18 



CHAPTER IT. 



THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE AND THE BOIS DE VINCENNES. 



The Bois de Boulogne. 



This park illustrates how we improve by friction,, so to 

 speak. Till 1852 tlie Eois was a forest ; but Napoleon III.^ 

 in his admiration for English parks^ determined to add their 

 charms to Paris^ or rather to improve upon them, and the 

 Bois is one result. In concert with the municipality, the 

 Emperor dug out the lakes, and made the waterfalls. As 

 a combination of wild wood and noble pleasure garden, it is 

 magnificent. The deer are placed in an enclosed space. 

 The Bois is splendid too as regards size — containing more 

 than 2000 acres, of which nearly half is wood, a quarter 

 grass, one-eighth roads, and more than seventy acres 

 water. Though with large expectations in other directions, 

 the reader will hardly be prepared for the statement that 

 the French beat us in parks. When first entered this may 

 not be much liked, the numerous Scotch pines around one 

 part of the water giving it a somewhat barren look, but a 

 few miles^ walk through it soon dispels this idea. It has 

 more than the beauty and finish of any London park in 

 some spots, but, on the other hand, vast spreads of it are 

 covered with a thick, small, and somewhat scrub-like wood, 

 in which wild flowers grow abundantly, unlike the prim 

 London parks. There are plenty of wild cowslips dotted 

 over even the best kept parts of it in spring, while the 

 planting on and near the islands is far superior to anything 

 to be witnessed in our own parks. To see what the Bois de 

 Boulogne really is, the visitor should keep to the left when 

 he enters from Passy or the Arc de Triomphe, and go right 

 to the end of the two pieces of ornamental water. Then, 

 standing with his back to the water, he will notice an 



