Paris Sewers (yes I'm afraid so)

Paris Sewers

When you've been married to a water engineer whose done a lot of work with sewers, for as long as I have and you've benefited financially from his endeavours, when he suggests visiting the Paris sewers you feel a moral obligation to join him. Well I did anyway. And it turned out to be quite interesting - certainly not the most enticing part of Paris but an enlightening glimpse into it's history. For Bob it wasn't quite detailed enough but for me that wasn't an issue.
Take the e and o out of "egouts" on the sign above and that's what you've got.

Until the Middle Ages the drinking water from Paris was taken from the Seine River and waste was poured onto fields or unpaved streets but filtered back into the Seine. Not so healthy - eh?
When the streets were paved around 1200 they were sloped so that there was an open drain for waste water in the middle. Better but not great.
Louis X1V built a large ring sewer (uncovered) and Napolean 1 the first vaulted sewer network (covered).
During the French Revolution in 1794 a new Paris with widened roads and boulevards was envisaged. Napolean 1 started the process by building a colossal street near the Louvre where the Tuileries Gardens are today.
In 1832 20,000 people out of 650.000 died in a cholera epidemic. It was realised that it was important "for men and air to circulate." (I suppose but am not sure this included women and children.)
In 1848 Napolean 111 decided to modernise Paris after he had seen London transformed in the Industrial Revolution and have large parks and a sewer system. Napolean 111 appointed George Haussmann as a Prefect of the Seine. Many of the ideas that Haussmann and others implemented at that time had been envisaged by Napoleon 1 but not carried out.
So the Paris water and sewage system was built. This included two water systems - one for drinking and one for non drinking water. There were 600 km of sewers by 1878 and waste water was discharged into the Seine but far downstream of Paris. This was very innovative for it's time.
The system has been modernised over the years and now has 2100 kms of tunnels and of course the water is now treated industrially rather than pumped into the Seine. The sewers are big enough for people to walk and work in them and there is an intensive maintenance program today.

These large wooden balls are still used to clean the sewers today and are pushed through hopefully bringing all before them.

                      This is Bob outside a vaulted sewer. I only know because he told me.

Interestingly there was heavy rain overnight before we visited and the sewers, which are right next to the Seine had been closed in the morning because of flooding.

Well I think that's quite enough detail about this topic.