“Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann—who transformed Paris with dazzling avenues, parks and other lasting renovations between 1853 and 1870—are few and far between. As journalist and critic Rupert Christiansen writes in “City of Light: The Making of Modern Paris,†Together Haussmann and Louis Napoleon shepherded the 19th-century industrial city and its medieval core into the modern age. on his watch, he would aspire to make the French capital rank again as the most beautiful and exciting city in the world.†Louis Napoleon’s rise to power in 1848, initially as the legitimately elected president of the Second Republic. His coup that initiated the Second Empire took place three years later (just two years before he hired Haussmann) and he would be deposed, in 1870, just six months after firing his Prefect of the Seine. ”
