The Redesign That Made Modern Paris

[@magoryn]

Even as a French, I'm stuned everytime I go downtown Paris. Beauty is everywhere.

[@sherriziegel]

is it the wide boulevards with their uniform architecture that you like about Paris or is it the dense, intimate neighborhoods? Haussmann's architectural vision was no better than his politics. He wanted a city where an army could move freely without being obstructed. Fortunately he failed to gut most of the city.

[@magoryn]

@@sherriziegel Have you ever been to Paris ?

[@sherriziegel]

@@magoryn 30-40 times - first time in 1976, last time less than a year ago. By far the worst thing about Paris is the wide boulevards full of cars, pollution, noise and danger. The wholesale destruction of historic neighborhoods in favor of 'modern' ones is never a good idea.

[@antoinesimon6126]

You're not the urbanist you think you are, Paris is closing streets to cars, building new bike lanes and expanding it's public transportation infrastructures at a pace no other major western city can even compete with. Yes Paris still has problems with pollution and cars but it is going the right way and I believe it's one of the most liveable city of this size

[@magoryn]

@@sherriziegel Your are talking about real ecoligical problems. I'm talking about beauty. Give me one huge city as beautifull as Paris.

[@Dark-H0rs3-Ap0caIypsys]

I'm currently in Paris for the Olympics... This city is so SO SO beautiful!🤩 Arts, culture & history are everywhere & surprisingly these French are not so bad!

[@TheDailyConversation]

Awesome. What events have you attended?

[@guillaume5156]

We can take the not so bad as a compliment 😅

[@bastiennietveld7128]

❤ you're welcom. Enjoy your stay !

[@vincenzo3908]

He said we are not so bad 🥹🫶🫶🫶

[@brunolescene4475]

Profitez bien de votre séjour dans notre belle capitale 🖖

[@LouDelannay]

As a french I am grateful to Napoléon III and baron Haussmann 👏

[@Eccoriens80]

Vous pouvez l'écrire en français 😉

[@MLegpres65]

@@Eccoriens80 I think he just wanted to express his appreciation to the international audience of YT :-)

[@Eccoriens80]

@@MLegpres65 Avec Google traductions, on a le droit (encore) d'apprécier d'autres langues que l'anglais.

[@lesamisdelacuisineprovenca9534]

Ils ont massacré le Paris du moyen-âge et de l'antiquité ! Beaucoup de preuves archéologiques de ces périodes ont été irrémédiablement perdues !

[@Diegomax22]

Sans eux, Paris n’aurait jamais été aussi beau. Une ville du Moyen-Âge avec un charme mais moins imposant.

[@thedamnedatheist]

Napoleon 3 & Haussman may have had big egos, but they were earned with the renewal of Paris.

[@blackvikingeire]

That's not the Napoleon you are thinking about.

[@JeremyMontejo16]

Top 2 Cagayan de Oro city Philippines Bigbys Cafe and restaurant Mjjnbb

[@kandiharper]

Great video, as expected. Love the tone of your videos! ❤

[@TheDailyConversation]

Thank you!

[@nco1970]

Apart from the cholera and the demonstrations, the barricades, there was also the Great Fire in London which was a motivation behind the redesigning of Paris.

[@44irwi]

That is partly why the French were so proud about the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony, before it was routed in centuries of Paris architecture. It was the ceremony of Haussman, Eiffel and Viollet-le-Duc as much as the ceremony of Thomas Joly.

[@rishikolli5668]

I so wish we could have such powerful n wise people to modernised indian cities n tackle menace of city life

[@FGH9G]

So I guess you can call Baron Haussmann's Renovation of Paris one of the earliest examples of urban renewal. It's a shame that he changed Ile de la Cite beyond recognition with the exception of the Notre Dame. It would be so cool to be able to live on the same island as the Notre Dame, albeit it would most likely be ridiculously expensive.

