Boulevards of the Marshals

Boulevard Lefebvre

Boulevard Davout

Map of the tramway Lines 3a (orange) and 3b (green), which follow all but a portion of the Boulevards of the Marshals

The Boulevards of the Marshals (French: Boulevards des Maréchaux) are a collection of thoroughfares that encircle the city of Paris, France, just inside its city limits. Most bear the name of a marshal of the First French Empire (1804–1814) who served under Napoleon I. The Île-de-France tramway Lines 3a and 3b today run on the Boulevards of the Marshals.

The demolition of the Thiers wall during the 1920s allowed for the creation of this ring of boulevards surrounding the city, using the land just inside the wall itself. Later, the Boulevard Périphérique, a short distance 'outboard' of the Boulevards of the Marshals, was built on the site of the Thiers wall itself, though it is more like a motorway than a wide boulevard.

History

A portion of the Thiers wall, the military structure and moat that later was replaced by the various Boulevards of the Marshals.

The Boulevards of the Marshals occupy the route of the former Rue Militaire, built and owned by the French military and running on the inside of the fortified Thiers wall, completed around 1840. In 1859, the military engineering service gave conditional control of the Rue Militaire and Thiers wall to the Paris city council.^[1] The expansion of the land area of Paris in 1860, by annexing bordering communities, created a situation where everything within the Thiers wall was Paris and everything without was not. The large berm immediately outside the wall and its dry moat led to a profound disruption and complication of the synergistic relationship between Paris and its suburbs.

In the 1920s, the dismantling of the enclosure permitted the building of a series of boulevards encircling the city, in the same way that the destruction of the wall of Louis XIII had eventually given birth, at the end of the 17th century, to the great boulevards of the right bank. This also served to re-integrate, to a large extent, Paris with its hinterland.

The Boulevards of the Marshals concept was almost fully realized by 1932, but the section known as Boulevard Amiral Bruix (an admiral rather than a marshal) was not incorporated until 1987. The Boulevard du General Martial Valin, a general of the World War II Free French air corps, and the Boulevard du General Jean Simon, another officer of the Free French and a hero of the liberation of Paris, were not added to the circle until 2005.

Exceptions

Three of the boulevards are named for famous military leaders who were not amongst the 26 marshals of the First Empire: Étienne Eustache Bruix (1759–1805), a French admiral; Jean Simon (1912–2003), a distinguished general of the French Foreign Legion; and Martial Henri Valin (1898–1980), an air force general.

Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, later known as Charles XIV John after becoming King of Sweden and Norway

Of the 26 marshals of the First Empire, seven have not been immortalized by having their names attached to boulevards comprising the ring. These include – Pierre Augereau, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Emmanuel de Grouchy, Auguste de Marmont, Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey, Nicolas Oudinot, and Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon.

Of the seven marshals without a boulevard, three of them were given streets: Augereau (rue Augereau in the 7th arrondissement), Moncey (rue Moncey in the 9th arrondissement), and Oudinot (rue Oudinot in the 7th arrondissement). Only four of the 26 Marshals were never given any streets or boulevards in Paris. Those include: Bernadotte, Marmont, Pérignon, and Grouchy. Bernadotte, better known as Charles XIV John of Sweden, was widely considered as a traitor when he joined forces with the Allies against Napoleon after ascending to the Swedish throne. Marmont, who was formerly a close friend of the Emperor, betrayed him after the War of the Sixth Coalition when he defected to the Allies and refused to defend Paris from the invaders. Pérignon was also considered to have been treacherous for his role in trying to impede Napoleon's return from Elba during the Hundred Days; the latter had Pérignon expunged from the list of Marshals for that offense. Grouchy's omission is a very different case. He was a fine cavalry commander with a distinguished career in service of France and was loyal to Napoleon beyond reproach. However, Grouchy's unfortunate judgment at the Battle of Waterloo caused him to be vilified among Bonapartists and is accused by many as being the reason that France was defeated and Napoleon was forced into exile.

