762 



PARIS 



but from the skill and taste bestowed on them 

 liy imlividuitl workmen. They include jewellery, 

 bronxea, artistic furniture, and decorative articles 

 kii'ivvn a 'articles de Paru.' In consequence of 

 tlie intelligence and taste required in tlieir trades, 

 the I'ari- workmen are in many le-jiects superior to 

 the machine hands of manufacturing cities. The 

 absence of extreme poverty mining them and their 

 well-to-do appearance strike the English visitor. 



It-fore shaking in detail <f the streets, boule- 

 vards, and plans or square* of Paris, it is proper 

 t<> mention that the private houses an well as the 



public buildings are built of a light coloured lime- 

 stone, quarried in the neighliourhood of the eity, 

 easily cut with the saw and carved ornament- 

 ally "with the chisel. With this material they 

 are reared in huge blocks to a height of si\ or 

 s'\en stories, each floor constituting a distinct 

 duelling; access to all the Moors in a tenement 

 being gained by a common stair, which is usually 

 placed under the charge of a porter or concierge at 

 the entrance. Very frequently the tenements 

 surround an open quadrangle, to which there is a 

 spacious entry, the gate of which ( the porle cochere ) 





U kept by a porter for the whole inhabitants of the 

 several stairs. In these respects, therefor, 

 differs entirely from London ; for instead of extend 

 in;: rows of small brick buildings of a temporary 

 kind over vast spaces, the plan consists of piling 

 durable house* on the top of each other, and con- 

 fining the population to a comparatively limited 

 area. In the great new streets which were formed 

 in the time of the Emperor Napoleon III. this 

 general plan has been adhered to, but with this 

 difference, that instead of being narrow and 

 crooked they are wide and straight Among the 

 finest are the Hue de Hivoli. two miles in length, 

 (he Hue de la Paix, the line ilu Fauliourg St 

 Honor*, and the Hue Koyale. The Houlevards, 

 which extend in a semicircular line on the right 

 -i'l'- of the Seine, between the nucleus of the city 

 iiml it xnrrouiiding quarters, present the most 

 striking feature of Paris life. In all the letter 

 parts of the eity they are lined with trees, scats, 

 Ulls, kioM|ues, and little towers, covered \\iih 

 advertisements. Restaurants, cafes, shops, and 



various places of amusement succeed one another 

 for miles, their character vni vim; from the height 

 of luxury and elegance in the western Boulevard 

 des Italians to the homely siiniilicitv of the eastern 

 Boulevards llcaumarchais- nnd St Denis. Among 

 the public squares or places the most noteworthy 

 is the Place de la Concorde, which connects the 

 Curdcns of the Tuileries with the Champs- Elysees, 

 ami embrace! n magnificent view of some of the 

 lim-st boildingl and gardens of Paris. In the 

 centre is the famous olielisk of Luxor, covered over 

 its entire height of 73 feet with hieroglyphics. It 

 was brought from Egypt to France, and in 1836 

 placed where it now stands. On the site of thin 

 olielisk rtoodthe levolutionary guillotine, at which 

 lavished Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Philippe 

 Egalite, Charlotte Cord ay, 1 >anton. and Kolrapiei re. 

 Of the other squares the following are some of the 

 finest : the Place dn Carrousel, including the site of 

 the Tuilcries burned by the Commune and not re- 

 stored ; the Place Vendomc, with Napoleon's Column 

 of Victory; the Place de la Bastille, where once stood 



