Sous les arches de Paris : Quand la Seine façonne la ville | Trésors du Patrimoine

L’eau relie, la pierre unit : les ponts racontent l’âme de Paris.
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00:43 Les premiers ponts, entre mythe et ingénierie
03:30 La naissance des ponts parisiens
07:00 La Seine, colonne vertébrale de la ville
12:00 Le Pont de la Concorde, symbole révolutionnaire
20:00 Le Pont Neuf et le Pont Marie, monuments d’histoire
28:00 Le Pont Alexandre III, chef-d’œuvre de l’art et de la diplomatie
35:00 Du Pont des Invalides à Bir-Hakeim, Paris moderne
41:00 Les ponts du Grand Paris
46:00 Les ponts, sources d’inspiration artistique
50:00 Le Pont Mirabeau, poésie et mémoire

Au fil de la Seine, Paris révèle ses visages et son histoire. Chaque pont — du Pont Neuf à Alexandre III, du Pont Marie à Bir-Hakeim raconte un chapitre de la Ville Lumière : l’évolution du génie architectural, les révolutions urbaines, les symboles politiques et les amours poétiques qui s’y sont inscrits. Ce voyage au cœur de “Paris au Pluriel” explore les liens entre l’eau, la pierre et la mémoire.

Titre : Paris au Pluriel – Paris, Ville et Ponts
Réalisation : Arnaud Dumé, Louis Lechevalier, Sébastien Lefebvre
© Tous droits réservés – AMP

#Paris #Seine #Ponts #VilleLumière #Patrimoine #Histoire #Architecture #France #Documentaire #Culture
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The bridge is complicated. You know, it’s a long story. We are in the Mediterranean region, a place steeped
in the tradition of the book. What I am going to tell you is
the first ten lines of the Bible. God creates the world and the first thing he creates is shadow and light. By setting up the celestial bodies,
the sun, day and night. And it’s the third day
who takes care of the fleet. The waters above, the waters below,
the seas and the rivers. So, all of this is a divine creation. And the question that will very quickly arise for the threads of the book is: Can we reconnect what God has separated? And so, crossing a foeve is something a little demonic. The Devil’s Bridge. In France, one of the best known is located
in Les Raux, but many others have been named
as such throughout Europe. Impossible, improbable bridges have
often been likened to the work of the devil. According to some legends,
in exchange for his work, the devil demanded the first
soul to cross the bridge. The latter was usually built
in a single night, but the devil often ended up being tricked by men. These beliefs are found
all over the world. The collapse of the first watchtowers, the
Zoupon footbridge, was therefore interpreted as
divine revenge for daring to defy the established order. The first crossings
involve crossing a stream, a river. And for the first crossing,
you take a tree trunk, place it and cross over a tree trunk. And it is the preparation of this tree trunk
that we are going to plane, to which we are going to put a smooth surface. And then, very quickly,
we will put a stone in the middle and we will put two tree trunks. Bridges, what we see here, at a moment,
are a series of tentative steps. The bridges you see there,
this one dates from the Pont-Neuf, which is one of the oldest bridges
in Paris, along with the Pont-Marie, it dates from the 17th century. Bridges used to be made of wood. So, they were meant
to be carried away by the floods. People used to
build and dismantle bridges. The Pont des Invalides, it had been built,
it was a stone bridge, it had been built for the
Universal Exhibition of 1855. This bridge, 1855, that’s
not from the dawn of time. It’s 150 years, well,
a little over 150 years. It has been remade twelve times. You see, so I’m saying this to show
how random things are. Today, we have a pretty good understanding of
the logic behind bridges. First, before the bridges,
there were watchtowers. The first lookout, that is to say
the first way of crossing from one side of the right bank to the left bank,
is of course around the Utès, on the island of the Cité. And you have a bridge that bears
the name Petit, the Petit Pont. This was the lookout point. For there to be a lookout, there
must not be a very deep water. The material must
allow water to slide off. It is necessary to be able to manage the water flowing through it
and the space to be crossed. So, we look for narrow places. It’s complicated
because a narrow place is easy to cross when there is no current. But as soon as there is a current,
the narrow place becomes torrential and therefore, it sweeps everything away. So, it’s very complicated. But as soon as people understood that,
they started building arches to cross over. There, they could make arches,
that is to say, let the water pass through, let people pass through,
you don’t pass in the same direction, and constantly think
about the force of the wind. Because the wind that rushes in and takes hold of
a bridge deck carries everything away. So, it’s a very technical work,
very, very technical, whose techniques will evolve little by little. Well, initially, we make
very heavy piles so we can carry them. Then, we realize that
heavy batteries don’t work. So, we’re going to give it,
we’re going to give the piles boat shapes, that is to say upstream,
we make it like a boat, there is a bow, it is pointed. And then in the back, it’s round,
it’s more comfortable. We can see it very clearly.
