The Remarkable Sewer of Paris

By Françoise Giovannangeli

Paris Kiosque - March 1997 - Volume 4, Number 3
Copyright (c) March 1997 Françoise; Giovannangeli - used with permission

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It's easy to get distracted when you're the type of visitor who likes to take in a maximum of sights with every stride. But take heart: In Paris, if in the process you should ever happen to absent-mindedly tumble into an open manhole and down into the city's sewer, chances are you could find your way around and even back to your hotel in no time. Provided of course, you were blessed with a not-too-sensitive nose and a good street map.

Every Parisian street has its sewer -- wide streets even have two. In fact, more than 2,000 kilometres of large vaulted tunnels criss-cross the city below the surface in an amazing replica of the busy streets above! Each sewer "street" boasts its own blue and white enamel street sign, each building its street number. What's more, the tunnels, ranging from 1m80 to 5m in height, are totally navigable either on foot or by boat. In addition to collecting waste and housing water mains, they are lined with 751 kilometres of compressed air pipes, as well as gas pipes, telephone cables and pneumatic tubes -- the predecessors of fax machines.

Unique in the world in its design and magnitude, the Paris system collects 1.2 million cubic metres of water every day and 15,000 cubic metres of solid waste each year. A gigantic water treatment plant is now located near the town of Acheres, downstream from Paris.

Prior to the Middle ages, Parisians drew their drinking water from the Seine. It was also into this river that filtered waste water inevitably returned. Yet at the end of the 12th century, only ten kilometres of rudimentary sewers, eight of them open air, swept away the wastes produced by more than 70,000 inhabitants.

Gradually streets were paved, drains were installed and waste water was diverted to brooks and smaller rivers. Under Napoleon I, the first vaulted sewer network was built, reaching a length of 30 kilometres. Finally in 1850, Baron Haussmann (1809-1891), the enterprising Prefect for the Seine, and the engineer Eugene Belgrand came up with an ambitious new design -- luckily for Parisians, since by the time construction was underway in 1857, the city's population had already swollen to more than one million. Then with the 1860 annexation of bordering municipalities, it jumped to almost two million! The sewer kept pace, however, and in 1878, measured 600 kilometres. From 1914 to 1977 1,000 kilometres of tunnels were added: the network now measures an astounding 2,100 kilometres!

During World War II, Resistance forces had set out a strategic plan for the utilization of the sewer, abandoned quarries and a part of the Metro along with an autonomous telephone system that connected various parts of the capital. A sewer workers' chamber under the rue Gay-Lussac in the Vth arrondissement served as the headquarters of the Resistance health service and manholes in key locations were to be used as lookouts.

While nowadays Paris's 800 egoutiers or sewer workers may be the only ones to wander around town in the dark and humid tunnels, a special "Sewer Museum" located at the corner of the Quai d'Orsay in one of Paris's poshest districts offers the public the opportunity to visit a portion of this unique underworld and take a whiff of Parisian "eau de toilette". Visitors are guided through a section of the system with its galleries containing sewer "rivers" or collectors, pipes and other conduits. Informative displays recall the sewer's history and describe plans for computerized operations, projected for the year 1996. A collection of objects found in the system over the years can also be viewed (until 1970 boat trips down sewer streams were also offered).

Despite the smell, which is very much what one expects, the museum provides an interesting insight into the consequences of such everyday activities as taking a shower, doing the dishes or flushing the toilet -- conveniences we've come to take for granted. Incidentally, it's estimated there's one rat in the sewer for every Parisian on the surface. Though they reduce solid waste in the water by about 50 percent, these little monsters are more than a nuisance to sewer crews, who in the past were paid a bonus for each tail brought up after a day's work.

If you go:

Musée des Egouts de Paris (Museum of the Sewers of Paris); Pont de l'Alma (Place de la Resistance); facing 93 Quai d'Orsay, 75007 Paris; Closed Thursdays and Fridays; Admission 25 FF.
47 05 10 29,
Pont de l'Alma

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Françoise Giovannangeli is a Canadian freelance writer who lives in Paris. She can be contacted via this link.