Megacities Episode 5: Paris

Megacities Episode 5: Paris
National Geographic Documentary

Constructed in the nineteenth century, the sewers of Paris extend 2300 kilometres-the distance from Paris to Istanbul. This episode takes a look inside these vaulted tunnels where a million cubic metres of waste flows through the Parisian sewage system every day. The sewers are the digestive system of this mega city, bringing in life-giving fluids and carrying out waste. It examines the dangers of what it takes to keep the system running smoothly. The episode follows Phillipe Bussignies, who has been working on the sewers for the past 25 year as he and his team lay out thousands of miles of fibre-optic cables through the sewer tunnels using a Cable Laying Robot. Megacities explores this system beneath the Paris streets, where the inky blackness is broken only by the glow of fibre optic light. Paris plans to become the world's first fully connected wireless city.

Megacities takes a revolutionary look at the places where most of us live: the modern Metropolis. Megacities focuses on the single aspect of a city's infrastructure which best informs the life and functions of that place. Each city is examined as an organism: living, breathing, and growing. In order to survive, these infrastructures must each function independently, and yet blend into a harmony of man, machine, strategy and system, which defines it as a mega city. Megacities examines the infrastructure of iconic locations around the world: Las Vegas, Mexico City, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, New York. Through dramatic storytelling, unparalleled access and sophisticated computer graphics blended seamlessly with live action, Megacities takes viewers beyond the monuments - and into the machinery - that is the true, living marvel of each mega city.