Instantaneous Paris: Boulevard de Strasbourg

The most drastic element of Napoleon III's and Baron Haussmann's reshaping of Paris was the construction of straight, wide boulevards, often terminating at historic monuments like the Arc de Triomphe or the Porte Saint-Martin or new landmarks like the Opéra or the Gare de Strasbourg (now Gare de l'Est.) In his memoir, Haussmann recounted that when he assumed office as prefect of the Seine, the emperor presented him with a map on which he had already marked the boulevards he wanted to build. These broad thoroughfares, drawn with a straightedge, cut indiscriminately through historic neighborhoods and necessitated the demolition of thousands of buildings, displacing the local inhabitants and forever changing the rhythms and customs of the capital's distinctive corners.

Along the boulevards a new bourgeois culture arose, most visible in stereographs of the period. The smaller format of such views allowed for faster exposures that caught the movement of horse-drawn omnibuses, shoppers, and flâneurs out for a stroll to see and be seen.