Paris Sewer Museum

About

In 1854, Prefect Haussmann appoints engineer Eugène Belgrand, a graduate of the École Polytechnique, to oversee Paris's water supply, and in 1867 names him director of the city's water and sewer services. Belgrand develops equipment to maintain the network, including a valve-boat for cleaning large collectors, wagons for smaller sewers, and cleaning machines. In 1867, the year of the Paris World's Fair, sewer tours draw enormous public interest, and from 1889 regular tours run twice a month, carrying visitors through the underground network by boat and cart. In 1975, a museum tracing the history of the sewers and its equipment opens on the site of a former siphon facility in the Alma district. It draws around 80,000 visitors a year by 2017, before closing in summer 2018 for a complete renovation. The renovation, led by the architecture firm Frenak & Jullien, costs €2 million. The museum reopens on 23 October 2021 with a new permanent exhibition and new visitor route.