I thought I knew all I needed to know about Paris when I arrived here in 2022.
Wrong!
There was so much more to learn, things you can only learn by living there.
For example: the word bis.
One day, I had an appointment at a doctor’s office. The address was something like 46 bis rue Lacombe (I’m making this address up). “What’s bis?” I asked myself. It just so happened that I had class the next day, so I took it to my French teacher.
He was befuddled. To be fair, he was a Bordelais (from Bordeaux). To satisfy our curiosity, he looked it up on his phone.
Here’s what we found:
Bis indicates a duplicate house number. In other words, as with the photo above, there is 20 bis, which means there’s another house whose address is 20. Confused? Let me confuse you more: there is also ter and quater - meaning there are three and four establishments with the same physical address. (bis, ter and quater are derived from Latin.)
It’s sometimes the case that a plot of land is divided up into different parcels. The physical land address may be ‘11 rue Mouffetard’, but that plot’s address may be shared with another building.
So, 11 rue Mouffetard, 11 bis rue Mouffetard, 11 ter rue Mouffetard, to differentiate between the different establishments. The Powers That Be adopted this system rather than try to renumber an entire street. (I can’t imagine how La Poste would handle a renumbered street, but nevermind.) No need to reinvent the centuries-old wheel.
Paris has undergone many transformations over the centuries. One of the biggest (probably THE biggest) was in the 1800s. In the first half of that century, the city’s population surpassed one million. The roads were awful: too narrow, uneven, rough, winding — in other words, it was hard to get around.
During that era, Napoleon III (no, not that Napoleon) wanted things to change. He was inspired by London’s architectural re-build after a fire devastated the city in 1666. His vision was to create a similarly ‘breathable’ layout for Paris.
Enter Georges Eugène Haussmann.
It took 80,000 (!!) builders, iron workers, artisans and sculptors to transform the city. If you walk around Paris today, you can see how the boulevards are wide and sweeping, with decent-sized streets connecting to them.
Paris’ reconstruction wasn’t without its problems. The increased comfort of the Haussmannian buildings meant living in the city center was more expensive. As a result, the poorer folk and even the builders who helped rework the city were pushed further afield where it was more affordable. Also, the project cost a huge amount of money: it equaled the entire annual budget for all of France! (I’d argue it was money well spent.)
Fast forward to 2024. Paris has been undergoing another kind of transition.
The mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has slowly turned the city into a more bicycle-friendly place, in keeping with France’s goal to be more ‘green’. ‘Plan Vélo’ is a massive project - 180 miles of bike lanes have already been created, with plans to add more through 2026.
Not everyone is a fan - some say it’s making the city ugly, and the people who rely on their cars to get through Paris aren’t thrilled that the roads are being ‘taken over’.
But I’d say a bike-friendly city has a healthy vibe, and there are a lot of people who prefer two wheels to four. Not to mention that more bike lanes means it’s easier to get around when there’s a transportation strike… and God knows there are plenty of those!
Sources:
The Connexion: Why do some French house numbers have bis or ter after them?
Why bis and ter? (In French)
City of Paris: Haussmann: the man who transformed Paris (In French)
Interesting! Great pics!
I kinda like the pre Haussmann photos!