8 



THE CHAMPS ELYSEES. 



table permanently established Punch and Judy shows ! I 

 hope this will shock no well regulated mind. They are 

 not like fugitive exhibitions tolerated at the end of obscure 

 streets branching off from the Strand or Oxford-street,, but 

 have rights as well-established as those of the Opera. If 

 we consider what a perennial source of amusement this 

 Punch and Judy fun has been for children^ perhaps it 

 deserves a place as well as other more fashionable amuse- 

 ments. And then we have revolving circuses^ on which 

 the children of the period take their choice to ride on 

 elephant or steed, various kinds of juvenile amusements^ 

 cafes, summer music halls, dahlia beds, fountains, Abys- 

 sinian musas, and too many similar objects to enumerate. 

 On fine days the wide tree-shaded walks are crowded with 

 pedestrians ; all the little games are in full swing, and 

 though it may seem a queer jumble to many, the whole 

 thing is as orderly as could be wished. 



At the top of the long avenue, the great arch is sur- 

 rounded by an immense circular Place, from which straight 

 boulevards and avenues radiate in all directions. The 

 guide-books advise the visitor to Paris to see the lamps lit 

 at night in the Champs Elysees, but if he should want to 

 see the finest eflPect of that kind, he must go to this arch 

 on a dark night, and standing in the centre look at their 

 eflPect in the long wide avenues, which fall from where he 

 stands, and afterwards walk around 

 its base to see them better still. The 

 whole scene here is magnificent, and 

 if Paris had nothing worth seeing but 

 what may be seen from hence, it 

 would well repay a visit to all persons 

 interested in the improvements of 

 towns and cities. 



The Place de FEtoile, with its sur- 

 roundings, is precisely the reverse of 

 our own efforts in like positions — its 



^ , ,^^T ^ breadth, dignitv, and airiness con- 



Avenues and boulevards ra- , -i • "i -,1^1 



diating fiom the Place de trastmg strikmgly With the narrow- 



I'Etoilo. mess, meanness, and closeness of the 



Fig. 3. 



