19th century Paris

[Bullshott]

I want to put together a new 28mm scale terrain board for a demo game. The board will feature a city square and adjacent streets, based on early 19th century 'old town' Paris (which means I can use it for many other citiese in Europe). I need to use this board for gamed covering from about 1830 through to 1900. This means that most of the architecture I use must date from the early 19th century or before. Can anyone help me with ideas for buildings and street furniture and also where to buy suitable items?

So far I have plans for:

1 - A gothic church (to be based on the pegasus Hobbies GOthic City kits)
2 - A large building suitable for a governement building, university, etc (using a converted Plasticville tawn hall)
3 - Morris columns (for late 19th century) - what did these look like in the 1860s to 1870s?
4 - Street lamps - what do these look like and where can I buy them in 28mm or similar scale?
5 - Appartment buildings, some possibly combining a shop or bar on the ground floor - where can I get suitable models or can anyone help me with pictures?
Access to the sewers - would this be by man-holes, can anyone help me with pictures?

Any help with the above or ideas for other items would be appreciated.

[Hammers]

I think you should also have the [wiki]Paris_Métro[/wiki] connected to the sewers. It has very distinct Art Noveau design. If you would like supporting arches for the sewers I have a Hirst Art bridge set which would do the trick.

[argsilverson]

Something you should take note. After the disasters of 1870-1871 Paris was rebuilt.
the new something, which you should take care, is that they made large wide avenues [the boulevards] to make very diffecult to erect new barricades.

So, if you want to depict Paris, try to choose before or after the commune.

I suggest you to see the architecture of: Gare Orsay (nowdays Musee d' Orsay) and the Louvre before the pyramids ofcourse. The Louvre to my taste is the typical ancien regime domiciles. Ah avoid the Eifel Tower (unless your Paris is late 19th c.)
Another typical -as far as I know- place of Paris is Monmartre, which still has an antique feeling - narrow streets charming buildings etc. Also note that Sacre Coeur church is late 19th/early 20th c. building. If you want to show something like the hill of monmartre you may make a diorama with the construction site.

Ah in most of this era Paris was a construction sites. French erected walls, fortifications and so on. So usually you can find construction sites.

Other typical french/Prisian sites you may display are: gothic nunnery with enclosed garden, suitable also for swashbuckling, large parks and ornate gardens, columns, and ofcourse a bistrot with outdoors chairs.
Lots of vehicles carrying wine, construction materials etc.

[Bullshott]

Thanks guys for the quick input.

I was thinking of basing my terrain on Monmartre, as it is the most 'timeless' part of Paris, least affected by the changes of the 19th century.

Scenarios will probably be based in night time, so i don'y need to worry too much about outside furniture for a bistrot - but I will probably make one anyway.

To keep things simple I may avoid a metro station, but have been considering making a second board to show the sewers below the main board ....

[Malamute]

Lovely idea, whats the game going to be? (apologies if youy told me at the weekend, my mind was rather frazzled by sunday..)

[Le matou rouge]

Thanks guys for the quick input.

I was thinking of basing my terrain on Monmartre, as it is the most 'timeless' part of Paris, least affected by the changes of the 19th century.

Hello Sir,

I'm not sure what you mean by "timeless", but if by Montmartre, you think about the Sacré-Coeur, it was only built after 1870 and the Franco-Prussian War :

http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/us/basilique.html

During the Commune, the "Butte" looked like this :





It was the stocking (?) place for the canons of the Garde Nationale.

About your other questions, I'm not at all a specialist of Paris' Architecture but :

- The [wiki]Saint-Jacques Tower[/wiki] could be your gothic building :



- As you write, the colonne Morris only appeared in the 1860's. Before, the first colonne were the "vespasienne" or "colonne Rambuteau" which were used as public toilets too !



- Here you could see a typical old "bistrot" (=pub) :



And here is a link with a hundred of pics of Paris streets in 1898 
   
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b3100030f




meow,
Matt


 
 

[Bullshott]

Thanks Matt - thats just the sort of information I needed.

Lovely idea, whats the game going to be? (apologies if youy told me at the weekend, my mind was rather frazzled by sunday..)

Nick - For a while I have been musing over building a terrain board suitable for small gothic horror and steampunk games. This weekend's gaming finally gave me boost I needed to go ahead with the project.

I'm in Paris at the start of December, so hope to take lots of photos,etc.

[argsilverson]

I'm in Paris at the start of December, so hope to take lots of photos,etc.

Don't forget to visit Musee d'Armee at les Invalides, you will see much interesting uniforms etc there!

[Bullshott]

Don't forget to visit Musee d'Armee at les Invalides, you will see much interesting uniforms etc there!
[/quote]

Already been there and photographed lots of uniforms

[Skrapwelder]

Don't forget to visit Musee d'Armee at les Invalides, you will see much interesting uniforms etc there!

Already been there and photographed lots of uniforms

[/quote]

Maybe you can help Mr Ironclad in his VSF post
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=8122.0

[argsilverson]

Dear Bullshot,

checking for some feedback on your query about the hunting dress, I found a german online shop with lots of old  postcards on every aspect.

here is the link to Paris themed ones, you may find something of use:

http://www.ak-ansichtskarten.de/xxxframe.php4

[argsilverson]

the link goes only to the starting page and not to the gallery.

so, on left hand choose onlineshop, then world, then europe,
then france , then code postale 75 and you are in Paris!

[Bullshott]

the link goes only to the starting page and not to the gallery.

so, on left hand choose onlineshop, then world, then europe,
then france , then code postale 75 and you are in Paris!

Thanks for the link - there is a lot of useful stuff on this site - not just for France. I can see me using it for inspiration for many terrain pieces.