How Paris Became Paris

Joan DeJean “How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City” Bloomsbury, 2014, 224 pp.

Paris by order of Louis XIV became the first city to tear down its fortifications, inviting people in rather than keeping them out.  From that time on, Paris led the world in urban planning with new kinds of streets, including boulevards, public parks, and sidewalks as well as bridges without houses.  It became the first great walking city.  Author Joan DeJean truly knows her subject well.  Linda and I have been to Paris five times, this familiarity with the city enhanced my appreciation for this book.

My Notes:

Pg. 4:  In 1597 there was nothing splendid about Paris.  In fact at the turn of the seventeenth century, wolves roamed freely in the streets of the French capital.  Between 1597 and 1700, that urban disaster was rebuilt and transformed. 

Pg. 10:  Louis XIV changed Paris from a walled city to the modern cityscape by replacing the city walls with a green promenade, making Paris the first open city in modern European history.

Pg. 15:  Paris’ first great monument, the Pont Neuf (new bridge) was opened to the public in 1606 by Henry IV.  Unlike other city bridges such as Florence’s Ponte Vecchio or London Bridge, the Pont Neuf was built without houses, and in fact was built with little balconies, almost like boxes at the theater, that encouraged those crossing the Seine to step to the side, lean on the edge, and watch the river flow.  (This bridge still exists).

Pg. 18:  The redesign of Paris mandated by Napoleon III and carried out under Haussmann’s direction in the mid-nineteenth century replaced some medieval streets with a network of boulevards, following a plan based on straight lines and geometric precision.  It was, however, merely the second of two great periods of building that transformed medieval Paris into the city we know today.  The vision of urban modernity now associated with Haussmann had, in fact, began two centuries before him. 

Pg. 76:  By 1645, three visionary urban works—the Pont Neuf, the Place Royale, and the Ile Notre-Dame—had become the foundation for Paris’ new image, as a city remarkable not only for its size but for its exciting and innovative constructions. 

Pg. 139:  After Paris instituted street lighting it spread widely across Europe.  In 1669 a system was implemented in Amsterdam, in Berlin in 1680, and in London by 1690.