548 THE CLIMATES OF PARIS AND LONDON COMPARED. 



and in the valley of Montmorency. Among the best cul- 

 tivators in the former town are M. FHerault, of the Rue de 

 Calais, and M. Lerot-Salboeuf, Rue de Sannois. Asparagus 

 is forced both at Argenteuil and in the market gardens 

 within the fortifications of Paris. M. Caucannier, Place 

 de FEglise at Clichy-la-Garonne, has a curious and inte- 

 resting establishment for forcing Asparagus on a large 

 scale in houses and by means of hot- water pipes. 



The Climates of Paris and London Compared. — Most 

 people who have visited Paris are under the impression 

 that for clearness, salubrity, dryness, and heat, the climate 

 of the fairest of European cities is incomparably superior to 

 that of London. The idea has no doubt arisen from the 

 fact that most visitors to the French capital choose either 

 summer or autumn for their trip. At these periods even 

 our own smoky metropolis is at its best ; but the hard- 

 working citizen, who for the first time finds himself walking 

 down the boulevards or the Rue Royale upon a lovely June 

 or August afternoon, sees the Paris climate in its fullest 

 perfection. The air is free from smoke, the buildings and 

 houses are either dazzlingly white or of a delicate cream 

 colour, and even the mud itself is of a clearer and brighter 

 hue than the greasy, metallic-looking paste with which the 

 Londoner is so familiar. Let him, however, choose No- 

 vember or December for his excursion, and he will soon 

 discover that Paris can be as cold and cloudy, and even as 

 foggy, as our own city. A few figures from various unim- 

 peachable sources, both French and English, will, it is 

 hoped, do much to dispel the prevailing notion of the great 

 superiority of the climate of Paris over that of London. 



The climate of Paris may be taken as being typical of 

 that of the whole of the north-west of France, its change- 

 ableness, however, being somewhat less than that of the 

 districts bordering on the sea. In general characteristics 

 it may be said to stand midway between the climate of the 

 north-east portions of the Continent and that of the shores 

 of the Channel. It is less cold in winter than the former, 

 being warmed by the breezes from the Atlantic Ocean, but 

 colder than the south and west. In summer it is more 



