These forts, which endured the siege in 1870–71, have a perimeter of about 34 m. Each is designed as a miniature fortress with ample casemates and high cavaliers, the tenailles and ravelins, however, being as a rule omitted. On the north side there are three forts (connected by a plain parapet) around St Denis, one of these being arranged to control an inundation. Next, to the right, or eastward, comes Fort Aubervillers, which commands the approaches north of the wood of Bondy. These four works lie in relatively low ground. The eastern works are situated on higher ground (300–350 ft.); they consist of four forts and various small redoubts, and command the approaches from the great wood of Bondy. In low ground again at the narrowest point of the great loop of the Marne (near St Maurles-Fosses) there are two redoubts connected by a parapet, and between the Seine and the Marne, in advance of their confluence, Fort Charenton. On the south side of the city, hardly more than a mile from the enceinte, is a row of forts, Ivry, Bicêtre, Montrouge, Vanves and Issy, solidly constructed works in themselves but, as was shown in 1870, nearly useless for the defences of the city against rifled guns, as (with the exception of Bicêtre) they are overlooked by the plateau of Châtillon. On the west side of Paris is the famous fortress of Mont Valérien, standing 536 ft. above the sea and about 450 above the river. This completes the catalogue of the inner fort-line. It is strengthened by two groups of works which were erected in “provisional” form during the siege,[1] and afterwards reconstructed as permanent forts—Hautis Bruyères on the plateau of Villejuif, 1 m. south of Fort Bicêtre, and the Châtillon fort and batteries which now prevent access to the celebrated plateau that overlooks Paris from a height of 600 ft., and of which the rear batteries sweep almost the whole of the ground between Bicêtre and Mont Valérien.
The new works are 11 m. from the Louvre and 8 from the enceinte. They form a circle of 75 m. circumference, and an army which attempted to invest Paris to-day would have to be at least 500,000 strong, irrespective of all field and covering forces. The actual defence of the works, apart from troops temporarily collected in the fortified area, would need some 170,000 men only.
The entrenched camp falls into three sections—the north, the east and the south-west. The forts (of the general 1874–1875 French type, see Fortification and Siegecraft) have from 24 to 60 heavy guns and 600 to 1200 men each, the redoubts, batteries and annexe-batteries generally 200 men and 6 guns. In the northern section a ridge crosses the northern extremities of the St Germain-Argenceuil loop of the Seine after the fashion of the armature of a horse-shoe magnet; on this ridge (about 560 ft.) is a group of works, named after the village of Cormeilles, commanding the lower Seine, the Argenteuil peninsula and the lower ground towards the Oise. At an average distance of 5 m. from St Denis lie the works of the Montlignon-Domont position (about 600–670 ft.), which sweep all ground to the north, cross their fire with the Cormeilles works, and deny the plateau of Montmorency-Méry-sur-Oise to an enemy. At Écouen, on an isolated hill, are a fort and a redoubt, and to the right near these Fort Stains and two batteries on the ceinture railway. The important eastern section consists of the Vaujours position, the salient of the whole fortress, which commands the countryside to the north as far as Dammartin and Claye, crosses its fire with Stains on the one hand and Villiers on the other, and itself lies on a steep hill at the outer edge of the forest of Bondy which allows free and concealed communication between the fort and the inner line of works. The Vaujours works are armoured. Three miles to the right of Vaujours is Fort Chelles, which bars the roads and railways of the Marne valley. On the other side of the Marne, on ground made historic by the events of 1870, are forts Villiers and Champigny, designed as a bridgehead to enable the defenders to assemble in front of the Marne. To the right of these is a fort near Boissy-St-Leger, and on the right of the whole section are the armoured works of the Villeneuve-St-Georges position, which command the Seine and Yères country as far as Brie and Corbeil. The left of the south-western section is formed by the powerful Fort Palaiseau and its annexe-batteries, which command the Yvette valley. Behind Fort Palaiseau, midway between it and Fort Châtillon, is the Verrières group, overlooking the valley of the Bièvre. To the right of Palaiseau on the high ground towards Versailles are other works, and around Versailles itself is a semi-circle of batteries right and left of the armoured Fort St Cyr. In various positions around Marly there are some seven or eight batteries.
Topography.—The development of Paris can be traced outwards in approximately concentric rings from the Gallo-Roman town on the Île de la Cité to the fortifications which now form its boundary. A line of boulevards known as the Grands Boulevards,[2] coinciding in great part with ramparts of the 14th, 16th and 17th centuries, encloses most of old Paris, a portion of which extends southwards beyond the Boulevard St Germain. Outside the Grands Boulevards lie the faubourgs or old suburbs, round which runs another enceinte of boulevards—boulevards extérieurs—corresponding to ramparts of the 18th century. Beyond them other and more modern suburbs incorporated with the city after 1860 stretch to the boulevards which line the present fortifications. On the north, east and south these are commercial or industrial in character, inhabited by the working classes and petite bourgeoisie, while here and there there are still areas devoted to market gardening; those on the west are residential centres for the upper classes (Auteuil and Passy). Of the faubourgs of Paris those to the north and east are mainly commercial (Faubourgs St Denis, St Martin, Poissonnière) or industrial (Faubourgs du Temple and St Antoine) in character, while to the west the Faubourg St Honoré, the Champs Élysées and the Faubourg St Germain are occupied by the residences of the upper classes of the population. The chief resorts of business and pleasure are concentrated within the Grands Boulevards, and more especially on the north bank of the Seine. No uniformity marks the street-plan of this or the other quarters of the city. One broad and almost straight thoroughfare bisects it under various names from Neuilly (W.N.W.) to Vincennes (E.S.E.). Within the limits of the Grands Boulevards it is known as the Rue de Rivoli (over 2 m. in length) and the Rue St Antoine and runs parallel with and close to the Seine from the Place de la Concorde to the Place de la Bastille. From the Eastern station to the observatory Paris is traversed N.N.E. and S.S.W. for 212 m. by another important thoroughfare—the Boulevard de Strasbourg continued as the Boulevard de Sébastopol, as the Boulevard du Palais on the Île de la Cité, and on the south bank as the Boulevard St Michel. The line of the Grands Boulevards from the Madeleine to the Bastille, by way of the Place de l’Opéra, the Porte St Denis and the Porte St Martin (two triumphal arches erected in the latter half of the 17th century in honour of Louis XIV.) and the Place de la République stretches for nearly 3 m. It contains most of the large cafés and several of the chief theatres, and though its gaiety and animation are concentrated at the western end—in the Boulevards des Italiens, des Capucines and de la Madeleine—it is as a whole one of the most celebrated avenues in the world. On the right side of the river may also be mentioned the Rue Royale, from the Madeleine to the Place de la Concorde; the Malesherbes and Haussmann boulevards, the first stretching from the Place Madeleine north-west to the fortifications, the second from the Grands Boulevards near the Place de l’Opéra nearly to the Place de l’Étoile; the Avenue de l’Opéra, which unites the Place du Palais Royal, approximately the central point of Paris, with the Place de l’Opéra; the Rue de la Paix, connecting the Place Vendôme with the Place de l’Opéra, and noted for its fashionable dress-making establishments, and the Rue Auber and Rue du Quatre Septembre, also terminating in the Place de l’Opéra, in the vicinity of which are found some
- ↑ The plateau of Mont Avron on the east side, which was provisionally fortified in 1870, is not now defended.
- ↑ The word boulevard means “bulwark” or fortification and thus has direct reference to the old ramparts. But since the middle of the 19th century the title has been applied to new thoroughfares not traced on the site of an old enceinte.