So. The river nourishes, cleanses, transports. Therefore, bridges must
allow for transportation. Today, bridges must allow
barges to pass. So there is a strange relationship
between the river and the city, of which the bridge is the synthesis. The bridge does not close off the city;
the bridge is always at the genesis of a very precise organization of the city. Paris was very quickly divided in two. The left bank and the right bank. And in the center, the cathedral. That’s medieval organization. It’s a
very, very original organization. Because,
very well described in Victor Hugo, very well described in lots of things. But you have the right bank, which was
the merchants’ bank, the city, and the left bank, which was the
university district, the city of the claries, the Latin quarter, because that was
where the Roman city was. The Roman town was there simply
because it was the closest to Rome. So, they had mostly colonized
the left bank. It’s quite strange because
the Last Supper very clearly shares what is the domain of power
with the Church in the middle. The first university
is located around Notre-Dame. This is the Church, the chapter. There was a very tough controversy
at one point between two pairs of Church members. One of them is Saint Bernard,
who says that all abbeys must be pure as can be,
no images, nothing at all. And the other, who is Abelard,
who says: On the contrary, we must tell stories on the facades of our
churches from books of… And this is something that is very important. They’re going to have a fight. One is for dogma, the other is
for the education of the people. The people are illiterate. So, they need to read things through images,
through sculpture. And so, there will be an explosion. And Abelard,
who would eventually be excommunicated at the Council of Sens, but Abelard leaves the chapter,
crosses the stage and goes to settle around Saint-Etienne du Mont
and create the Latin Quarter. He created the first,
in quotes, secular university, that is to say, a university for all,
for knowledge. And that, you see, is something
important in the genesis of the city. All the first bridges will go
around this island to pass around the Île de la Cité. It is when Paris grows
that, suddenly, the bridges will generate
an organization that goes beyond the simple bridgehead. The modern city, the extension of the city,
is the 18th century of the 14th. It’s a certain rationality,
the construction of an urban economy. Cities are no longer limited
to the cathedral, but we are starting to create what I call
secular cathedrals, theatres. They become cultural centers that
lead a number of populations to congregate. And so, the very good example
is the Concorde bridge. The Concorde bridge,
which was planned to be the Louis XV bridge,
with a place planned for Louis XV, and which was to bear the equestrian statue
of Louis XV, then of Louis XVI. Patatam, it falls during the Revolution. So, the bridge was not built,
but it had the particularity of organizing a large square,
which is the Place de la Concorde, with a perspective,
a very small perspective, at the time, which is the Rue Royale, and in the background, a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve. The Place de la Concorde
will be partially constructed. The Crillon hotels and the Hôtel
de la Marine, which has just been renovated, were built as such by Gabrielle. It is there,
but that is where they guillotine, that is where the great
popular gatherings are. This is where the people gather
for all demonstrations. So, this bridge is going to have many ups and downs. First, it is decided that it will be built,
stones must be found, including stones from the Bastille. It’s a fantastic career. The Bastille is being dismantled. So we can bring
the stones by boat, we put them on the Seine, and they arrive there. And so the whole interior,
the bridge has been widened, but the whole interior of the bridge,
is made with the stones of the Bastille, and the convention members are
very precise in saying that this is how it is, the people will have the impression,
the symbolism, of walking on what represented repression. Inaugurated under the name of Pont-Louis XVI,
it was renamed Pont de la Révolution between 1792 and 1795. It finally took its current name
of Pont de la Concorde in 1830. Napoleon I commissioned eight,
then twelve statues of his generals who died on the battlefield
to adorn the bridge. Only four were completed before the
emperor’s departure for Saint Helena. During the Restoration, Louis XVIII
adopted the idea of ​​ornamenting the bridge. The subjects were then chosen from among
the great servants of the monarchy: four great ministers,
including Colbert and Richelieu, four military men,
including the Chevalier Bayard, and four sailors, including Suffrène and Tourville. But due to the excessive weight,
the statues were removed and transported for a time to the
main courtyard of the Palace of Versailles. After 1914, they were
dispersed to other locations. And since then, nothing has been done. You can clearly see these columns
of rice coming out of the water. There is absolutely nothing above it. But it was an urban organization linked
to the church of the Madeleine, to the Place de la Concorde,
up to the colonnade which was composed as such of the Palais Bourbon. All the bridges that came after
were large compositions linked to the state of development,
