By mcbitter
One of my favorite things about Paris is simply how beautiful it is. The French love their city's detailing, like cast iron balconies, tree-lined streets, and green space. Basically, anywhere you look is a perfect photo for Instagram, even if it's just a random apartment building.
Arguably, one of the most important influences making Paris what it is today was a man named Georges-Eugène Haussmann. In the 1850's, Haussmann was hired by Napoleon III to reorganize the layout of Paris. Prior to his involvement, it was an incredibly crowded, dangerous, and unhealthy place to live. Streets were narrow and dark, there was no waste removal system, and population density only added to the problems. So, Haussmann started by creating large boulevards throughout the city, the most well-known of which is the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. My school here in Paris, Sciences Po, is actually located on one of these large boulevards right next to the Seine, the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Haussmann also put lights on these streets (they don't call it the City of Lights for nothing!) to make it safer, and built new sewer tunnels to combat the rampant disease.
All of these contributions are very important, but when I think of Haussmann, I think of the "Haussmann building." This building, which is usually apartments, is easy to recognize because of its uniform exterior. They were usually built with cream colored stone, with a mansard-style roof, and had balconies on the second and fifth floors. (Keep in mind that the French have a ground floor and then a first floor, so second and fifth is really third and sixth for us!) Although Paris is really expensive now, these buildings were meant to house families of different economic backgrounds under one roof. For example, wealthy families would live on the second floor, or the "étage noble," because it wasn't on the street level but didn't involve too many stairs, either (there were no elevators back then!). On the other hand, the very top floor had individual rooms ("chambres des bonnes") and was occupied by servants of these wealthy families who lived below them.
Overall, Haussmann changed the face of Paris for centuries to come. Unfortunately, he had a number of critics as well, many of whom complained that his architecture was too uniform and that he was overtaking the city with construction. This resulted in his dismissal in 1870, though his work continued for many years after.