[@nco1970]

There are people living on the Ile de la Cite, 1327 in 1999 and 891 in 2016. The decrease is due to owners switching to temporary rentals for tourists. And, of course, there is the Ile Saint-Louis linked to the Ile de la Cite by a bridge with 2984 inhabitants in 1999 and 2323 in 2016 (the same: switch to temporary rentals for tourists).

[@PaleoalexPicturesLtd]

It is ridiculously expensive already x)

[@kimlaursen8224]

Paris❤

[@KyrilPG]

Great video! The Grand Paris Express expected ridership increase has been revised from 2+ to 3+ million daily. Over 100 km of new lines have already been dug as of a few months ago. And all extensions to existing lines were opened this June.

[@TheDailyConversation]

Thank you for the added info. Looking forward to visiting again and spending a few days just riding around and exploring all the places the system goes!

[@KyrilPG]

@@TheDailyConversation You're welcome! The new Northern terminus of M14 and soon to be new mega hub of the GPE, Saint-Denis Pleyel station, is really gorgeous. It really is worth a visit next time you're in Paris. There are massive banks of escalators crisscrossing a light pit, like a fault-line (there are 56 escalators in the station). The views from the lower level are stunning. Line 14 should reach top frequency again in a few months. Right now, they are operating with an incomplete fleet after the extensions opening, due to a delay in the delivery of the new trains. There should be 72 8-car trains operating simultaneously on M14, but they only have 55 or 56 right now if I'm not mistaken, so frequency is limited to 105 or 125 seconds between departures during rush hour. It should be back to 80-85 seconds around December or January, which will be very helpful to cope with the million passengers expected daily on this extended line. The new Orly airport station is also quite beautiful, with a large Portuguese azulejos mural in the atrium, even though only half is can currently be seen and accessed. The second half should open in 2026 (or 2027?) if I recall correctly, with the first section of M18. The unaccessible part of the station is very well hidden behind fake walls, so everything appears normal and complete. In December, the Villejuif Gustave Roussy interchange station will open on M14. It's a massive underground cylinder with M14 crossing it in a tunnel-bridge. They've built an entanglement of brushed metal escalators inside the huge cylinder, it's visually stunning. The South section of M15 will begin serving this station a year later in late 2025. If you're into infrastructure, transportation architecture, and transit in general, the years to come in Paris are going to be epic, with new locations opening pretty much every year. In 2024 alone, there are over 30 kilometers of new rail based line extensions and 24 new stations (RER E, Metro 11 & 14, and tramway T3b). In 2025, in the summer there'll be a new 5-station 4.5km urban transit gondola line called Cable C1 extending metro line 8 from its Southeastern terminus, plus the opening in the 4th trimester of the first section of M15, the South one, with 36km of tunnels and 16 large stations. 2026 should see the opening of sections of M16, M17, and M18. Then every year till 2030-2032, there'll be new sections opening. A new 19th metro line has also been proposed and has entered the first steps of design. It's really exciting and transformational...

[@Adriano66867]

Absolute stunning city, a masterpiece and example of urban planning Donne right!

[@vicdu18300]

Larger street meant that it was easier for canons to be manipulated and soldiers to counter-attack during uprisings. Also, a lot of people were drawn out of the city because of the evictions and replaced by weathlier Parisians.

[@brunolescene4475]

Quoi qu'on en dise ,le centre de Paris est vraiment somptueux 🖖

[@trorisk]

There could be an 8-hour video to talk about the reconstruction of Paris by Haussmann. The catacombs which are the bones of the mass graves of Paris. How they moved buildings to align them with the streets. Buildings not too high which made it possible (before the invention of the elevator) to have several social classes in the same places. and so on.

[@manuelcunharocha8889]

You're back!

[@TheAZPro-yi8bu]

Oui!

[@KillerTacos54]

Love this series!

[@jplully]

Emperor Napoleon III , my best-known customer, proud. 😊. Got to do some artwork for his crypt in Farnborough

[@connorhadley9028]

Hey I love you're city videos, I would love it if you made some about Australian cities maybe Melbourne and/or Sydney!

