Georges-Eugène Haussmann

Georges-Eugène Haussmann moved through three prefectures — Var, Yonne, Gironde — before Napoleon III appointed him to Paris in 1853, where his administrative precision met imperial ambition. He rebuilt the capital above and below ground: miles of new sewers ran beside gas pipes feeding thousands of streetlights, while Charles Garnier's Paris Opera, the largest theatre in the world, rose as the signature landmark. With Adolphe Alphand he laid out four major parks at the compass points — Bois de Boulogne west, Bois de Vincennes east, Parc des Buttes Chaumont north, Parc Montsouris south — an imm…