Before its large-scale expansion, London had actually been a city well suited to walking. Sherlock Holmes in Conan Doyle's novels loved taking walks, and even Louis XVIII dressed like a Briton and strolled along the River Thames after arriving in London.
Once, Bonaparte took Georgiana for a walk in Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. There were too many people in the Tuileries Garden, while Luxembourg Gardens was full of "acquaintances."
He had a dream: to build a prestigious, luxurious promenade in Paris.
In the old days, there had already been plans to open up a triumphal route running east to west through Paris, but they had never actually been realized.
However, Bonaparte had not intended for Rue de Rivoli to serve as a triumphal route. One day, Duroc was sleeping fitfully when he was suddenly awakened by the sounds of construction outside. Looking out from Tuileries Palace, he saw Fontaine and Percier breaking ground. It was five in the morning.
There were roughly five hundred of them, all brimming with energy. When Duroc got dressed and asked what was going on, he learned that Bonaparte had summoned Fontaine and Percier at eleven the night before and ordered them to build an Arc de Triomphe. With so little time, there was naturally no budget or design drawings.
This was what Talleyrand meant when he said not to stamp things casually or issue Bonaparte's will without thought.
Construction on Rue de Rivoli had begun in 1801. Fontaine and Percier's plan was to use Rue de Rivoli as a central axis and construct wholly symmetrical Neoclassical buildings, their severity touched with elegance.
Rue de Castiglione was a short street, a mere minor project compared to the grand Rue de Rivoli.
During the Vendémiaire Uprising, Napoleon had fought the commoners fiercely on Saint-Honoré Street at the