[@oldskoolmusicnostalgia]

Been to all of these. Rome is the one that impressed me the most as far as architecture is concerned. Melbourne and Sydney have their own beauty but look too much like North American cities

[@henrysmith1464]

i like this emperor and the person he selected to rebuild Paris. as it is said by the commentator, it really needs vigor and courage over a 17 years enduring stubborness to make a paris forever briliant.

[@bastiennietveld7128]

Eeeeh....Big NO ! The emperor was à dumb , megalomanic jerk ! He organized a putsch and destroyed the second République !!! Responsable for the death of hundreds of thousands of people in France and in the colonies ; he was à ruthless dictator and a clown !!! NEVER à Bonaparte will rule France again !!! 😡

[@Assassunn]

well done Paris!

[@ln2deep]

I'll share some critcisms of the design of Paris here though there are of course various nice aspects to it as well. The Haussmann buildings have nice facades but they are very blocky and create a flat and tall profile in most parts of the city. This is quite an imposing profile on quite narrow streets which can feel claustrophobic. There also aren't many gaps between the buildings which accentuates the flat profile. There is some diversity to the facades, but you often don't see this because whatever unique design they might have is cut inside the same rectangular block as other buildings. The long boulevards and streets just exaggerate this effect, as there are less opportunities to break this symmetry in interesting and organic ways. Many of the streets also lack greenery (though this has been improving), which makes the long roads and flat planes of the facades quite brutal when combined with the extreme population density. Paris made me realise that diverse profiles are crucial to defining variety in neighbourhoods and a natural/organice organisation of space, but Paris doesn't really do that well. It was clearly designed to pack as many people into it as possible within simple, rigid geometry that meets at a few focal points around monuments. The people that live there often feel and internalise the brutal nature of that design, but the niceness of the facades of the buildings makes you feel as though you should enjoy it. The lack of diversity in the profiles also makes the city all feel the same. If this particular design element doesn't impact you much then I guess all of the other nice aspects of the city will shine through for you. Otherwise, you might spend a long time looking at it and wondering why you don't enjoy it as much as you think you should. It's a very forced uniformity with a nice (but repetitive) facade.

[@markholland7322]

Many today prefer to forget that back then, people hated the modernisation of the city that politics imposed. Many were forced to leave their homes, and th e monotonous modern buildings that replaced the wealth of historical buildings was not appreciated, and indeed there was a certain level of gentrification at work. This example learns us that many with the socio-political background that despise contemporary architecture today, will embrace it as examplary in some hundred years from now.

[@markholland7322]

Likewise many people prefer to forget that Haussmann had an immigration background- so basically in todays terms thta woukd mesn a son of algerian parents would destroy large parts of Paris to construct contemporary infrastructure to make it easier for troops to move in the city and control the masses, and contemporary buildings forcing the natives to relocate to the suburbs. Because that is what actually happened

[@puccaland]

Big soulless glass towers? Not a chance. At least not in France.

[@puccaland]

​@@markholland7322 Nobody cares about that just like nobody cares about the fact that the Mayor of Paris and Minister of Public construction which followed and pursued Paris transformation work after Haussmann (voting for the construction of the metro, choosing the Eiffel Tower everybody hated back then), was a Black immigrant.

[@guillaumedupont7565]

@@markholland7322 And many people are unaware that certain parts of the city before Napoleon III and Hausmann, entire districts of Paris were veritable unlivable and unhealthy cesspools, dangerous cut-throats, leprous and rickety houses without water, gas, amenities or sewers, of unimaginable filth where vermin, diseases and poverty developed...

[@Peter_Parker69]

Hope they come to their senses again in the future. Beautiful city and people.

[@jameslecitron1039]

Why would we need to come to our senses ?

[@thastayapongsak4422]

YOU need to come to your senses

[@funkmachine9094]

he's just a troll that's never traveled in europe. he sees it from his mc donalds point of view

[@Peter_Parker69]

@@funkmachine9094 I'm Norwegian with French family, Isaac Newton.. I've never been in America, nor do I plan to. People like you have zero critical thinking skills. Paris used to be a safe city compared to now, it's a simple fact.

