1.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
2.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
3.
Francis Xavier
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Saint Francis Xavier, S. J. was a Navarrese-Basque Roman Catholic missionary, born in Javier, Kingdom of Navarre, and a co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a companion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris in 1534. He led a mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time and was influential in evangelization work. He also was the first Christian missionary to venture into Japan, Borneo, the Maluku Islands, in those areas, struggling to learn the local languages and in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. Xavier was about to extend his missionary preaching to China but died in Shangchuan Island shortly before he could do so and he was beatified by Pope Paul V on 25 October 1619 and canonized by Pope Gregory XV on 12 March 1622. In 1624 he was made co-patron of Navarre alongside Santiago, known as the Apostle of the Indies, and the Apostle of Japan, he is considered to be one of the greatest missionaries since Saint Paul. In 1927, Pope Pius XI published the decree Apostolicorum in Missionibus naming Saint Francis Xavier, along with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and he is now co-patron saint of Navarre with San Fermin. The Day of Navarre in Spain marks the anniversary of Saint Francis Xaviers death, Francis Xavier was born in the royal castle of Xavier, in the Kingdom of Navarre, on 7 April 1506 according to a family register. Francis mother was Doña María de Azpilcueta y Aznárez, sole heiress of two noble Navarrese families and he was thus related to the great theologian and philosopher Martín de Azpilcueta. In 1512, Ferdinand, King of Aragon and regent of Castile, invaded Navarre, three years later, Francis father died when Francis was only nine years old. In 1516, Franciss brothers participated in a failed Navarrese-French attempt to expel the Spanish invaders from the kingdom. The Spanish Governor, Cardinal Cisneros, confiscated the lands, demolished the outer wall, the gates. In addition, the height of the keep was reduced by half, only the family residence inside the castle was left. In 1525, Francis went to study in Paris at the Collège Sainte-Barbe, University of Paris, in the early days he acquired some reputation as an athlete and a fine high-jumper. In 1529, Francis shared lodgings with his friend Pierre Favre, a new student, Ignatius of Loyola, came to room with them. At 38, Ignatius was much older than Pierre and Francis, Pierre was won over by Ignatius to become a priest, but Francis had aspirations of worldly advancement. At first Francis was not much taken with Ignatius and he regarded the new lodger as a joke and was sarcastic about his efforts to convert students. Only after Pierre left their lodgings to visit his family, when Ignatius was alone with the proud Navarrese, was he was able to break down Franciss stubborn resistance
4.
Relic
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In religion, a relic usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Shamanism. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning remains, and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to leave behind, a reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics. In ancient Greece, a city or sanctuary might claim to possess, without necessarily displaying, the sanctuary of the Leucippides at Sparta claimed to display the egg of Leda. The bones were not regarded as holding a power derived from the hero, with some exceptions. Miracles and healing were not regularly attributed to them, rather, their presence was meant to serve a tutelary function, the bones of Orestes and Theseus were supposed to have been stolen or removed from their original resting place and reburied. Plutarch says that the Athenians were likewise instructed by the oracle to locate, the body of the legendary Eurystheus was also supposed to protect Athens from enemy attack, and in Thebes, that of the prophet Amphiaraus, whose cult was oracular and healing. As with the relics of Theseus, the bones are sometimes described in sources as gigantic. On the basis of their size, it has been conjectured that such bones were those of prehistoric creatures. The head of the poet-prophet Orpheus was supposed to have transported to Lesbos. The 2nd-century geographer Pausanias reported that the bones of Orpheus were kept in a stone vase displayed on a pillar near Dion, his place of death and these too were regarded as having oracular power, which might be accessed through dreaming in a ritual of incubation. The accidental exposure of the bones brought a disaster upon the town of Libretha, according to the Chronicon Paschale, the bones of the Persian Zoroaster were venerated, but the tradition of Zoroastrianism and its scriptures offer no support of this. In Hinduism, relics are less common than in other religions since the remains of most saints are cremated. The veneration of corporal relics may have originated with the movement or the appearance of Buddhism. In Buddhism, relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated, after the Buddhas death, his remains were divided into eight portions. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas wherever Buddhism was spread, some relics believed to be original remains of the body of the Buddha still survive, including the much-revered Sacred Relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka. A stupa is a building created specifically for the relics, many Buddhist temples have stupas and historically, the placement of relics in a stupa often became the initial structure around which the whole temple would be based. Today, many also hold the ashes or ringsel of prominent/respected Buddhists who were cremated
5.