either which existed as here, where it was a marsh,
and where the marsh was drained, or The great bridge builder was
Haussmann, and each time it was a grand perspective. That is to say, the Saint-Michel bridge
and the Châtelet bridge are in perfect alignment, from the Observatory,
roughly, to the Gare de l’Est. This affects practically a large
number of districts in Paris. As soon as you move away from the cities,
the rivers widen, for thousands of reasons:
geographical, organization of the quays. And so, lots of bridges are
built on the outskirts of cities. Somewhere, the Pont-Neuf,
which is on the edge of the medieval city of Henry IV. Napoleon is a very good
example. When Napoleon arrived,
he wanted to limit Paris and he created two bridges: the Austerlitz bridge
and the Yena bridge. Yena Bridge, there’s the military school there,
it’s a military area. The Austerlitz bridge
is a more commercial area. This is where
the goods arrive for Paris. So, he builds a bridge. He will first establish two bridgeheads. There is the botanical garden,
but he will put the name of Valubert and Maillasse,
who are the two officers, a colonel and a general,
killed at Austerlitz. You see, it’s symbolic. When the Restoration arrived,
they immediately wanted to eliminate these names and they would call the Austerlitz bridge
the King’s Gardens bridge. For you it will only last a few years,
it will go back to the Austerlitz side. And it’s very funny actually,
because if you look at the arms on the Austerlitz bridge that were made
by the Republic afterwards, you see the arms of the Republic
with fasces of the Inspector General, everything. But behind it, you can see
the eagle, which is a little squashed. In other words, what does the whole modern debate
about Napoleon actually show in all of this? This torturer, well, there’s
a vision, that’s how it is. But even the Republic, at that moment,
they crush the eagle, but it is there, the eagle. It’s all in the symbolism. What’s interesting about what I
just said is that many bridges built in suburbs
are based on highway designs and are not bridges
that connect one city to another. It’s not bridges
that inspire a stroll. These are bridges that allow
traffic to evacuate. And that’s tragic. That’s the whole problem with the
Parisian suburbs where there are far fewer bridges, obviously. Here, we have a lot, you see,
of bridges, we have them within easy reach. But that’s a real problem. The relationship between the city and the bridges
is something that is no longer anticipated. The bridge becomes an object
not of exchange but functional. And there, we have a
terrible, terrible loss of knowledge. In the history of the development
of the quays, we don’t tell stories. While on the surface they say bridge,
they give the names of the bridges, at the level of the quays it would be a promenade. People would go,
we could talk about the bridges, who built them, when,
what they represent, the architectural details, the decorations, all that. These are things where people are… It’s educational. It teaches you about the river. The unique aspect of the development
of the quays is that it doesn’t originate from the river, from the boats that are
there, and not at all from the bridges that are the very genesis of Paris. And here, it’s nothing at all to make
signs that tell a story and enhance the experience,
that would attract other types of walkers, other types of tourists. And why not, continuing the scene,
be able to move into the suburbs, because every suburban bridge
also has a story. I say this because there is the
perspective view of the city perpendicular to the river,
the river path, and the long, narrow city that follows the river,
the Halage, which is parallel to the river. And this encounter always happens under
bridges, and it’s never a coincidence. The relationship between the city and its bridges
is therefore full of human, political and architectural histories. For over 2000 years since Paris was
founded, the Seine has been crossed from upstream to downstream thanks to bridge builders. Here is the unique story
of some of the 37 bridges that adorn the Seine within the Parisian city limits. The Pont-Marie is linked
to an island which was called the island of Notre-Dame and which is attached to the Latin Quarter. He was part of the urbanization
of this island. The Seine was a suite, is a suite of rivers with islands upstream and downstream. But the island of Saint-Louis is itself the union
of three islands. It was a livestock farming area
and we decided to turn it into a fashionable district of private mansions,
right away, with private mansions on the south side
and private mansions on the north side. And the Pont-Marie was on the south side. It was the outlet, the arrival,
the entry into this neighborhood. It was inhabited until the revolution. At the Revolution,
the dwellings that were on it were removed and it became the bridge we
know with what is very, very spectacular, is the calepinage,
that is to say the organization of the stones that support the platform, the support
and that surround the niches, everything. It’s the most beautiful. Moreover, it was the first one
identified as a historical monument. In 1887, the Pont-Neuf
did so three years later. There you go, to put things back into perspective. So, the oldest bridge
is the Pont-Marie, which is not named after the mother
