Casemate 77

Les Fortifications en Île-de-France, 1792-1944:

Martin Barros, with the Association Vauban. PB, 219pp. Colour regional maps, b/w local maps, a few b/w plans of works, French text. ISBN 2.7371.1533.7. €26. Published by Institut d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme de la Région d'île-de-France (IAURIF), 2005.

This book is essentially a revised edition of the 1993 original, which set out to record the fortifications of Paris between 1792 and 1944. It is therefore basically a gazetteer.

The authors have split the book into five chronological chapters. Each chapter opens with a short introduction explaining the reasons for the fortifications being built, and the form they took. This section finishes with a brief bibliography and one or two diagrams of a typical work of this period. There follow one or more colour maps locating and listing the fortifications. Then comes the meat of the book: each work for that period is listed, with a two-page entry. On the left page are the name of the work, its date, construction and ownership details, its location and a half page b/w street map to help you find it. The right hand page is invariably in three parts, giving a general description of the fort (including its role), any events that took place there, and its current state of preservation.

The five chapters cover the following periods: Before 1830, 1830 to 1850, 1848 to 1878, the 1874 Séré de Rivières program, and the two World Wars. The heart of the book is preceded by an introduction and (joy!) a colour relief map of the Paris basin. The book ends with a glossary of terms, a chronological list of works (with type, date, current status/ownership), a two page colour map with all the works shown and colour-coded, advice on how to preserve a monument, a page of corrections, and a few useful addresses.

It is sad to note the parlous state of some of these fortifications: bastions cut off by motorways, ditches filled in with waste from the construction of the Périphérique in the 1960s, new buildings unsympathetically erected on ramparts and glacis, and so on. Many though, are still used by various military or other Government agencies.

Two little gems are revealed in this book. The first is the Chauvineau line, which ran round the north-east of Paris; like the GHQ lines in Britain, the Chauvineau line was made up of pillboxes including anti-tank ones for the 25mm Hotchkiss gun, in mutually supporting groups.

25mm Hotchkiss bunker, detail.

Use was made of rivers as anti-tank obstacles, and where these did not exist, anti-tank ditches were dug. There were also a few rare concrete gun pits for ex-naval guns. The other gem is Von Rundstedt's command post at St-Germain-en-Laye. Though not open to the public, it still exists and is apparently used to store objets d'art.

If any reader wants to go and look at the forts of Paris, then this book is a must. But bear in mind, most are not open to the public, and are still used by the Gendarmerie, the Army or other sensitive organisations.

Paul Holford.