He discovered the city in 1784 as a cadet at the École Militaire, came back in 1795 an unemployed officer dining on credit, and moved in as master in 1800. In between he had seen Paris in insurrection, starving, Thermidorian. That experience fed an obsession of government: the capital must be supplied, lit, policed and embellished — in that order.
The utilitarian work lasted best. The Ourcq canal brought drinking water from 1808; in 1805 the streets received the odd-and-even numbering still in use; slaughterhouses, wine halls and markets took food out of the centre; cemeteries moved beyond the walls; four bridges were built, among them Austerlitz, Iéna and the Pont des Arts, the city's first iron bridge.
The monumental work is more visible and more unfinished. The Vendôme column was cast from the bronze of guns taken at Austerlitz; the Carrousel arch was completed in 1808, the Étoile arch barely begun; the Madeleine became a temple of Glory; the Bourse rose; the palace of the King of Rome, planned for Chaillot, never left the ground.
On 31 March 1814 the allies entered Paris and the city capitulated without a fight — something Napoleon never forgave. The capital he wanted fabulous had preferred to negotiate. What remains of him owes less to triumphal arches than to administrative acts: water, numbers, cemeteries, police. Haussmann would find the ground already prepared.
