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forced the leaders to evacuate to Versailles, electing their
own extremist council, named the Commune, to run the
city. Immediately it tried to impose reforms, including the
abolition of the guillotine, the conversion of abandoned
businesses into workers' cooperatives and a separation of
church and state. But the Versailles government was not to
be thwarted. After a few weeks, it retook Paris, street by
street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. (Owing to those
open boulevards constructed by Haussmann just a few
years before, it was hard to erect the barricades necessary
to keep the 'Versaillais' at bay.) Atrocities and murders were
committed on both sides, but the 'Versaillais' prevailed,
slaughtering thousands of Communards. By the time it was
all over, some 40,000 people had been arrested, 13,000
imprisoned or deported to Devil's Island and 20,000 left
dead. Even after peace had been restored and the elected
government returned to power, hard feelings and unrest
lasted for decades, and the Commune is remembered
till today.
The Belle Epoque
In spite of the upheavals and reshuffles under the Third
Republic, Paris, with a population of some 2.8 million,
seemed to glow. The torched Hôtel de Ville (City Hall)
was rebuilt and old buildings began to be conserved and
restored. The
métro
system was built, as was the beautiful
basilica atop Montmartre—Sacre-Cœur. More open
boulevards were constructed according to Haussmannian
standards and theatres and gracious apartment buildings
shot up. The staging of Expositions Universelles gave rise
to the Trocadéro, the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais (now
museums) and, of course, the Eiffel Tower. Impressionist
painters, whose work can now be viewed at the Musée
d'Orsay (which was then a railway station), emerged.The
first department store, Au Bon Marché, opened in 1876,
followed by Au Printemps. Literature thrived, theatres were
packed and popular composers such as Camille Saint-Saëns,
Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel epitomised the cultural
ethos of the time.
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