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Claude-Philibert Barthelot de Rambuteau
Claude-Philibert Barthelot, comte de Rambuteau (French pronunciation: [klod filibɛːʁ baʁtəlo kɔ̃t də ʁɑ̃byto]) (Mâcon, 9 November 1781 – Château de Rambuteau, 11 April 1869) was a French senior official of the first half of the 19th century. He was préfet of the former Department of the Seine, which included Paris, from 1833 to 1848. He established the groundwork for the fundamental transformation of Paris that Haussmann carried out under the Second Empire. CareerHis administration was marked by the implementation of hygienists’ theories. One year before his nomination, a cholera epidemic devastated Paris. Rambuteau thought that the narrow, tortuous streets and small disease-prone districts in the centre of Paris encouraged the development of the disease. He commenced the cutting of 13-metre-wide roads through Paris with the widening of the Rue Rambuteau in 1839, which was later named after him. This was the first time wide roads had been built in central Paris. Under his administration, the Arc de Triomphe in the Place de l'Étoile was finished, and the building of the great avenue of the Champs-Élysées commenced. Rambuteau’s motto was "Water, air, shade". He modernised the Paris sewers and ordered the construction of many fountains. Some of his fountains in Paris parks still function. He developed gas lighting and the planting of trees along avenues. At the beginning of his administration, the city had 69 gas jets; at his departure it had 8,600 gas jets. He also commenced the construction of the famous pissoirs (public urinals) along Paris roads.  In spite of the enactment of the law of expropriation in the public interest in 1841, Rambuteau did not have the means or the ambition to implement the work that Haussmann later carried out, but he showed the way forward. Personal lifeOn 7 March 1808 at Agen, he married Marie Adélaide Charlotte de Narbonne-Lara (Belleville, 11 May 1790 - Champgrenon, 31 May 1856), second daughter of Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara, and Marie Adélaïde de Montholon.[1] Rambuteau and his wife had two daughters:[2]
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