Alysa Salzberg's blog

                                                                                          (original image source) The Siege of Paris changed the city in some significant ways. Once-magnificent parks were stripped of their trees or used for pasture, the Comédie Française was transformed into a private hospital, and the southern reaches of the city suffered damage from roughly a month of shelling from the Prussians.  And yet, there are no traces of any of this today.   The physical remains of the Siege of Paris are instead small-scale items, like the bread souvenirs  I wrote about a few months ago. Or the metal cylinders full of letters that are still buried beneath the Seine.   During the Siege, Parisians weren’t able to get or receive mail or telegrams the usual way, making them truly cut off from the world. The silver lining to this was that it led to some innovative solutions.   Ask any fan of aeronautical or philatelic history and they’ll tell you that the concept of regular airmai