Boulevard du Crime

The Boulevard du Temple earned its nickname because the nightly drama on the street surpassed the performances inside the theaters. Throughout the nineteenth century, the sidewalk swarmed with acrobats, mime artists, and pickpockets competing for the attention of the crowds. One evening in eighteen thirty-five, an inventor named Giuseppe Fieschi fired a volley of twenty-five guns mounted on a wooden frame from a second-story window. He aimed for King Louis-Philippe, who survived, but eighteen people died on the pavement below.