ABSTRACT

We have been brought up on the Haussmann myth recorded in his 1890/1893 Mémoires. Emperor Napoleon III at the beginning of his reign named Georges Haussmann Prefect of the Seine and, immediately after the swearing-in ceremony at Saint-Cloud on 29 June 1853, drew the new prefect into his study, explained to him his plan for the transformation of Paris and handed him a map indicating the new streets to be cut in four colours, ‘une carte de Paris, sur laquelle on voyait tracées par Lui-même, en bleu, en rouge, en jaune et en vert, suivant leur degré d’urgence, les différentes voies nouvelles qu’il proposait de faire exécuter.’ 1 The prefect had his charge and went and executed it.