22. Prefect of Paris

0.     Georges Haussmann, Mémoires du Baron Haussmann (Paris: Victor Havard, 1890), vol. II, Préfecture de la Seine.

0.     June 1853, Haussmann, Ibid., vol. II, p. 87.

0.     Ibid., vol. II, p. 93.

0.     Decree of March 26, 1852, re expropriations.

0.     Parisian cemeteries were fast running out of space, a problem Haussmann was prevented from solving while in office. By 1869 he reckoned on up to 42,000 burials a year.

0.     By 1870 the population of Paris would reach about two million. In 1853 the population had been about 1.2 million, before the city limits were extended to include suburbs, adding several hundred thousand. Haussman, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 452–458.

0.     Haussmann, Ibid., vol. II, p. 458. Official figures 117,500 families having been left homeless, or perhaps as many as 600,000. Most of them moved into the outlying suburbs, before they in turn were incorporated in an extended Paris.

0.     Ibid., vol. II, pp. 59–60; Michel Carmona, Haussmann (Paris: Fayard, 2000), p. 16.

0.     Haussmann, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 85–86, 89.

0.   Ibid., vol. II, pp. 89–90, 91–92.

0.   Ibid., vol. II, pp. 89–90; Paris was allegedly founded by the Celtic Parisii in the third century BC.

0.   Carmona, op. cit., pp. 355–357. This special Caisse de la Boulangerie functioned between September 1, 1853, and September 1, 1856, and again in 1867.

0.   For the history of the streets of Paris, see Jacques Hillaret’s excellent Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1963), 2 vols.

0.   Haussmann, op. cit., vol. II, p. 76; Carmona, op. cit., p. 312.

0.   Haussmann, Ibid., vol. II, p. 367. Expropriations were dealt with by the Imperial Decree of March 16, 1852—cf. Ch. XVI. The Law of 27 May 1858 created the Caisse des Travaux de Paris—the Public Works Treasury, intended to provide these subventions on which the municipal Bons, IOU vouchers, were drawn. (Somewhat similar to the system used earlier for the Caisse des Boulangeries.) By drawing directly on this Caisse, Haussmann could pay for work directly without having first to seek approval of the Legislative Body. Haussmann, Ibid., vol. II, pp. 357–404, 556–557 cite Haussmann’s explanation for the extraordinary use of “Bons” in this situation. For gas lighting, see Haussmann, Ibid., vol. II, p. 214.

0.   Haussmann, Ibid., vol. II, p. 214.

0.   Ibid., vol. II, pp. 514–516.

0.   Ibid., vol. II, pp. 489–491. New asylums included the Asile de Sainte-Anne, that of the Ville Évrard, Vaucluse, Bicêtre, and La Salpétrie.

0.   Ibid., vol. II, p. 524.

0.   Ibid., vol. II, pp. 527–528. He also built La Santé prison in the Enclos de la Santé, and the new police barracks at St.-Denis and at Sceau. Ibid., vol. II, pp. 489–490.

0.   Ibid., vol. II, pp. 507–508. Charles Garnier’s Opéra—known as the Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra under the Second Empire—was not inaugurated until Jan. 5, 1875, built at a cost of 35 million francs ($4.5 billion today).

0.   Jacques Offenbach’s popular Tales of Hoffmann was currently being performed at the Opéra Comique. On various attempts to bribe Haussmann, see Carmona, Haussmann, p. 458, as well as Haussmann’s Mémoires, vol. II, p. 543 ff.

0.   Jacques François Griscelli, a police agent working for Prefect of Police Pierre Piétri. Previously he had been involved in obtaining Fanny Le Hon’s papers. He provides information re the unsavory background to Persigny’s (forced?) marriage and the 14 million francs that Persigny eventually “obtained” from that marriage. Griscelli strongly implied Persigny’s involvement in the most curious death of his bride’s seventeen-year-old brother, from which he was to profit by some seven million francs. See Mémoires de Griscelli, Agent Secret de Napoléon II (1850–1858), de Cavour (1859–1861) (Bruxelles: privately printed, 1867), pp. 54–58. As minister of the interior, Persigny had placed a police spy in Laffitte’s home, presumably for personal reasons. Persigny and Police Prefect Piétri were very close friends. See also “Persigny” in Jean Tulard’s Dictionnaire du Second Empire (Paris: Fayard, 1995), pp. 995–997. Ironically, he left a far greater estate on his death than did Emperor Napoléon III.

0.   Carmona, Haussmann, p. 461.

0.   Haussmann, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 108–109. Here he discusses his embarrassment regarding Louis Napoléon’s offer to help with that prefect’s daughter’s dowry. See also, Carmona, Haussmann, op. cit., pp. 430–431.

0.   See also Haussmann, vol. II, p. 514 ff.

0.   Ibid., vol. II, pp. 337–340. His annual 30,000-franc honorarium as senator also ceased with the fall of the Second Empire. Although his wife, Octavie, had inherited her parents’ 1,000-hectare estate-winery, phylloxera decimated the vines, a financial catastrophe. Haussmann received no income from the family cotton mills in Alsace, and was now obliged to sell his own vacation home, an old mill outside Nice. Attempting various business ventures to restore his fortunes, Haussmann returned to Bordeaux even poorer. His detractors would have rejoiced.