THE PLAINEST CITY IN EUIIOPE. 259 



Weary of the gigantic monotony of the gigantic houses, 

 exactly alike, your eye shall not catch a glimpse of 

 some distant cloud rising like a snowy mountain (as 

 Japanese artists show the top of Fusiyama) ; you shall 

 not see the breadth of the sky, nor even any steeple, 

 tower, dome, or gable ; you shall see nothing but Paris ; 

 the avenue is wide enough for the Grand Army to 

 march down, but the exit to the eye is blocked by 

 this immense meaningless facade drawn across it. No 

 doubt it is executed in the " highest style ; " in effect 

 it appears a repetition of windows, columns, and door- 

 ways exactly alike, all quite meaningless, for the 

 columns support nothing, like the fronts sold in boxes 

 of children's toy bricks. Perhaps on the roof there is 

 some gilding, and you ask yourself the question why 

 it is there. These facades, of which there are so man}*, 

 vary in detail ; in effect they are all the same, an utter 

 weariness to the eye. Every fresh day's research into 

 the city brings increasing disappointment, a sense of 

 the childish, of feebleness, and weakness exhibited in 

 public, as if they had built in sugar for the top of a 

 cake. The level ground will not permit of any advan- 

 tage of view ; there are none of those sudden views so 

 common and so striking in English towns. Every- 

 thing is planed, smoothed, and set to an oppressive 

 regularity. 



Turning round a corner one comes suddenly on a 

 pillar of a dingy, dull hue, whose outline bulges 

 unpleasantly. In London you would shrug your 

 shoulders, mutter " hideous ! " and pass on. This is the 

 ^famous Venddme Column. As for the Column of July, 

 it is so insignificant, so silly (no other word expresses 



