[cju]

In France, many forts has been build by a military engineer named Vauban[1] in the 17th century. His life is highly impressive. He worked a lot on fortifications and breaking of sieges. Outside of military building, he has been a scientist and an economist with modern views on taxes.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_Le_Prestre_de_V...

[omegant]

I highly recommend to visit Hôtel des Invalides war museum in Paris. It´s worth the time just to admire the collection of (huge) scale models of the fortified cities in the France of the S XVIII. They are impressive and show how the cities used to be. They are originals from the time, perfectly conserved, they were originally created to better appreciate the capabilities of a fortification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_des_Plans-Reliefs

I must add that Paris used to have an impressively long bastion wall (94 bastions!), that it´s little known. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiers_wall

[demallien]

You can actually still see one-off the Vauban forts at sissy les moulineux, on the outskirts of Paris. It's about 1km from where I live :)

[saalaa]

I don't want to be pedantic but.. *Issy-les-moulineux

[demallien]

Yes, welcome to the wonderful world of iPhone autocorrect when trying to type French names on the qwerty keyboard :/

[cju]

*Issy-les-Moulineaux (with -eaux) !

[saalaa]

Are you being pedantic? OK, I admit failed miserably.

[donavanm]

There are a ton of great napoleonic fortifications in the rhineland. A couple years ago I was touring through and stopped for an afternoon wandering around Neuf Brisach. Didnt realize it was one of his last projects.