The French have always been pretty hermetic about their culture (which means that they actually value it and invest in it, whereas we tend not to). The revamp of Paris benefitted from its planner's freedom to wipe a medieval capital largely off the map and leverage the resources of an emperor, allowing him to resurrect a city in about the same time it took Hamilton to botch its Civic Square playbook and York Boulevard in the bargain. (Apparently our people only skimmed the Haussmann Plan Coles Notes.)
Even so,
Paris is an imperfect time capsule.
I'm a fan of
the house paragon you cited. Sensitive update when the upstairs became new apartments.