Is it possible that a river flows beneath our feet right here on Rue de la Bièvre? Most Parisians have forgotten that the Bièvre River once ran through this area. It existed until the beginning of the 20th century. The Bièvre was a 33-kilometer-long river. Its spring was in the Yvelines department. It flowed into the Seine near the Austerlitz Railway Station.
Nowadays the Bièvre outside of Paris still flows in its original bed. Inside the Capital, there are only some memorial stones left. They commemorate the river’s existence.
Entering Paris at the Poterne des Peupliers, the Bièvre flowed through the 13th and 5th arrondissements. From the 14th century, tanners and dyers settled near this river. This was especially true in the part of today’s 13th arrondissement. Back then it was outside the wall of Philip Augustus and therefore exonerated from Parisian taxes.
During the following centuries, this neighborhood grew rapidly. Many mills used water from the river. New types of trade appeared. Tanners, shoemakers, launderers, and weavers settled here. Industries and manufactures came to the area. The most renowned was the Gobelins manufacture. This dying atelier became the Royal manufacture of furniture and tapestries for the Crown.
Unfortunately, excessive urbanization over-exploited the Bièvre River. What was a source of drinking water became a polluted cesspit. It became a potential transmitter of epidemics. The construction works led by Baron Haussmann aimed to clean up Paris. They finally defeated the Bièvre.
The Bièvre was buried under concrete. It doesn’t flow into the Seine anymore. Instead, it flows into Paris’ sewage system.
There is currently no attractive route for a walk in the footsteps of the Bièvre. However, in the 13th arrondissement, you can find some interesting sights. Around the Buttes aux Cailles, the villages of la Cité Florale and le quartier des Peupliers were built on dry ground. This ground was once part of the Bièvre.
René Le Gall public garden was built on a former island. The island was shaped by the two arms of the Bièvre. Boulevard Auguste Blanqui splits the two arms of the Bièvre. You can see a memorial stone there.
The neighborhood around the Bièvre was the site of many small factories. Leather works, dye shops, and laundries were common. They dumped chemical waste into the river’s once-clear waters. City officials were concerned with the health hazards and terrible stench. They planned to tackle the problem. The waterway was eventually covered over at the end of the 19th century. Now it runs underground through the sewers.
The neighborhood crystallized opposing attitudes toward Old Paris. Some viewed it as a colorful working-class community rich in history. Others saw it as a putrid, dangerous slum. It cried out for modernization.
Hector Malot had his Rémi walk along its banks in Nobody’s Boy. Victor Hugo also described the Bièvre in his poetry collection Atumn Leaves. These idyllic stories are like echoes of a bygone era.
The history of the Bièvre goes back to the origin of the city around 200 BC. The river of 36 kilometers originates in the wooded Yvelines. It still leads to the Seine near the current Gare d’Austerlitz.
In ancient times, the Romans built an aqueduct to lead the water to the city. Monks of the abbey of Saint-Victor used the water for their grain mills from the 11th century on. Later in the Middle Ages, they made two channels perpendicular to the Bièvre. The construction of dikes led to the emergence of two river arms. The original stream became the Bièvre Morte. The second was called the Bièvre Vive. All this human intervention paved the way for industrialization.
Dyer and merchant Jean Gobelin started a dye-house near the river in the mid-15th century. Soon other artisans followed. Tanners, shoemakers, weavers, laundry workers, butchers, and brewers came.
With the growth of industry, activity expanded further along the Bièvre. However, pollution and stench led to increasing health problems. In the early 19th century, parts of the river were channeled further and covered. This did not cut it, as it turned out.
During the urban renewal of Haussmann, there was a rigorous intervention. By 1912, Bièvre had disappeared from the cityscape. It was either incorporated into the sewer system or buried under concrete.
All that remains are copper medallions and plates in the sidewalks. They mark the former course. Rue de la Bièvre follows the course of one of the disappeared channels. Since 2001, a group of artists keeps the memory of the river alive. They have an open atelier trail each year. For a charming Bièvre valley, you have to go outside the city.