in 1860 / zoom

He knew how to stand up to the Emperor. 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,
4.7.3.

"Places" stay royal