of Christ, but after the engineer who made it, who was called Monsieur-Marie. The first bridge without a house
from which one could see the river was the Pont-Neuf, with, moreover,
on each of its piers, those balconies and benches which allow
precisely a contemplation of the river. The Pont-Neuf
is the first real urban manifestation. So this is before Henry IV,
it’s Henry III. He decides to visit the Pont-Neuf
and the Place Dauphine. And of course,
the connection with the Cemetery of the Innocents,
which was on the right bank, and an organization towards the
Latin Quarter, on the left bank, with the Rue Dauphine. And that’s intentional. But the major operation was
the Place Dauphine and above all, it was in the perspective
of the Palais-Royal which was already at the Louvre. And so, this is what the king saw
when he looked at the river and upstream from his balcony. And of course,
we are considering putting an equestrian statue at the top of it , it’s the first
royal place, an equestrian statue of the king. The problem is,
which king will be installed in the middle of the bridge? Because there are two bridges, nine,
there is a new northern bridge and a new southern bridge, but in the middle,
there is a huge stack of bridges. It’s a very, very powerful symbol. So this is the first
bridge without any housing. The first bridge that was
used to showcase the river. The one who will inaugurate it will not be Henry III,
it will be Henry IV, with all the religious wars,
with all that it meant. So, it’s kind of like a bridge
of reconciliation. This is significant of a modern city,
of the modernity that Henry IV wanted for his city,
the Place des Vosges, that is to say a whole district which was
a bit of a marsh district, a district which is being beautified, which is being developed. And there are these balconies
and there is this frieze. I don’t know how many there are anymore. We speak of courtiers,
of people of the court. None of them are the same. This is not a rehearsal. They are completely different faces. And I, for one moment, was having fun
watching three or four. There are three or four of them who have
somewhat modern looks and we say, ” Look, why is this
a guy we hate?” I’m not going to get too political,
so I’m not going to say anything. But we say: Oh dear, oh dear. And then people say: Yes,
he looks like him. It is said that the sculptor no longer hammers and sculpts people he hated because they are,
after all, somewhat grimacing figures. It’s designed to be scary. The question is: is Henry IV looking at the river or is he looking at the city? The decision was to
have him look at the city. This statue has a long history,
because it was a gift from the Medici, the Italians. They had given him a horse as a gift. Then,
he sent it by boat because he couldn’t take a cart because it would get
stuck in the mud when trying to put the statue of Louis XIV in Place Bellecour. Louis XIV offered the city of Lyon his
statue, which was very kind. Except that a cast iron statue
is not cast in Lyon, it is cast in Paris. So, we put it on a boat,
it goes down the Seine, they go all the way across the Ocean,
they go through the Canal du Midi, they go through the Mediterranean, they go up
the Rhône, and they arrive at Place Bellecour. So, Medici’s horse,
it sank, I don’t remember where, they took it out, everything. And they end up putting Henry IV in power. Of course, it will be melted. And during the Restoration,
the statue of Henry IV will be put back in place. And it is said that the sculptor,
and especially the founder, was a Bonapartist, and placed a statue of Bonaparte in the arm of Henry IV
. It’s a bridge where you can sit. The bridges where you could sit
are the footbridges, but no bridge is
planned with seats. It’s the only one where there are… People can sit down and they sit down, and
photographers take pictures. The Pont au Double was commissioned by the Hôtel-Dieu. So the Hôtel-Dieu was
built on the other side. They reclaimed their chapel, which was
Saint-Julien-le-Pont, poor. The garden, the Square Viviani,
was the Hôtel-Dieu. All of this was… They cared for people
because the cathedrals functioned religiously,
intellectually, with schools attached
to the cathedrals and care centers. Near all
the cathedrals, the old medieval cathedrals of the Hôtel-Dieu,
because people came to the cathedrals to be treated, for the miracle. The Hôtel-Dieu was the only hospice,
a hospital in the heart of the city. All the others, like Saint-Lazare,
were outside the walls to stop diseases, to guard,
to confine people outside the city. Lepers, the sick, and
plague victims were to be removed from the city. Only the Hôtel-Dieu was in the heart of the city
and it treated people using water from the Seine. He washed them, etc. So, the Alexandre III bridge, it’s made to mark… It’s the only bridge that bears
the name of a foreign sovereign. The only one. This is to celebrate
the special relationship between France and Russia. It’s a whole development,
it’s the recovery and reclamation of this entire Invalides marsh,
because the Invalides bridge is offset, it’s beyond,
because because there were marshes, you had to go around the side to get to
the bank, from the right bank to the left bank. So, this bridge, as I said,
is a technically interesting bridge with these
two columns when it is green. And he celebrates, he highlights
the coats of arms of Russia and France by celebrating two rivers,
the Neva and the Seine. So.