[@alexedelweiss3267]

@@Peter_Parker69 Not even waste your time, dude... When they notice, it will be too late and this time there won't be a Winston Churchill to rescue them.

[@StarshipCruiser1749]

Appreciate your consistent quality!

[@TheDailyConversation]

I appreciate you!

[@tonydeb6793]

Napoleon III 👍👍🇫🇷

[@Leyfandir]

Although I really love Paris, it must be noted that it may have turned out terrible. We are lucky the project was a success but just imagine tge same thing today: destroying a whole medieval city to build state of the art, homogeneous flats, a recipee for disaster. Also, a lot of landmarks were simply erased. So, dont follow hausmann and renovate rather than destroy

[@MrBaymeric]

Paris should not be a museum, everyone agrees that a medieval city is outdated

[@puccaland]

And how is it a disaster?

[@opm8191]

Bruxelles has exactly suffered from what you describe. Many historical buildings (some beautiful Art-Nouveau masterpieces) were destroyed and replaced by "modern' buildings in the 60's and 70s which lead to an architectural disaster... Architects have even a term for that "Brusselization"....

[@Leyfandir]

@@puccaland I didn't say it was a disaster, I said it could have been

[@puccaland]

@@Leyfandir It would have been a disaster if Haussmann didnt upgrade the city. Already back then Paris was one of the densest city in the world. It was cramped, dirty, unsanitary, many diseases were rampant, many buildings were derelict and about to collapse and there wasn't enough housing with slums all around the city. Hausmann didn't only build homogeneous buildings but did city planning to make the city livable and sustainable. Carved boulevards, brought modern technology in the heart of the city and houses etc. Luckily he used sustainable materials. Those buildings were better isolated and brought comfort to the population and participated in decreasing the pollution which was very high. To make it short Paris was very insalubrious and was turned into a modern city able to provide good living conditions to its population which was bigger than today on a smaller land.

[@liudacebanov1327]

Perhaps you forget to mention the key motivation for rebuilding Paris in that period: to suppress and control demonstrations easier. Broad boulevards allowed for royal army to be easier deployed and population controlled. Ah - what a service to Parisians at that time. A beautiful result for a high cost.

[@adeleg4759]

Indeed, Haussmann was préfet (police chief chief ?) not mayor

[@micahtshibangu7402]

Yes, but also to open up the city for better airflow and improve the sewage system. Haussmann was inspired by the large parks of London and wanted to replicate that in Paris.

[@Josian-ps7fb]

Indeed! They created an aeration system (hum, not to say vaporization...). The goal was to be able to eliminate the human plugs that accumulate while voscifering "for no reason" (ah, the elites and their great love for crowds, when they can no longer control them...), by using cannon fire (straight lines) and cavalry charges (wide and straight lines). Magnificent, but... well...

[@oldskoolmusicnostalgia]

​@@micahtshibangu7402failed on that count, the Parisian parks are a lot smaller than their London counterparts.

[@Aristocles22]

The "lack of tall buildings" is a lie. La Defense is just outside Paris proper, and it has the largest skyline in Europe.

[@srfin24]

pereee

[@nonokbh]

Figures for visitors in the Grand Paris are 36.9 milions 2023. Otherwise it is apples and oranges. Nice video though !

[@Vancouver.Canadian]

Do Paris hotels have air conditioning? Do hotels provide comfortable beds or cardboard boxes to guests to sleep? Do Paris hotels have enough food for guests to eat?

[@francoisleyrat8659]

None of that. France is a third world country, you know.

[@Vancouver.Canadian]

@francoisleyrat8659 That is what all my friends and relatives told me after their visits to the Paris Olympics.

[@francoisleyrat8659]

@@Vancouver.Canadian maybe your friends picked a hotel without AC and with cardboard beds ....

[@Vancouver.Canadian]

@@francoisleyrat8659 That was my first thought until they told me that they stayed in different hotels in Paris.