7th arrondissement of Paris
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The 7th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city in France. It is also home to foreign diplomatic embassies, some of them occupying outstanding Hôtels particuliers. The arrondissement has been home to the French upper class since the 17th century, the 7th arrondissement of Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine form the most affluent and prestigious residential area in France. The district became so fashionable within the French aristocracy that the phrase le Faubourg has been used to describe French nobility ever since. The oldest and most prestigious families of the French nobility built outstanding residences in the area, such as the Hôtel Matignon, the Hôtel de Salm, and the Hôtel Biron. After the Revolution many of these mansions, offering magnificent inner spaces, many receptions rooms, the French expression les ors de la Republique, referring to the luxurious environment of the national palaces, comes from that time. During the Restauration, the Faubourg recovered its past glory as the most exclusive high nobility district of Paris and was the heart of the country. After the Fall of Charles X, the district lost most of its political influence, during the 19th century, the arrondissement hosted no less than five Universal Exhibitions that have immensely impacted its cityscape. The Eiffel Tower and the Orsay building have been built for these Exhibitions, the land area of the arrondissement is 4.088 km². The 7th arrondissement attained its peak population in 1926 when it had 110,684 inhabitants, because it is the location of so many French government bodies, this arrondissement has never been as densely populated as some of the others. In 1999, the population was 56,985, while the arrondissement provided 76,212 jobs, the American University of Paris, a private liberal arts university, maintains several buildings near the Quai dOrsay. The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Education have their offices in the arrondissement. The arrondissement hosted the events for the 1900 Summer Olympics. 7th arrondissement travel guide from Wikivoyage
6.
Pope Urban VIII
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Pope Urban VIII, reigned as Pope from 6 August 1623 to his death in 1644. He expanded the territory by force of arms and advantageous politicking, and was also a prominent patron of the arts. However, the debts incurred during his pontificate greatly weakened his successors. He was also involved in a controversy with Galileo and his theory on heliocentrism during his reign and he is the most recent pope to date to take the pontifical name of Urban upon being elected as pope. He was born Maffeo Barberini in April 1568 to Antonio Barberini, a Florentine nobleman and his father died when he was only three years old and his mother took him to Rome, where he was put in the charge of his uncle, Francesco Barberini, an apostolic protonotary. At the age of 16 he became his uncles heir and he was educated by the Society of Jesus, and received a doctorate of law from the University of Pisa in 1589. In 1601, Barberini, through the influence of his uncle, was able to secure from Pope Clement VIII appointment as a legate to the court of King Henry IV of France. In 1604, the pope appointed him as the Archbishop of Nazareth. At the death of his uncle, he inherited his riches, on 6 August 1623, at the papal conclave following the death of Pope Gregory XV, Barberini was chosen as Gregory XVs successor and took the name Urban VIII. Upon Pope Urban VIIIs election, Zeno, the Venetian envoy, wrote the description of him. His Holiness is tall, dark, with features and black hair turning grey. He is exceptionally elegant and refined in all details of his dress, has a graceful and aristocratic bearing and he is an excellent speaker and debater, writes verses and patronises poets and men of letters. Urban VIIIs papacy covered 21 years of the Thirty Years War, despite an early friendship and encouragement for his teachings, Urban VIII was responsible for summoning the scientist and astronomer Galileo to Rome in 1633 to recant his work. Urban VIII practiced nepotism on a scale, various members of his family were enormously enriched by him. He elevated his brother Antonio Marcello Barberini and then his nephews Francesco Barberini and he also bestowed upon their brother, Taddeo Barberini, the titles Prince of Palestrina, Gonfalonier of the Church, Prefect of Rome and Commander of SantAngelo. Historian Leopold von Ranke estimated that during his reign, Urban VIIIs immediate family amassed 105 million scudi in personal wealth, Urban VIII was a skilled writer of Latin verse, and a collection of Scriptural paraphrases as well as original hymns of his composition have been frequently reprinted. The 1638 papal bull Commissum Nobis protected the existence of Jesuit missions in South America by forbidding the enslavement of natives who were at the Jesuit Reductions. At the same time, Urban VIII repealed the Jesuit monopoly on missionary work in China and Japan, opening these countries to missionaries of other orders and missionary societies
7.
