Paris sewers

About

The Paris sewers are about 2,600 kilometres long, making up all the underground ducts designed to collect and evacuate run-off water resulting mainly from the rains as well as the wastewater produced by the various human activities in the territory of the city of Paris. Described in literature as an obscure and nauseous place (notably in Les Misérables, where Jean Valjean was lost in 1832), the sewers of Paris have evolved considerably since the works undertaken by prefect Haussmann and engineer Eugene Belgrand, both at the origin of the contemporary network. Under their leadership, all the streets of the capital were indeed doubled by a gallery in the basement, making Paris one of the most modern cities in the world on this aspect. They can visit the Musée des Égouts.