corps du Génie

08:36 Dec 16, 2014 

I could do, but not sure how to do this now I've submitted the points.

19:56 Dec 15, 2014 

Would you mind telling the reviewers that this question was not easy given all the information I provided you with?

19:37 Dec 15, 2014 

Thank you Francois!

18:26 Dec 15, 2014 

What I can tell you based on the today situation in France is that not all civil engineers are an "ingenieur des ponts." Not all civil engineers are part of the "Corps du Genie." The latter corps is part of the French army; an "ingenieur des ponts" is a graduate from the "Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees"; a civil engineer in general is a graduate from any civil engineering school other than the "Ecoles des Ponts et Chaussees"

18:13 Dec 15, 2014 

Thank you. What had been confusing me was the distinction the text makes elsewhere between civil engineers and military engineers. This is pretty basic, but I lack knowledge in the field. Having looked into it further, using clues from the answers given here, I now understand the distinction and, more or less, the mentions of 'ingénieur des Ponts' and 'Génie' in this sentence.

16:42 Dec 15, 2014 

The sentence means in plain English that the 1778 map of Le Havre was so precise that the civil engineers used it to develop the city

14:47 Dec 15, 2014 

A map of the city of Le Havre in 1778 provides an architectural overview to devise urban development. A civil engineer has superimposed on this overview the plans put forward by the Corps of Engineers like a palimpsest.

Some comments: Etat des lieux=inventory of buildings. Hence my translation "architectural overview"

"Auquel" relates to "l'etat des lieux." To preclude ambiguity, my translation includes two sentences instead of one.

09:54 Dec 15, 2014 

Thank you all. I'm still unsure of how to translate the term. What do you think of the following?:

A map of the city of Le Havre in 1778 shows the site to be developed as it was at the time, onto which a civil engineer has superimposed the plans put forward by the Corps of Engineers like a palimpsest.

18:16 Dec 12, 2014 

You've left out "des Ponts", which is the Corps des Ponts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corps_of_Bridges,_Waters_and_Fo...

"Like a type of palimpsest" is actually a tautology. It would be better to leave out "type of".