Postcards from... Booklet 2022

T he flagship city of France has a magnetic appeal that has lured countless visitors to the banks of the Seine. Classical elegance sits comfortably with modern innovation in a well-planned cityscape containing some of the most iconic structures including medieval churches, Bourbon palaces, Beaux Art department stores and the city’s defining industrial-age beacon - the Eiffel Tower. It is no wonder that Paris is renowned as a cultural melting pot and has been regarded consistently, especially since the mid-19th century, as a centre for the visual arts, gastronomy and high fashion. Elegant, wide boulevards proliferate the low-rise centre of the city, lined with characteristic stone- clad apartment blocks varying in height between just 5 and 7 floors. This is the legacy of Baron Hausmann, who transformed Paris between 1853 until 1870 from a maze of narrow, winding and disease-ridden alleys into the prototype, modern metropolis that would best serve a rapidly growing population. Whilst the new, broad streets may have been designed to deter a Parisian habit for rioting and blockades, it is evident