There is a slight discontinuity in the loop around the city near the Garigliano Bridge: between the Boulevard du Général-Martial-Valin, in the 15th arrondissement, and Boulevard Murat in the 16th. On the right-bank side of the Garigliano Bridge (16th arrondissement), one may take the Quai Saint-Exupéry a little more than a hundred meters to meet the Boulevard Exelmans, which leads to Boulevard Murat, or, if one chooses to continue on Exelmans, one will meet the Boulevard Suchet near Porte d'Auteuil. Technically, the Boulevard Exelmans is not part of the Boulevards of the Marshals; he, Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans, was aide-de-camp to Marshal Murat during the First-Empire period, but he became a marshal in his own right during the Second Empire (1851).

In the 19th arrondissement, the Boulevard d'Indochine and the Boulevard d'Algérie follow the contour of Paris more closely than the Boulevards of the Marshals by avoiding a portion of the Boulevard Sérurier.

List of boulevards

Map of Paris showing its arrondissements

Below is a list of the boulevards in Paris named after marshals of France. The list starts at the Porte de Vincennes and continues in ascending numerical order of arrondissements, from the 12th to the 20th; in effect, around Paris in clockwise fashion, beginning from the 3:00 position. Also noted are the connections to the Paris Métro, the Réseau Express Régional (RER), the Paris Tramway Line 3, the city gates of Paris, and the main roads leaving the capital for adjacent communes.

Legend:

	: métro station, line 1.
	: RER station, line B.
	: tramway stop, line 3.

Arrondissement	Boulevard	Porte	Trunk roads	Border communes

12th	Boulevard Soult	Porte de Vincennes – –	route nationale 34	Saint-Mandé
		Porte de Saint-Mandé –
		Porte de Montempoivre –
		Porte Dorée – –
	Boulevard Poniatowski	Porte Dorée – –		Bois de Vincennes
		Porte de Reuilly –
		Porte de Charenton – –	route nationale 6
		Porte de Charenton – –	route nationale 6	Charenton-le-Pont
		Porte de Bercy –	A4 autoroute	Charenton-le-Pont
Seine	Pont National
13th	Boulevard du Général-Jean-Simon	Porte de la Gare –		Ivry-sur-Seine
	Boulevard du Général-Jean-Simon	Porte de Vitry –
	Boulevard Masséna	Porte de Vitry –
		Porte d'Ivry – –
		Porte de Choisy – –	route nationale 305
		Porte d'Italie – –	route nationale 7	Le Kremlin-Bicêtre
	Boulevard Kellermann		A6b

		Poterne des Peupliers –		Gentilly
		Porte de Gentilly – –
14th	Boulevard Jourdan
			A6a
		Porte d'Arcueil –	A6a

