The article attempts to identify the features of new approaches that have appeared in French historiography in recent decades in terms of characterizing the forms of power presentation. The author does it on the example of Napoleon Bonaparte's realization of the idea of imperiosness in relation to Paris. It is concluded that such an idea was realized not only and not so much through the creation of pompous buildings, but through giving Paris the image of a city of the «middle class», on more than was previously, the effective organization of the urban environment, the development of theaters, musical life, museum, library and publishing, the formation of an effective structure of scientific and educational institutions.