Fontaine du Puits de Grenelle

This fountain stands on the site of a groundbreaking engineering feat that captivated nineteenth-century Paris. Between 1833 and 1841, an engineer named Louis-Georges Mulot drilled into the earth here at the former site of the Grenelle slaughterhouses. He reached a depth of nearly eighteen hundred feet before striking a pressurized reservoir. The water was so powerful that it surged over a hundred feet into the air on its own accord, producing hundreds of thousands of gallons of pure water every day. This successful experiment sparked a global fascination with artesian drilling and proved that the city could tap into deep, hidden sources of water far beneath its streets.