				Montrouge
		Porte d'Orléans – –	route nationale 20
	Boulevard Brune	Porte d'Orléans – –
		Porte de Montrouge
		Porte de Châtillon –
		Porte de Châtillon –		Malakoff
		Porte Didot –
		Porte de Vanves – –
15th	Boulevard Lefebvre	Porte Brancion –		Vanves
		Porte de Plaisance et Porte de la Plaine –		Vanves
		Porte de Versailles – –		Issy-les-Moulineaux
	Boulevard Victor	Porte de Versailles – –
		Porte d'Issy-les-Moulineaux –
		Porte de Sèvres – –
	Boulevard du Général-Martial-Valin	Porte de Sèvres – –
	Boulevard du Général-Martial-Valin	–
Seine	Pont du Garigliano
16th	Bois de Boulogne	Porte de Boulogne		Boulogne-Billancourt
		Porte de l'Hippodrome		Boulogne-Billancourt
		Porte de la Seine
		Porte de Madrid
		Porte Saint-James
		Porte de Neuilly
		Porte des Sablons
	Boulevard Murat	Porte du Point-du-Jour		Boulogne-Billancourt
	Boulevard Murat	Porte de Saint-Cloud –	route nationale 10
		Porte de Saint-Cloud –	route nationale 10
		Porte Molitor –
		Porte Molitor –		Bois de Boulogne
		Porte d'Auteuil –	A13 autoroute
	Boulevard Suchet	Porte d'Auteuil –	A13 autoroute
		Porte de Passy
		Porte de la Muette
	Boulevard Lannes	Porte de la Muette
	Boulevard Lannes	Porte Dauphine – –
	Boulevard de l'Amiral-Bruix	Porte Dauphine – –
	Boulevard de l'Amiral-Bruix	Porte Maillot – –	route nationale 13
17th	Boulevard Gouvion-Saint-Cyr	Porte Maillot – –	route nationale 13	Neuilly-sur-Seine
		Porte des Ternes
		Porte de Villiers
		Porte de Villiers		Levallois-Perret
		Porte de Champerret – –
	Boulevard Berthier	Porte de Champerret – –
		Porte de Courcelles
		Porte d'Asnières –
		Porte de Clichy – – –		Clichy
	Boulevard Bessières	Porte de Clichy – – –		Clichy
		Porte Pouchet –		Saint-Ouen –
		Porte de Saint-Ouen –
18th	Boulevard Ney	Porte de Saint-Ouen –
		Porte Montmartre –
		Porte de Clignancourt – –	route nationale 14
		Porte des Poissonniers –
		Porte des Poissonniers –		Saint-Denis
		Porte de la Chapelle – –	Route nationale 1 et A1 autoroute	Saint-Denis
		Porte d'Aubervilliers –	route nationale 301	Aubervilliers
19th	Boulevard Macdonald	Porte d'Aubervilliers –	route nationale 301	Aubervilliers
		Canal Saint-Denis
		Porte de la Villette – –	Route nationale 2
		Porte de la Villette – –	Route nationale 2	Pantin
		Canal de l'Ourcq
	Boulevard Sérurier	Canal de l'Ourcq
	Boulevard Sérurier	Porte de Pantin – –	Route nationale 3
		Porte de Pantin – –		Le Pré-Saint-Gervais
		Porte Chaumont –
		Porte Brunet –
		Porte Brunet –
		Porte du Pré-Saint-Gervais – –
		Porte du Pré-Saint-Gervais – –
		Porte des Lilas – –
20th	Boulevard Mortier	Porte des Lilas – –		Les Lilas
		Porte de Ménilmontant –		Bagnolet
		Porte de Bagnolet – –	A3 autoroute
	Boulevard Davout	Porte de Bagnolet – –	A3 autoroute
		Porte de Montreuil – –	route nationale 302	Montreuil
		Porte de Vincennes – –		Montreuil
		Porte de Vincennes – –		Saint-Mandé

Transportation

The boulevards are, of course, city streets and open to vehicular traffic. They do not constitute an expressway or limited-access motorway in the fashion of the Boulevard Périphérique; the speed limit on the boulevards is generally 50 km/h.

There are also bus lanes separated from the normal lanes of traffic, and a bicycle path on the sidewalk has been installed. The Paris Tramway Line 3a (Ile-de-France) follows the boulevards of the marshals along the southern edge of the city, while line 3b follows the northern edge. There is no tramway on a section of the route in the west that is generally near the Bois de Boulogne.

Places of interest

Some specific sites near the boulevards are:

References

↑ Deville, A. (Adrien); Hochereau, (Émile) (1886). "Rue Militaire (28 juillet 1859)". In Alphand, Monsieur (Jean-Charles Adolphe) (ed.). Ville de Paris : Recueil des Lettres Patentes, Ordonnances Royales, Décrets et Arrêtés Préfectoraux Concernant les Voies Publiques [City of Paris. Collection of letters patents, royal ordinances, decrees and prefectores relating to public roads.] (in French). Paris: Imprimerie Nouvelle (Association Ouvrière). pp. 314–315. Retrieved 2020-08-12.

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[1] Deville, A. (Adrien); Hochereau, (Émile) (1886). "Rue Militaire (28 juillet 1859)". In Alphand, Monsieur (Jean-Charles Adolphe) (ed.). Ville de Paris : Recueil des Lettres Patentes, Ordonnances Royales, Décrets et Arrêtés Préfectoraux Concernant les Voies Publiques [City of Paris. Collection of letters patents, royal ordinances, decrees and prefectores relating to public roads.] (in French). Paris: Imprimerie Nouvelle (Association Ouvrière). pp. 314–315. Retrieved 2020-08-12.

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