How about a stroll down one of Paris’s most prestigious addresses? We are standing on Avenue Lazare Carnot. It is a street steeped in history and named for a truly remarkable man.
Avenue Lazare Carnot is one of the twelve avenues that radiate from the Place Charles-de-Gaulle, formerly known as Place de l’Étoile. The avenue is located in the Ternes district, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. From Place Charles-de-Gaulle, it extends 300 meters to Rue des Acacias. Avenue Lazare Carnot is forty meters wide.
Originally, the avenue was opened in 1854 as Avenue d’Essling. In 1880, it was renamed in honor of Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot. Carnot was a revolutionary, mathematician, physicist, and member of the Academy of Sciences. He was also a poet, politician, and French military figure. Born in Nolay, Burgundy, in 1753, he died in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1823.
Lazare Carnot was a member of the National Convention. He was nicknamed “The Organizer of Victory” or “Le grand Carnot”. His name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe. Also, his name appears on the list of seventy-two great scientists inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. His ashes are kept in the Panthéon.
Carnot was a modest man of no ambition. He was a member of the military committee. Carnot decreed the arming of a large National Guard. He also initiated the dismissal of the King’s Guard. As a deputy, he voted for the death of Louis XVI. In July 1793, he joined the Committee of Public Safety. As a delegate to the Armies, he created the fourteen armies of the French Republic.
In October 1793, Carnot was sent as an inspector to the Army of the North. He dismissed General Gratien for retreating on the battlefield. Carnot himself led the columns and contributed to the victory at Wattignies.
After Thermidor, Carnot was not persecuted for his role in the Committee of Public Safety. He had focused solely on military operations. The republic owed him a great debt for the successes of the French arms. This earned him the nickname “The Organizer of Victory”. Subsequently, he was exiled, served as Minister of War, and became a member of the Tribunat. He was also a commander of the fortress of Antwerp. Later, he became Minister of the Interior. Carnot was eventually banished as a regicide and became a researcher. He died in exile.
Avenue Carnot is the shortest of the twelve roads radiating from the Arc de Triomphe. Part of it was built in 1840. More was added in 1854 to provide symmetry around the Place de l’Étoile. It was extended to its current 300-meter length in 1867. The name was changed to Carnot from Avenue of Acacias in 1880.
Lazare Carnot was more than a mathematician and doctor. He was a regicide and the victorious general at the Battle of Wattignies in 1793. This victory ended a series of defeats for France’s revolutionary armies.
From 1899 to 1904, Louis Aragon’s mother, Marguerite Toucas, ran a boarding house at No. 20 Avenue Lazare Carnot. This provided income for her, her mother, and young Louis. It is believed that Aragon’s father purchased the business for the much younger woman who was the mother of his son.
Aragon was not told until he was 19 that the woman he knew as his mother was actually his grandmother. The woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother.
Louis Aragon described Avenue Carnot as “the avenue of catalpas.” However, Avenue Carnot is lined with paulownias. These trees have violet, honey-scented flowers that resemble those of the catalpa.
Some residents say that the flowering of these trees nearly disappeared in the 1960s. The construction of a parking garage under the avenue preserved the trees. This improved irrigation, and the flowering has returned more beautifully than before.
As we continue our walk, remember the legacy of Lazare Carnot. He was a brilliant mind and a dedicated servant of France. His name lives on in this prestigious avenue.