The Alexander III Bridge, a single arch. We’re going to launch one arch on the right bank and one on the left bank. And there are two fairly substantial bridge piers
with staircases. This is part
of the 1900 exhibition. And you have these large pillars,
these four large pillars, with these statues that are gilded, the gold leaf. And then we think, it’s just a decoration. Well, think again. These two pillars have a
mechanical function in the structure of the bridge. It’s called a cantilever. That is to say, it is a weight which helps
to lighten the encounter of the two arches which are marked and hidden behind these
two weapons, these two symbols which represent the Neva and the Seine. From our side, we can
see the Neva River. The Neva, the river of Saint Petersburg. And the bridge is one of the
lowest above the Seine. So, this bridge
is in a very precise perspective between the Champs-Élysées and the Invalides. And for the perspective to be realistic,
the bridge must be as flat as possible. Today, if you look at the
modern bridges that are made economically out of concrete, often bridges are built to allow
navigation to pass underneath. And so, we break down that perspective. I know of
a bridge in Nantes which is named after Duchess Anne, which is a ridiculous bridge because
it has a hump and you can’t see it. It is between the island of Nantes and
what was the Sanita district, which was an old port district. That was precisely the place where
people were quarantined. And then you have this humpback bridge
which is utterly ridiculous. By bike, it’s impassable,
and by car, you can’t see it. There, the engineer looked for the
lowest bridge, which in fact is the one with the
air draft, that is to say what happens between the average water and the keystone,
the lowest, it is very, very low. And so the boatmen know this well,
you have to take it as straight as possible because the other
bridges have more air and are easier to cross. One thing that is very important
is that the four statues you see on each side represent science,
art, commerce, and industry. It’s the 19th century,
it’s everything that it represents, beyond the political aspect of
Franco-Russian friendship, which is something very strong. But very quickly,
this bridge, which would only be declared a historical monument
very recently, in 1975. But for a very long time,
it will be perceived as Rococo. And then in 1924 you had the Exposition
of Decorative Arts, which was going to be built around that theme. Paul Poiret
buys four reinforced concrete barges and as this bridge bores him,
he will surround it with fabrics, he will dress it up a little before Christo,
before what Christo will do at the Pont-Neuf, saying:
Art Deco cannot be done with something as rococo
and as ugly as this. Today, a bridge, you see,
fashions, it’s really And that, I find that… Symbolism is a force,
that is to say something loved, hated, today loved,
everyone says, it’s great. And then, everything is
enhanced with gold leaf. And what’s remarkable is that
you can’t see them, but it’s the candelabras that are on them. Everything is designed, everything is… It’s really 1900.
It’s a… It’s a modern style.
Okay, we know. For me, it’s a bridge that was
denounced by the aesthetes of the time, and not just any aesthetes. Paul Poiret, though,
was someone who had… Who had taste
in fashion, in the way of dressing and everything, and he hated that bridge.
