Paris, "le paradis des femmes, le purgatoire des hommes, l'enfer des chevaux"

Paris: the paradise of women, the purgatory of men, the hell of horses.

That's an excerpt from my first reading on the flaneur: Les Tableaux de Paris of Mercier, an early anthropologist. One of the things that we spoke about in our first real day of class were the conditions that arose that made the flaneur possible--something that I had never really considered before.

The Medieval city of Paris arose on the Left Bank (the Latin Quarter), where the ancient Roman city of Lutece had been. The Right bank of the city was primarily farmland and swamps aka not very good to build a city on. The allure of the Seine, however, was enough to make Paris a valuable possession. The River permitted access to the South, Rouen, and Le Havre, and was, therefore, very desirable to control. Control of the Seine gave control of the river that joined the North and South of France.

To be a flaneur was impossible in Medieval Paris. The city was as delightful as any other teeming, medieval city: there were no sidewalks, the roads were not paved and turned to mud when it rained, and there was no plumbing or garbage disposal. You didn't and couldn't walk for pleasure. Walking was not only seen as declasse (if you were anyone worth knowing, you would have a carriage), but was dangerous and disgusting. Anyone walking in the street would be lucky not to get hit. The least serious thing that would happen to you would be to return home covered in mud and "waste." Before the reign of Henri IV, the Protestant king of France who converted to Catholicism for the good of the nation and who uttered the famous phrase, "Paris is worth a mass," provided Paris with her first urban vision, walking was near-impossible.

The improvements which began under his reign would introduce sidewalks and paving, create the first "places" or "piazzas" in the style of the Italian Renaissance, and build Paris' first bridge that was not covered in houses--the Pont Neuf. With the additions and improvements, Henri IV created places for people to walk that were not (too) disgusting and that were (more) safe. These early stages of urbanism in Paris made the flaneur possible.

The urbanization plans of Henri IV set in motion the alignment of the city. Paris, growing from Lutece to old Paris, grew in spurts and without any direction. Due to the haphazard additions to the city, Paris grew without rhyme or reason and became difficult to navigate. Henri IV started to organize the city in a more logical manner, something that made walking and navigating by foot much easier.

Basically, Henri IV, in addition to saving France from religious wars, was the father of modern urbanization in Paris.

So hats off to you, Henri IV, for a job well-done.