PALAIS ROYAL* 



4 6 ? 



Parie, Sept. 1789* 

 THE coffee-houfes form the fecond point of meet- 

 ing for the multitude who do not go merely for taking a 

 walk, or who chufe to recreate themfelves after walk- 

 ing. There are fix of them, which are all more or lefs 

 elegant and roomy, lively or otherwife. Each has its 

 Itated cuftoniers who frequent no others, and who are 

 found there at the ufual hours of the morning and af- 

 ternoon ; frequently the whole day long, and who com- 

 pofe the main body of the company, and give the ton. 

 Thus every houfe has its own public, and its own cha- 

 racleriflic topics of converfation. 



The quieter! is the corfee-houfe Valois, under the 

 arcades of the long wing, towards the ftreet des bons 

 enfans. The boxes here are indeed always filled, but 

 moftly by elderly perfons in filk cloaths and with 

 fwords, who keep together in various groups, and talk 

 and difpute tedioufly, without afperity or heat. I call 

 them, The quiet in the land. 



More noify, and of late the moll noify, is the cof- 

 fee-houfe du Caveau. Its lituation, fpacioufnefs, and 

 antiquity, (for it had long been in being during the old 

 garden) caufe it to be generally full, lively, and famous. 

 It occupies four arcades, is fplendidly ornamented 

 with marble tables, and large looking-glafies which re- 

 flect the whole length of the garden, with all the fwarms 

 it contains. On abrupt columns fhmd the bulls of For- 

 tune, Sacchini, Piccini, Gretry, Phillidor, &c. who, 

 as the opera was hard-by, ufed to come here and draw 

 after them a numerous refort of cuftomers.* Before the 

 arcades, in the garden, this cofFee-houfe has a large, 



khz tent, 



