The Underground Sewer System

There was a great deal of unseen work that was an integral part of the transformation of Paris, the work that was taking place underneath the city. Baron Haussmann was extremely thorough in his plans for rebuilding Paris. Prior to the mid-19th century, the Paris water supply was drawn from the Canal de l’Ourcq in the north-east of the city. The Baron is said to have described the water from the canal as being “cold in winter, hot in summer and dubious in any season”. Plans for the new Paris included the provision of water to the new buildings, the provision of water for industry and, very importantly, the evacuation of waste water.
The engineer Eugène Belgrand is credited with the creation of the first modern sewer system in Paris. Modern, because the original Parisian sewers were in fact built by the Romans back when the city was known as Lutetia. They were located under what is now the boulevard Saint Michel, but were abandoned in the Middle Ages for an above ground system where the denizens threw their waste water onto the street, where it collected (and often stagnated) in central gullies. Belgrand began work on this immense project in 1854. When new roads were built, the pipes to take away waste water were installed beneath them and when new buildings were built, they had to connect to the pipes. The waste water was taken north-west of Paris, to Clichy, before being siphoned into the Seine.
The installation of a sewer system in Paris instantly turned the city into a modern one. The sewers have been celebrated in literature, in Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” and in film, in Disney’s animated film “Ratatouille”. They have been open to visitors right from the start and are as popular and unusual a visitor attraction today as they were in the 19th century.