| The Grands Boulevards is the collective name given to the eight streets that form one long, wide thoroughfare running from the Madeleine to République, then down to the Bastille. The western section, from the Madeleine to Porte St-Denis, follows the rampart built by Charles V. When its defensive purpose became redundant with the offensive foreign policy of Louis XIV, the walls were pulled down and the ditches filled in, leaving a wide promenade (given the name boulevard after the military term for the level part of a rampart). In the mid-eighteenth century, the boulevard became a fashionable place to be seen on horseback or in one's carriage. At the same time, the eastern section developed a more colourful reputation, derived from its association with street theatre, mime, juggling, puppets, waxworks and cafés of ill repute, earning itself the nickname the boulevard du Crime. Much of this was swept away, however, in the latter half of the nineteenth century by Baron Haussmann when he created the huge place de la République. In the nineteenth century, the café clientele of the west-end boulevard des Italiens set the trends for all of Paris, in terms of manners, dress and conversation. The Grands Boulevards were cobbled, and Paris's first horse-drawn omnibus rattled from the Madeleine to the Bastille. From the bourgeois intellectuals in the west to the artisan fun-lovers in the east, this thoroughfare had its finger on the city's pulse. As recently as the 1950s, a visitor to Paris would, as a matter of course, have gone for a stroll along the Grands Boulevards to see "Paris vivant". And today, in amongst the burger bars, there are still theatres and cinemas (including the Max Linder and the Grand Rex – the latter an extraordinary building inside and out), and numerous brasseries and cafés, which, though not the most fashionable or innovative, still belong to the tradition of the Grands Boulevards, immortalized in the film Les Enfants du Paradis. It was at 14 boulevard des Capucines, in 1895, that Paris saw its first film, or animated photography, as the Lumière brothers' invention was called. Some years earlier, in 1874, another artistic revolution had taken place at no. 35 in the former studio of photographer Félix Nadar – the first Impressionist exhibition. It was greeted with outrage by the art world; as one critic said of Monet's Impression, Soleil Levant ("Impression: sunrise"), "it was worse than anyone had hitherto dared to paint". A remnant from the fun-loving times on the Grands Boulevards are the waxworks in the Musée Grévin (daily 10am–6pm; €15, children €9; M° Rue Montmartre), on boulevard Montmartre. The collection has recently been overhauled and expanded, with the addition of 80 new figures – mainly French literary, media and political personalities and the usual bunch of Hollywood actors. The revamp doesn't really warrant the increased entry fee, but still, it's quite a fun outing – you can prop up the bar with Ernest Hemingway or have your photo taken next to Isabelle Adjani. Many of the displays illustrate scenes from French history, especially the more grisly episodes such as the St Bartholomew massacre. Perhaps the best thing about the museum, though, is the original rooms: the magical Palais des Mirages (Hall of Mirrors), built for the Exposition Universelle in 1900; the theatre with its sculptures by Bourdelle; and the 1882 Baroque-style Hall of Columns, where among other unlikely juxtapositions, Lara Croft stands a few feet away from Charles de Gaulle and Voltaire smiles across at Marilyn Monroe.
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