Jacques Stella
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Jacques Stella was a French painter. His father was François Stella, a painter and merchant of Flemish origin, jacquess siblings were François the Younger and Madeleine. He was the uncle of Antoinette, Claudine, Françoise and Antoine Stella, on Cosimos death in 1621 Stella moved to Rome, where he spent the next 10 years and won a reputation thanks to his paintings, small engravings and painted work on stones. Particularly working for pope Urban VIII, Stella was influenced in Rome by classicism and more specifically by the art of Nicolas Poussin, returning to Lyon in 1634 before moving to Paris a year later, Stella was presented to Louis XIII by cardinal Richelieu. The king made him peintre du roi and granted him a pension of 1000 livres and he returned many times to the theme of the childhood of Christ - five different versions by him of Jesus discovered by his parents in the temple exist. He took on commissions and also decorated the chapelle Saint-Louis at the château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. From 1644 he took part in the decoration of the Palais-Cardinal, towards the end of his life he devoted himself more and more to drawing. As well as his painting and drawing he was an art collector throughout his life, building a collection of paintings by Poussin and Raphael and drawings by Michelangelo. Audacious and varied, his work moved easily between the realism of direct observation, the spirit and a higher religious inspiration. After his death his paintings and engravings were sold as works by Poussin. His work was engraved, allowing his art to be reach a wide audience, especially after his death under the impetus of his niece and heiress. Solomon sacrificing to idols, oil on canvas,98 cm x 142 cm, massacre of the Innocents, grisaille, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Jacques Stella, Dossier de lart n°136 Jacques Stella on Artnet Jacques Stella on Artcyclopedia
8.
Nicolas Poussin
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Nicolas Poussin was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. His work is characterized by clarity, logic, and order, until the 20th century he remained a major inspiration for such classically oriented artists as Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Paul Cézanne. He worked in Rome for a circle of leading collectors from there and elsewhere, most of his works are history paintings of religious or mythological subjects that very often have a large landscape element. Early sketches attracted the notice of Quentin Varin, a painter, whose pupil Poussin became. There he entered the studios of the Flemish painter Ferdinand Elle and then of Georges Lallemand and he found French art in a stage of transition, the old apprenticeship system was disturbed, and the academic training destined to supplant it was not yet established by Simon Vouet. In Paris, Poussin was impressed by Italian art he viewed in the royal collection and he attempted to travel to Rome, but after reaching Florence he was forced, perhaps by ill health, to return to Paris. In 1622 he met Giambattista Marino, the poet to Marie de Medici. Marino employed him on illustrations for an edition of Ovids Metamorphoses. These Marino drawings preserved at Windsor Castle are among the few identifiable works of Poussin executed before his arrival in Rome. Marino took him into his household, and in 1624 enabled Poussin to rejoin him at Rome, Poussin was thirty when he arrived in Rome in 1624. At first he lodged with Simon Vouet, through Marino, he had been introduced to Marcello Sacchetti who in turn introduced him to another of his early patrons, Cardinal Francesco Barberini. However, their return from Spain in 1626 stabilized Poussin’s position, with renewed patronage by the Barberini and their circle. He fell ill at this time and was taken into the house of his compatriot Jacques Dughet, where he was nursed by Dughet’s daughter, Anna Maria and his two brothers-in-law were artists and Gaspard Dughet later took Poussin’s surname. During the late 1620s and 1630s, he experimented and formulated his own style and he studied the Antique as well as works such as Titian’s Bacchanals at the Casino Ludovisi and the paintings of Domenichino and Guido Reni. Peter’s, and an ingenious architectural imagination was emerging in works by Borromini, at the time the papacy was Rome’s foremost patron of the arts. Poussin’s Martyrdom of St. Erasmus for St and his subsequent career depended on private patronage. Louis XIII conferred on him the title of First Painter in Ordinary, in 1642, disgusted by the intrigues of Simon Vouet, Fouquières and the architect Jacques Lemercier, Poussin withdrew to Rome. There, in 1648, he finished for de Chantelou the second series of the Seven Sacraments and this painting shows the philosopher discarding his last worldly possession, his cup, after watching a man drink water by cupping his hands
9.
