The excavation of the Avenue de l’Opéra
Paris, Musée Carnavalet
The transformations made by Haussmann completely remodelled the capital. Second Empire society was witness to the disappearance of old Paris in favour of a healthy, aerated city, with large arterial roads giving excellent views of the recently built monuments, as can be seen here (the silhouette of the Opéra can be seen to the left, in the distance). This painting, which dates from 1878, clearly illustrates the extent of the construction work still going on even after the fall of the empire. Whilst the decision to build Garnier’s architectural masterpiece was taken in 1860, the façade was not officially inaugurated until 15 August, 1867, and the whole of the building complex was not totally finished until 1875, after the fall of the empire. In the same way, the digging of the Avenue de l’Opéra (then called the Avenue Napoléon and begun in 1864), was not to be finished until 15 years later.