So. So, the Pont des Invalides, I like it because it’s a bridge that ‘s like a compass, it’s north-south. As it is called the Pont des Invalides,
and the Invalides was the military hospital, they
naturally bridge over the weapons with… There are all sorts of weapons, all
sorts of things that aggravate the situation. It was built
for the 1855 exhibition, that is, the first World’s Fair. It wasn’t finished in time. Bridges are never finished on time. He has had many ups and downs. I said it had been
rebuilt twelve times, and many times. This will be one of the great bridges which will be
the access, along with the Concorde bridge, to the most visited exhibition in the
world, until the Shanghai World Expo , which is
the World Expo of 1900. Grenelle bridge,
we are after the Yena bridge. There is the Eiffel Tower which is planned,
but is not yet under construction. Bartholdi’s workshop is
just behind the Grenelle bridge. And there is a plain
called Grenelle. We have the idea,
there is a plain called Grenelle, we have the idea of ​​creating a municipality
and creating a Grenelle municipality. And between Bartholdi, the sculptor, and Eiffel, who knows how to do things at height, Bartholdi has the idea;
he makes a subscription so that democratic countries will offer the city
of New York the Statue of Liberty. So who’s going to be traveling from here
to New York? 1886, the statue; 1889, the Eiffel Tower. And some time later,
American fans say: Come on, France is really nice. We’re making a replica
that we’re going to give to them. So, America is offering us a
reproduction of the Statue of Liberty. And it continues. At the time of the centenary,
the Americans had the flame made in full size
and it was placed at the end of the bridge. There it is, she’s here. It’s very funny because
there’s a bit of an American dream aspect to that place, which means that the Seine riverfront,
Avenue de Grenelle, which is there, is twinned with 5th Avenue in New York. You think it’s jealousy on the Champs-Élysées
and us, they got caught. But it’s linked to history. It’s linked to the Seine,
it’s linked to lots of things. To say that Cannes is a victory. It is a victory. It is the victory
of the French expeditionary force during the Second World War. This was essential
in Rommel’s retreat. It was from this point that he began
to have his Army of Africa retreat to Tunisia and stop
trying to reach the oil wells of the Middle East. And so it was essential. And it is a place, it is a well. Bire is a well. Akhem is a place in the desert. I say it’s a hellish bridge. It’s a bridge of images. He carries the subway. But surprisingly, on one side,
it’s the elevated metro that arrives and then it will plunge into
the Passy hill, there. We’re going to enter hell,
there, on one side. So, either we come from hell and
suddenly there is light, or it’s the other way around. It served as a backdrop for the film. Bertolucci, Wim Van der S, Modiano. And if you go and see the decoration of this
bridge, the buffets, the weapons, it is not the neva or the scene
like here, it is not weapons, laurels, shields,
eagles or coats of arms. Those are blacksmiths who are
drifting plates onto the bridge. And that’s really surprising. There’s a slightly infernal,
slightly vulgar side to things. It’s a real devil’s bridge. It’s designed for pedestrians, normally. This covered gallery should provide
a passage from the right bank to the left bank during rainy weather. I absolutely cannot. If people cross it, if they
stand on the Seine side, they don’t like me. Today, it’s being turned into
a cycle path. Very few bicycles use it
as a cycle path. This is not a natural path. Because it starts from nothing
and leads to nothing. Bridges, they go from one
thing to another. The subway, it comes and goes,
we know what happens to it. But for us, below,
the cycle path, whether it comes from the quays or from
the sidewalks, is forced to pass at a right angle
and no cyclist can see the community, especially since beyond the other side,
it is very complicated to re-enter the traffic. So, it’s a
cycle and pedestrian path. There are no cyclists or pedestrians. We talked a lot about history,
but I wanted to talk about projects. Compared to the bridges of Paris,
Paris has an absolutely incredible density of bridges . It is easy to walk
from one bridge to the other. The maximum width of the Seine
is 100 meters. So, we can cross
the Seine easily. So, we have a succession of rooms. It creates a certain intimacy. As soon as you move away from the Centre of Paris,
the bridges become further apart. If we go towards Laval,
the Seine makes its first major meander. And there, for reasons of travel,
to go from east to west, there are a number of bridges which are
in continuity and which are the paths which came to Malmaison for Napoleon,
which came to Saint-Germain for Henry IV, which came etc. There is a certain density. But only in this first loop. After that, the bridges are very far apart. Very, very distant. And if we go upstream,
in the Val de Marne, the towns, the bridges are very far apart. When I became interested in Banlieue 89,
I tried to sell the idea of ​​municipalities
creating bridges between them, which would allow them to
save on a community hall, a theatre,
a swimming pool, where they could manage to create
an inter-municipality. That’s not how it is at all.
