Boulevard Haussmann
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Boulevard Haussmann, 2.53 km long from the 8th to the 9th arrondissement, is one of the wide tree-lined boulevards created in Paris by Napoleon III, under the direction of his Prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann.
The Boulevard Haussmann is mostly lined with apartment blocks, whose regulated cornice height gives a pleasing eyeline to the Boulevard. The department stores Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps are sited on this street.
From 1906 to 1919, the novelist Marcel Proust (1871–1922) lived at No. 102. There, in his cork-lined bedroom (now on display in the Carnavalet Museum), he wrote the major part of À la recherche du temps perdu. Alan Bates starred in 102 Boulevard Haussmann, a 1990 play written by Alan Bennett.
At 158 there is the Musée Jacquemart-André.
The Impressionist and patron of other artists Gustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894) painted the Boulevard in many different lights as the days and seasons changed.
Marks & Spencer, the British department store chain, opened a store on Boulevard Haussmann in 1975 when it opened its first overseas stores.
In the Ian Fleming novel Thunderball, it is described as "the solidest street in Paris" and the site of the headquarters of SPECTRE.