Simon Vouet
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Simon Vouet was a French painter and draftsman, who today is perhaps best remembered for helping to introduce the Italian Baroque style of painting to France. Simon Vouet was born on January 9,1590 in Paris and his father Laurent was a painter in Paris and taught him the rudiments of art. Simons brother Aubin Vouet and his grandson Ludovico Dorigny were also painters, Simon began his painting career as a portrait painter. At a young age he travelled to England and was part of the entourage of the Baron de Sancy, from there he went to Venice and was in Rome in 1614. He spent a period of time in Italy, from 1613 to 1627. He was mostly in Rome where the Baroque style was emerging during these years and he received a pension from the King of France and his patrons included the Barberini family, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Paolo Giordano Orsini and Vincenzo Giustiniani. He also visited other parts of Italy, Venice, Bologna, Genoa, Vouets immense success in Rome led to his election as president of the Accademia di San Luca in 1624. In 1626 he married Virginia da Vezzo who modelled Madonnas for Vouets religious commissions, despite his success in Rome, Vouet suddenly returned to France in 1627, following pressing recommendations from the Duc de Béthunes and a summons from the King. Vouets new style was distinctly Italian, importing the Italian Baroque style into France, in 1632, he worked for Cardinal Richelieu at the Palais-Royal and the Château de Malmaison. In Paris, Vouet was the dominating force in French painting, producing numerous public altarpieces. Vouets other students included Valentin de Boulogne, Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, Pierre Mignard, Eustache Le Sueur, Nicolas Chaperon, Claude Mellan, Vouet was also a friend of Claude Vignon. A number of Vouets decorative schemes have been lost but are recorded in engravings by Claude Mellan,1990, retrospective of Simon Vouets work at the Galeries nationales of the Grand Palais. 2002-2003, Simon Vouet ou léloquence sensible at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, 2008-2009, Simon Vouet, les années italiennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, in collaboration with the Musée des Beaux-Arts et darchéologie de Besançon
10.
Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris
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Saint-Sulpice is a Roman Catholic church in Paris, France, on the east side of the Place Saint-Sulpice within the rue Bonaparte, in the Luxembourg Quarter of the 6th arrondissement. At 113 metres long,58 metres in width and 34 metres tall, it is slightly smaller than Notre-Dame. It is dedicated to Sulpitius the Pious, construction of the present building, the second church on the site, began in 1646. During the 18th century, a gnomon, the Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice, was constructed in the church. The present church is the building on the site, erected over a Romanesque church originally constructed during the 13th century. Additions were made over the centuries, up to 1631, the new building was founded in 1646 by parish priest Jean-Jacques Olier who had established the Society of Saint-Sulpice, a clerical congregation, and a seminary attached to the church. Anne of Austria laid the first stone, gittard completed the sanctuary, ambulatory, apsidal chapels, transept, and north portal, after which construction was halted for lack of funds. Gilles-Marie Oppenord and Giovanni Servandoni, adhering closely to Gittards designs, the decoration was executed by the brothers Sébastien-Antoine Slodtz and Paul-Ambroise Slodtz. He also built a bell-tower on top of the transept crossing and this miscalculation may account for the fact that Oppenord was then relieved of his duties as an architect and restricted to designing decoration. In 1732 a competition was held for the design of the west facade, won by Servandoni, the 1739 Turgot map of Paris shows the church without Oppenords crossing bell-tower, but with Servandonis pedimented facade mostly complete, still lacking however its two towers. Unfinished at the time of his death in 1766, the work was continued by others, primarily the obscure Oudot de Maclaurin, Chalgrin also designed the decoration of the chapels under the towers. The principal facade now exists in altered form. Large arched windows fill the vast interior with natural light, the result is a simple two-storey west front with three tiers of elegant columns. The overall harmony of the building is, some say, only marred by the two mismatched towers, one can still barely make out the printed words ‘’Le Peuple Francais Reconnoit L’Etre Suprême Et L’Immortalité de L’Âme’’. Further questions of interest are the fate of the frieze that this must have replaced, the responsible for placing this manifesto. Inside the church to either side of the entrance are the two halves of a shell given to King Francis I by the Venetian Republic. They function as holy water fonts and rest on rock-like bases sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Pigalle also designed the large white marble statue of Mary in the Lady Chapel at the far end of the church. The stucco decoration surrounding it is by Louis-Philippe Mouchy, pigalles work replaced a solid-silver statue by Edmé Bouchardon, which vanished at the time of the Revolution
11.
