"At the top of the list of wonders of the new Paris, one must, without any doubt, rank the park of Buttes-Chaumont", according to Delaforgue's Guide du promeneur. The "new Paris" referred to by the author is Napoléon III and Baron Haussmann's Paris. The author then praises the countless beauty spots of this "graceful Paris" that even "the least impressionable tourist does not tire of admiring." The gardens were opened 1867, ironically the same year as the city abattoir and livestock market at La Villette, also in the 19th arrondissement, highlighting the Emperor's contradictions in terms of urban plannings and addressing social issues.  

Today Les Buttes-Chaumont are still among the most beautiful gardens in Paris and also among the least polluted. However, a pleasing landscape it was not in 1864, when Napoléon III commissioned Adolphe Alphand to turn a dusty wasteland in the newly annexed territory of eastern Paris into a garden worthy of his capital, "les Tuileries du peuple". Unlike his wife, the Emperor was sensitive to the plight of the underprivileged, but he also hoped to avert social unrest by providing them with a decent environment. It took Alphand seven years to convert the lunar landscape into gardens of dramatic beauty, fit for the most extravagantly Romantic poet: quite a feat, for the site consisted of disused gypsum quarries, cleaned out after a century of intensive activity.

The quarries were known as les carrieres d'Amérique or du Mississippi, because their plaster was exported to North America. It took more than 1,000 workmen, 100 horses, 400 small trucks, two steam engines and much dynamite to prepare the ground, after which more than 200,000 cubic metres of earth had to be brought to the site. 5,000 metres of footpaths were then laid out, followed by an artificial lake which was fed by the waters of the Bassin de la Villette. Then came a brick bridge, then a suspension bridge, both linking the mainland with a dramatic cliff rising from the water. A grotto and a roaring waterfall followed and, to crown it all, an overpowering folly topping the cliff —a charmingly blatant copy of the Temple of the Sibylle in Tivoli.

Alphand capitalised on the rugged, uneven surface of the gardens and alternated mineral and vegetal matter to achieve his goal, which he defined as follows: "The stroller can see the landscape change as he goes along. Except for some prominent and open sites, he should be unaware of the city." What Alphand could not foresee, however, were the jarring low-rent high-rises that now mar the otherwise idyllic landscape.

Nor did he foresee that his suspension bridge would become a focus for the desperate, the "suicide's Mecca", according to the poet Louis Aragon, who wrote the following lines: "And I come back towards this arch, thrown out towards an island where death was once fervently sought." Nowadays the bridge is protected by parapets, which are easily surmountable, but no one comes to jump here any more.

North of the gardens, at Place Armand Carel, stands the neo-Renaissance, confident Mairie of the 19th arrondissement, built by the nascent Third Republic in 1878 as a token and promise of future prosperity. The promise has certainly been fulfilled in the vicinity of the Buttes-Chaumont, which you will notice in particular if you make your way west of the gardens, along rue Manin and up the steep flight of steps at no. 17-19. On top of the steps, the leafy oasis of rue Georges-Lardennois is home to a couple of palatial, cutting-edge homes with a breathtaking view overlooking Montmartre. How remote from the sinister Place du Combat,  which was situated until 1850 no more than a stone's throw away, between the present Avenue Mathurin Moreau, rue des Meaux and rue des Chaufouniers. Betting was part of the fun enjoyed by the blood-thirsty mob, and even some residents from western Paris occasionally came here in search of a low-life thrill.

This is an excerpt from Thirza Vallois's Around and About Paris series (volume 3 - New Horizons: Haussmann's Annexation).     Around and About Paris (volume 1, 2 and 3) is published by Iliad Books, UK
For more information, and to order Thirza Vallois's titles, go to Link: www.thirzavallois.com
 

 photos: Mairie de Paris

(expatica June 2008)

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