[@squirrel287]

​@@Vancouver.Canadian There is no cardboard in hotel in Paris wtf are you on about and cardboard as bed for sportsmen wasn't even invented in France it's common practices for Olympics. And why would you want an AC in Paris ???

[@darrenlehane92]

We can't even imagine this kind of grand ambition today. It seems you don't get great cities without an authoritarian.

[@VdWck]

It's beautiful, but Paris is also one of the worst heat trap in Europe in the context of global warming...

[@garageband_songs9994]

Definitely, Paris need way more green spaces

[@adeleg4759]

In the Haussmann hygienism, parks and trees lining the streets, bringing shadow and cool, are everywhere but the end of last century destroyed all that for cars and parkings... A lot of the new plans is about replanting at the same places😞

[@brunol-p_g8800]

It’s already one of the greenest capitals in the world. But Europe, especially Switzerland and the countries surrounding it including France are where the temperatures are climbing at the fastest rate in the context of global warming.

[@johnniew6688]

Too bad La Defense is falling apart.

[@JeremyMontejo16]

Top 2 Cagayan de Oro city Philippines Bigbys Cafe and restaurant Mkkjhhg

[@dionysise5008]

I wish more French would appreciate their legacy instead of handing it over immigrants with different culture background

[@adeleg4759]

It was build by those migrants... Garde ton racisme en dehors de ma patrie

[@pilema-2006]

Paris is so beautiful to your eyes because we kept rancid racist like you from managing our country. Kindly keep looking from as far away as you can while immigrants continue building the cities you admire.

[@micheal5491]

I live in Ghana Africa and I agree 100% with you, sometimes people think if people say this then it's racism or religion phobia or whatever, No, it's culture. If any immigrant goes to any country they have to speak thier language and learn thier culture. Don't bring your culture to another country and try to impose it there. If you go to Rome do what the Romans do, that's the saying right.

[@benkogenko]

A city should be built for all, even those with different cultural backgrounds

[@yorel7682]

Oh ta gueule

[@sherriziegel]

The big wide boulevards of Paris are the worst thing about the city and they were built for one reason - to stop the unruly population from periodically revolting against despots like Napoleon. If the ancient streets had been conserved and renovated they would be some of the most historic and pedestrian friendly in Europe. How can tearing down an ancient city and replacing it with uniform buildings and wide streets good for nothing but vehicular traffic be a good thing? Paris still has neighborhoods and they are the reason people want to go there, not the wide, noisy, dangerous avenues.

[@JeremyMontejo16]

Top 2 Cagayan de Oro city Philippines Bigbys Cafe and restaurant Jjjgfd

[@reteipdevries]

0:21 Loov??? Really? Quite disrespectful. Try to pronounce the r very shortly.

[@ls42nu]

Now Hidalgo is destroying what Haussmann constructed with skyscrapers like Triangle, Duo, TGI & Charenton towers. What a fall down for Paris

[@puccaland]

Charenton isn't in Paris and the Triangle isn't in an Hausmannian area just like the TGI. Moreover none of this is decided by Hidalgo.

[@heliedecastanet1882]

@@puccaland Regarding the Triangle, Hidalgo has a major part in the decision. For the rest, I agree with you : she was not the only responsible for the TGI, and has nothing to do with Charenton.

[@heliedecastanet1882]

Not a word about what Pompidou and Chirac did to Paris ? How odd…

[@puccaland]

@@heliedecastanet1882 Ah? La Tour Triangle je ne sais pas pourquoi je pensais qu'ils devaient la mettre quelque part dans le 13ème dans un quartier assez dense et donc ça allait faire tache. En fait c'est dans le 15 ème là où il y a déjà plein de tours à l'architecture moche et en plus vers la porte de Versailles qui est plutôt en zone "industrielle" (grands complexes sans âme jusqu'à Issy les Moulineaux) . Pour le coup ça va embellir le coin et peut être booster le quartier, mort.

[@oldskoolmusicnostalgia]

The boulevards are exceptionally beautiful, but then you also have areas like the 18th-19th arrondissements which seem to have been entirely spared from the work of Haussmann. Places that look dilapidated and worthy of the third world.