Faubourg Saint-Germain
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The Faubourg Saint Germain is a historic district of Paris. The faubourg has long known as the favorite home of the French high nobility. It is currently part of the 7th arrondissement, in its early history, Faubourg Saint-Germain was an agricultural suburb of Paris, lying west of the historical Saint-Germain-des-Prés urban district. In 1670, Louis XIV initiated a project of grandiose home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers, the king chose a site at the western end of the Faubourg and commissioned architect Libéral Bruant. The enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres and the complex had fifteen courtyards, jules Hardouin Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel was finished in 1679 to Bruants designs after the elder architects death. The construction of the Invalides opened a new district to urbanizing, offering large empty spaces between the new monument and the old city limit, the Faubourgs history had started. The district became so fashionable within the French aristocracy that the phrase le Faubourg has been used to describe French nobility ever since. The oldest and most prestigious families of the French nobility built outstanding residences in the such as the Hôtel Matignon. After the Revolution many of these mansions, offering magnificent inner spaces, many receptions rooms, the French expression les ors de la Republique, referring to the luxurious environment of the national palaces comes from that time. During the Restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, the Faubourg recovered its past glory as the most exclusive high nobility district of Paris, moreover, home to the Ultra Party, it was the political center of the country. But after the Fall of Charles X during the July Revolution, therefore, the Faubourg remained the center of French upper class social life. Nowadays, the Faubourg-as the rest of the 7th arrondissement- is still is one of the most exclusive districts of Paris, the Faubourg Saint-Germain is the eastern part of the current 7th arrondissement, roughly the area between the Invalides, the 13th arrondissment and the 6th arrondissements border
12.
Haussmann's renovation of Paris
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Haussmanns renovation of Paris was a vast public works program commissioned by Emperor Napoléon III and directed by his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. Haussmanns work met with opposition, and he was finally dismissed by Napoleon III in 1870. The street plan and distinctive appearance of the center of Paris today is largely the result of Haussmanns renovation, in the middle of the nineteenth century, the center of Paris was overcrowded, dark, dangerous, and unhealthy. Paris is a place where plants shrivel and perish. The street plan on the Île de la Cité and in the called the quartier des Arcis. In 1840, a doctor described one building in the Île de la Cité where a single room five meters square on the floor was occupied by twenty-three people. In these conditions, disease spread very quickly, cholera epidemics ravaged the city in 1832 and 1848. In the epidemic of 1848, five percent of the inhabitants of two neighborhoods died. Traffic circulation was another major problem, the widest streets in these two neighborhoods were only five meters wide, the narrowest were only one or two meters wide. Wagons, carriages and carts could barely move through the streets, the residents of these neighborhoods had taken up paving stones and blocked the narrow streets with barricades, and had to be dislodged by the army. He wrote that the facade of the Louvre was admirable, but it was hidden behind buildings worthy of the Goths and he protested that the government invested in futilities rather than investing in public works. Moreau, the architect in chief of Paris, suggested paving and developing the embankments of the Seine, building monumental squares, clearing the space around landmarks, Napoleon Bonaparte also had ambitious plans for rebuilding the city. He began work on a canal to bring water to the city and began work on the Rue de Rivoli, beginning at the Place de la Concorde. The medieval core and plan of Paris changed little during the restoration of the monarchy through the reign of King Louis-Philippe and it was the Paris of the narrow and winding streets and foul sewers described in the novels of Balzac and Victor Hugo. In 1833, the new prefect of the Seine under Louis-Philippe, Claude-Philibert Barthelot, comte de Rambuteau and he constructed new sewers, though they still emptied directly into the Seine, and a better water supply system. He constructed 180 kilometres of sidewalks, a new street, rue Lobau, a new bridge over the Seine, the pont Louis-Philippe, and cleared an open space around the Hôtel de Ville. He built a new street the length of the Île de la Cité, to access the central market at Les Halles, he built a wide new street, and began work on the Boulevard Malesherbes. On the Left Bank, he built a new street, rue Soufflot, which cleared space around the Panthéon, Rambuteau wanted to do more, but his budget and powers were limited
