The evolution and transformation of the city of Paris from. Backwater slum I to the world class gem was planned by great urban designers in. Short time frame. This transformation was the result though of the tremendous inequality of pre-revolutionary France and shows what can be done in a small area that the rulers funnel all of the wealth into and how it can be worlds apart from the rest of society. The creation of beautiful new spaces in Paris is the basis of a book written by Joan Dejean called " How Paris became Paris" and it is a superb read on lovers of cities and urban appeal. Many projects were completed from the accumulated wealth of e upper classes and while the author does little to dwell in this aspect to how Paris became Paris I will here as it is and why its not hard to extricate the real reasons why Paris is such beloved while Marseille is a fucking dump wasteland. The first guidebooks to sites were created in Paris as foreigners and the wealthy all over France made this a place of destination. Paris was not a place without its troubles in 1614 and the extreme inequality and resentment from lower classes lead to the arise in crime and muggings of men's expensive cloaks right off of them along with a severe beating to ensure easy escape and erasure of victims memory of the event. The advances of street lighting were also created around this place as a detergent to the numerous muggings and theft from members of the poor caste of Paris that were excluded from enjoying many parts of this new urban system. Theft of cloth g became such a problem that the police force was increased to protect the apparent wealth I dictator that these garments were in seventeenth century France.
Joan goes into the improvement of civil engineering and bridge construction in this time period and just total improvement of architecture of all the buildings that to this day makes this place a special area to be a d look about at everything. Everything was planned to make new experiences of enjoyment walking around city by foot instead of stagecoach and that is key to any decent place in the Western world today. This book is filled with old maps and drawings giving the reader a perception of life back then and the ardent creations that were done to improve this average European city into one of the wonders of the world that has lasted to the present time. The explosive growth and sick Western obsession of high end fashion started with the growth and wealth accumulation into Paris and this topic is discussed throughout the book as well.
I didn't read the whole book only half of it as it does get a bit tedious and pretty much through half of the books or individual chapters you get the idea that basically this was the first elite urban playground. Of course, to this day the descendants of the nobles that transformed the city still are able to enjoy the fruits of a special place much to the chagrin of folks that can't afford to live at or near this great city as it stands as a symbol of modern inequality that has been planned and implanted for a long time
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