Joan DeJean - How Paris Became Paris

The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casualand the
Modern Home Began

The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion,
Fine Food, Chic Cafs, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour

The Reinvention of Obscenity: Sex, Lies, and Tabloids
in Early Modern France

Ancients Against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making
of a Fin de Sicle

Tender Geographies: Women and the Origins
of the Novel in France

Fictions of Sappho, 15461937

Also Available from Joan DeJean

The Queens Embroiderer:
A True Story of Paris, Lovers, Swindlers, and the First Stock Market Crisis

From celebrated author Joan DeJean comes a sweeping history of high finance, the origins of high fashion, and a pair of star-crossed lovers in eighteenth-century France.

Paris, 1719. The stock market is surging and the worlds first millionaires are buying everything in sight. Against this backdrop, two families, the Magoulets and the Chevrots, rose to prominence only to plummet in the first stock market crash.

Following these families from 1600 until the Revolution of 1789, Joan DeJean recreates the larger-than-life personalities of Versailles, where displaying wealth was a power game; the sordid cells of the Bastille; the Louisiana territory, where Frenchwomen were forcibly sent to marry colonists; and the legendary Wall Street of Paris, Rue Quincampoix, a world of high finance uncannily similar to what we know now. The Queens Embroiderer is both a star-crossed love story in the most beautiful city in the world and a cautionary tale of greed and the dangerous dream of windfall profits. And every bit of it is true.

A fascinating true story based on formidable detective work in the archives. Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator, Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology

The tale of two 17th- and 18th-century French families, a story that begins as a fairy tale and ends as a nightmare. Kirkus Reviews

A tale of intrigue and finance in 18th-century France. And what a story it is! If your plans for springtime in France havent materialized, dont despair. Just open The Queens Embroiderer and youll find yourself transported. BookPage Online

Copyright 2014 by Joan DeJean

All rights reserved.
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

Bloomsbury is a trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

DeJean, Joan E.
How Paris became Paris : the invention of the modern city / Joan DeJean. First U.S. edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Paris (France)History17th century. 2. Paris (France)Description and travel. 3. Paris (France)Social life and customs17th century. 4. Paris (France)GuidebooksHistory17th century. 5. City planningFranceParisHistory17th century.
I. Title.
DC729.D39 2014
944'.361033dc23
2013031527

eISBN: 978-1-62040-113-2

First U.S. Edition 2014
This electronic edition published in March 2014

To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletters.

MORE PARISIAN HISTORY FROM JOAN DEJEAN

THE AGE OF COMFORT
When Paris Discovered Casualand the Modern Home Began

A New York Times Notable Book for Art and Architecture

A book that will surprise, amuse, and gently educate. In fact its just the thing to curl up with inwhat else?an easy chair. ElleDecor.com

It may seem strange to think of the sofa as an agent of cultural change. Yet The Age of Comfort... shows how it not only helped transform the way homes were designed but also struck a blow to longstanding norms of social order. The New York Times

Available everywhere in paperback and as an eBook.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-60813-230-4
eISBN: 978-1-60813-135-2
www.bloomsbury.com

In memory of
Fannie DeJean Genin (19242012),
who never made it to Paris but would have loved it.

Capital of the Universe

The Bridge Where Paris Became Modern: The Pont Neuf

Light of the City of Light: The Place des Vosges

Enchanted Island: The le Saint-Louis

City of Revolution: The Fronde

The Open City: The Boulevards, Parks, and Streets of Paris

City of Speed and Light: City Services That Transformed Urban Life

Capitale de la Mode

City of Finance and New Wealth

City of Romance

Making the City Visible: Painting and Mapping the Transformation of Paris

This project began with paintings: the numerous views that depict the new monuments of seventeenth-century Paris. I chose black-and-white details from these early views of the city to illustrate all chapters. Some of the most important of these canvases are also reproduced in color. These images provide a vivid introduction to Paris as it appeared in the seventeenth century to those who watched its invention unfoldand to Paris as they wanted it to be seen by the world outside.

References for all quotations as well as references to relevant secondary sources can be found at the end.

What makes a city great?

Prior to the seventeenth century, the most celebrated European city was one famous for its past. Visitors made pilgrimages to Rome to tour its ancient monuments or its historic churches: they were seeking artistic inspiration and indulgences rather than novelty and excitement. Then, in the seventeenth century, a new model for urban space and urban life was invented, a blueprint for all great cities to come. The modern city as it came to be defined was designed to hold a visitors attention with quite different splendors: contemporary residential architecture and unprecedented urban infrastructure rather than grand palaces and churches. And this remade the urban experience for both the citys inhabitants and its visitors alike. The modern city was oriented to the future rather than the past: speed and movement were its hallmarks.

And, as many Europeans quickly recognized, only one city was truly modern: Paris.

Near the end of the seventeenth century, a new kind of publication began to appear: pocket guidebooks and maps specifically designed for visitors who planned to explore a city on foot. These ancestors of todays guidebooks were created to introduce Europeans to Paris. It was a city that, their authors felt, had become such a revolutionary kind of place that it needed to be seen in this way to be understood. The genre began in 1684 with the first edition of Germain Brices