“A History of Paris Lecture 6 of 6 Modern Paris”

LECTURE 6 OF 6: Modern Paris The eighteenth century witnessed the birth of “Modern Paris.” Under Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann much of medieval Paris was swept away. With new wide boulevards, a state-of-the-art sewer system, and expansive green space, Paris became the center of technology, the arts, pleasure, and international expositions. A HISTORY OF PARIS: AN ADULT EDUCATION SERIES BY DR. WILLIAM J. NEIDINGER (6 Lectures). Few cities boast so many famous and identifiable landmarks as Paris: the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Bastille (in memory, at least), the Champs-“lys”es, and the Eiffel Tower. Yet the Parisians have been rough on their own monuments; the Louvre has been demolished and rebuilt a number of times; the Bastille is gone; Notre-Dame was ransacked during the Revolution; and the Eiffel Tower, much maligned at the time, was supposed to have been only a temporary structure. When Baron Haussmann laid out many of the wide and splendid boulevards of the city in the nineteenth century, he was lambasted for having destroyed “the charms of medieval Paris.” In these six lectures we will trace the history of Paris from its humble beginnings as a crossing station in the marshes along the Seine, to its foundation as a fortified capital city, to its rise as a center of learning, to its role as exporter of revolution, and finally to its position in the vanguard of the avant-garde. The lectures will not only focus on the surviving monuments of the city, but also on some of the more flamboyant characters who have graced the pages of the city’s history. This program contains Lecture 6. Lectures 1 through 5 are available separately at this site.