THE ROUTE OF THE BIVRE
The course of La Bièvre, a small river that meanders through the and arrondissements.
It may look like any other street, but it's also the witness to a natural element that has all but disappeared: the Bièvre. After all, the Seine didn't have a monopoly on water just a hundred years ago! Rising in the Yvelines region, the Bièvre River flowed into the Seine at the Gare d'Austerlitz, providing drinking water for the first Parisians in the 11th century and an ideal location for watermills. Then, in the 14th century, dyers and tanners settled along its banks. The Gobelins factory also owed a debt of gratitude to the river for its industrial activities. However, the Bièvre had a sad fate! Excessive urbanization and irrational exploitation of the unfortunate river turned it into a polluted cesspool carrying the worst epidemics. Baron Haussmann, concerned as he was with the quality of life of Parisians, concreted over and buried the river that had provided so many services. Today, a few commemorative plaques and places like this street remind us of the Bièvre. The hope of seeing the Bièvre back in the open air is not lost, however! Aware of the unique natural heritage it represents, the public authorities have decided, wherever possible and in an extremely constrained urban environment, to allow its course to return to the open air: this is the case between Arcueil and Gentilly, for example. In Paris, the will is there: but is it possible?
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