Claude-Philibert Barthelot, comte de Rambuteau (Mâcon

Mâcon

Mâcon is a small city in central France. It is prefecture of the Saône-et-Loire department, in the region of Bourgogne, and the capital of the Mâconnais district. Mâcon is home to over 35,000 residents, called Mâconnais.-Geography:...

, 9 November 1781 – Château de Rambuteau, 11 April 1869) was a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 senior official of the first half of the 19th century. He was Préfet

Préfet

A prefect in France is the State's representative in a department or region. Sub-prefects are responsible for the subdivisions of departments, arrondissements...

 of the former Départment of the Seine

Seine (département)

Seine was a département of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. Its préfecture was Paris and its official number was 75. The Seine département was abolished in 1968 and its territory divided among four new départements....

, which included Paris, from 1833 to 1848. He established the groundwork for the fundamental transformation of Paris that Haussmann

Baron Haussmann

Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann , was a French civic planner whose name is associated with the rebuilding of Paris...

 carried out under the Second Empire

Second French Empire

The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...

.

His administration was marked by the implementation of the theories of the hygienists. One year before his nomination, an epidemic of cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

 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

Arc de Triomphe

-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...

 in the Place de l'Étoile

Place de l'Étoile

The Place Charles de Gaulle, , historically known as the Place de l'Étoile , is a large road junction in Paris, France, the meeting point of twelve straight avenues including the Champs-Élysées which continues to the east. It was renamed in 1970 following the death of General and President Charles...

 was finished and the building of the great avenue of the Champs-Élysées

Champs-Élysées

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets and one of the most expensive strip of real estate in the world. The name is...

 was commenced.

The motto of Rambuteau was: "water, air, shade". He thus modernised the sewers of Paris 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 the 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 public urinals along the roads of Paris.

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.

He married at Agen

Agen

Agen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...

 on 7 March 1808 Marie Adélaide Charlotte de Narbonne-Lara (Belleville

Belleville

-Places in North America:Canada*Belleville, Nova Scotia*Belleville, OntarioUnited States of America*Belleville, Arkansas*Belleville, California*Belleville, Illinois, the largest US city named Belleville**Belleville -Places in North America:Canada*Belleville, Nova Scotia*Belleville, OntarioUnited...

, 11 May 1790 - Champgrenon, 31 May 1856), second daughter of Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara

Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara

Louis Marie Jacques Amalric, comte de Narbonne-Lara was a French nobleman, soldier and diplomat.-Birth and early life:He was born at Colorno, in the Duchy of Parma, as the son of Françoise de Châlus Louis Marie Jacques Amalric, comte de Narbonne-Lara (17, 23 or 24 August 1755 – 17 November...

 and Marie Adélaïde de Montholon, and had two daughters:

• Amable Françoise Barthelot de Rambuteau, married in Paris on 16 July 1835 Jean Jacques Louis Lombard de Buffières (Lyon
  Lyon
  Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
  
  , 15 July 1800 - Lyon, 26 July 1875), son of Claude, Baron
  Baron
  Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
  
   Lombard de Buffières, and Monique Rast de Maupas, and had four sons, who used the name Lombard de Buffières de Rambuteau
• Marie Louise Barthelot de Rambuteau (1812 - 7 September 1880), married Théodore Gilles Louis Alphonse de Rocca (17 April 1812 - 12 November 1842), without issue

Sources

• Domingos de Araújo Afonso et alii, Le Sang de Louis XIV (Braga, 1961), Tome I, p. 276.