[@christianterraes8334]

Je pense que vous avez mal vu. Par contre la population non européenne y est présente.

[@alldebaran]

Beautiful people... Awful people

[@vincenzo3908]

We must be bipolar I guess

[@joeson7700]

With acclaimed SEWAGE Seine river & CHAOTIC Islamic upheavals solution may possibly a DREAM - REVE comes true

[@puccaland]

Time to start therapy.

[@BenGaeda]

Paris on the whole is very beautiful, the architecture, the parks,the restaurants and the museums, BUT when you start looking at the details it's very badly maintained, get in one of these haussmanian buildings and you will be struck by a very nasty odor, they should think about a ventilation systems to make it better and liveable, at the same time the HOA rates are exorbitant, you pay on average $10k for a smelly consierge who basically doesn't do anything except being dressed up in underwears and cooking pastas .😅!!!

[@cedricglorieux6096]

U préfer when unqualified people like in the US have 2 or 3 jobs working +10 hours with no social insurance, no vacation, no healtcare & no chance to their children to go to university ? In France, WE think that somebody who works, have thé right to bé paid 10$ hours 7 hours a day 5 days per week, have social insurance, healthcare, 5 weeks of paid vacation/year & free university. That's called humanity & civilisation.

[@BenGaeda]

@cedricglorieux6096 humanity and civility are for those who deserve it. People have to work for that kind of dignity. You can't push people forward, it's not the natural thing to do ,it's unproductive and inefficient. The reason is that people are not equal. They don't deserve the same rewards.

[@puccaland]

Or perhaps your nose is too close from your mouth?

[@BenGaeda]

@puccaland suppose it's so,,,that's not gonna make it smell better, it's nasty and smelly even in the best of the districts, at the corner of Marbeuf and George 5,which suppose to be the high end of the district of couture, and at the corner of rue du cirque and saint honore,near the elysees palace ,you can see mouses 🐁 and rats 🐀 anytime of the day,🤣😂🤣😂.

[@puccaland]

@@BenGaeda Especially if you dream them.

[@90taetaeya]

police state now

[@jf2187]

Va en Russie ou en Chine tu verras la différence La France est une grande démocratie

[@ErickHumboldt]

Woke 100%

[@IRACEMABABU]

Il fait bon à Bamako ?

[@ENGBriseB]

The world's greatest city is London. For the last 10 years.

[@DavidWatson-g1c]

Dream on

[@guillaume5156]

Yes, but he didn't say the "greatest", he said the "most beautiful" 😉

[@loremasteringwion9930]

As Chinese I think it is a third world compared to China, not even comparable to 4th tier cities in China. Chinese cities are much more beautiful and modern

[@lva1595]

China's modern cities are soulless.

[@renzohorner2542]

Sure…

[@Leopold_van_Aubel]

Nice troll

[@XDF745]

They might be modern but they're definitely not beautiful.

[@joarembstaples4837]

Talking about most beautiful, most preserved, most geo perfect planned old city, not about modernized.

[@deanthepro]

Paris is ugly the whole Europe city is ugly only the country side the mountain the river is beautiful lol

[@JEANAIMARE-kc1vd]

Southeast Asian slums full of tramps and trashes everywhere are probably better, for sure.

[@IRACEMABABU]

troll

[@hervelens]

The whole earth is ugly 😂

[@christianterraes8334]

C est complètement idiot

[@branc2658]

Paris is not the world's most beautiful city.

[@Filon2137Potocki]

It is certainly the most beautiful out of the biggest cities in the world ( london is too chaotic)

[@TheDailyConversation]

What do you think is?

[@ogamiitto8627]

​@@allanmatch6858Paris has always given what you bring to her. Ask yourself, you probably changed more than Paris did.

[@franckr6159]

@@TheDailyConversation Which other city is more beautiful? Don't expect an answer here, this guy is obvously just a troll full of jealousy.

[@jfrancobelge]

Beauty is a matter of personal appreciation.