Bureau of Sabotage
Paris & the Barricades: How Haussmann Rebuilt a City to Prevent Unrest
In this way, Haussmann re-planned Paris, bulldozing wide new boulevards through the fabric of old Paris giving soldiers easy access into all corners of the city — and preventing the construction of effective barricades.
Ancient roads such as Rue de Rempart, where Haussman himself had been caught in fighting in 1830, were demolished, to be replaced by swanky unbarricadeable boulevards like the Avenue de l’Opéra. No longer could any ne’er do wells throw their gran’s coffee table across a narrow street and overthrow the government.