And Val de Marne, nowhere, nowhere. Ideas were given, but nowhere did
the bridges become urban. I even knew, I’m talking about it, the
English bridge where there was an inn. At the foot of the bridge pier,
there was an inn. Tremendous. It was dismantled;
it became a motorway bridge. That’s it, it’s finished. There are no more guinguettes,
there are no more… Recreating the spirit of guinguettes
is a real job. It’s a real bolt. It works on the Marne,
but not on the Seine. When we were working on the Grand Paris project,
with Jean Nouvel and Jean-Marie Dutilleul, I immediately started planning the topology
of the bridges in the Île-de-France region. There ‘s no comparison there. There is no connection. And of course,
one of the supports of Greater Paris was to build bridges that would join
the left and right banks. What a job! Everyone says yes, it’s not a bad idea,
but who creates desire? Often, these are
departmental boundaries. In any case, we don’t want
to talk to the church steeple across the street. That’s how it is and it’s dramatic because it really is… A bridge is a big deal, but
it can create economic dynamics. The fact is that the Grand Paris Express
will be entirely underground, which is what will be done,
and that serious savings could have been made by putting it on
SNCF lines that already pass through there and by making it pass from time to time over
the Seine to reveal a territory that we will never see. You will return 40 meters underground. This is truly hell. If you want to get an idea of ​​what the stations of this Express metro will be like. I invite you to go to Place des Fêtes
and take the Place des Fêtes metro station. The descent into hell will be twofold. With elevators of course, but
elevators are not to scale. You don’t put 100
people at the Eiffel Tower. You can fit a lot of people
in elevators, but not in the underground subway. Greater Paris will therefore not be linked
by new bridges where strollers from all over the world could have let
their dreamy and tightrope-walking souls wander. Because bridges inspire
artists of all kinds. Whether in literature, poetry,
painting or cinema, creators of sounds and images have
always drawn sustenance from these hyphens by stepping across the stage. The Birakeim bridge,
due to its proximity to the Eiffel Tower and its
elevated metro, is a favorite meeting place for romantics,
lovers and newlyweds. Its illustrious setting gives it a
special aura among the bridges of Paris. It is one of those mysterious bridges
whose very ornamentation is a source of intrigue. There is a statue there which is
quite astonishing, it is frightening. It is said to be
a statue of Joan of Arc. It’s a statue that says:
Victorious France. I’d rather tell you that, if
you look at the horse’s head, it looks like the dead man is
tearing its mouth off. And the statue does not have an angelic face. It’s a nasty victory. This is a statue that is very little known. It is not used as a frontispiece
for books or novels about Paris. But that’s literature;
the images revolve around bridges. And it is through the bridges that we discover
the Seine, if we are talking about the Corps of Bridges and Roads, which was created by Louis XIV because he thought
it was a body that should make traffic throughout the kingdom viable. That is to say, there were no more
flooded roads, so they invented ditches to drain the roads. That was their mission:
territorial continuity. Well,
despite the biblical curse that prevents us from crossing rivers,
we should actually cross them to create cohesion. And that’s a sign of inclusion. The inclusive side of bridges,
the side of exchange, the side of encounter. I know a bridge,
it’s in the suburbs, it’s in the suburbs of Blois. There was a town
called Vineuil, which is on the left bank of the Loire. Blois is on the right bank. And there was a railway bridge. And before the war, the lads from Vineuil
would take the railway bridge to go to the dances on the
left bank, from the right bank, and the lads from Blois would come to the left bank.
There was an exchange. There are couples that have
formed between people who exchange partners. They were getting married, there was a guy
from the left bank, from the right bank. Then, during the war,
the British bombed this bridge, and only half of it remains. There was no longer a bridge,
there was no longer any marriage between the people of the left bank and the right bank. And I remember,
he had asked me to come and inaugurate this for the Bicentennial of the Revolution. They had the idea of ​​an association
putting blue, white and red parasols
on the rest of this sort of Avignon bridge where people
no longer go to dance. Under the Mirabeau bridge flows the Seine and our love, must they remind me of it? Joy always came after sorrow. Night falls, the hour strikes. Under the Mirabeau bridge flows
the Seine and our love. Do they need to remind me? Joy always came after sorrow. Night falls, the hour strikes. The days go by, I remain. Let us remain face to face, hand in hand
, while under the bridge of our arms pass. From the eternal gaze, the shadow grows weary. Night falls, the hour strikes,
the days pass, I remain. Love flows away like this running water. Love fades away as slowly as life,
and as violently as hope. Night falls, the hour strikes. The days go by, I remain. The days and weeks go by. Neither time passed, nor do loves return. The Seine flows under the Mirabeau bridge. Night falls, the hour strikes. The days go by, I remain.