THE BOULEVARDS. 



119 



of being slain by one or tbe otlier of the numberless forms of 

 dissipation to be met with in that gayest of all cities. 



The first Paris boulevard was opened in 1670, in the 

 reign of Louis XIY.^ and extended from the Porte St. 

 Denis to the Bastille. It so pleased the Parisians that 

 before the end of the following year the line was continued 

 in the other direction from the Porte St. Denis to the 

 Porte St. Honore, which stood across the end of the Rue 

 du Paubourg St. Honore^, where that street now joins the 

 Rue Royale. A year or two after,, the ancient Porte du 

 Temple which stood in the boulevard of that name was 



Fig. 45. 



removed^ and the road between the Porte St. Denis and the 

 Bastille levelled and repaired, thus completing the original 

 line of boulevards so often celebrated both in prose and in 

 verse since the days of the Grand Monarque, and which 

 have preserved their prestige, as the boulevards par excel- 

 lence, over all those that have been since constructed. 



The promenaders of the 17th century, on looking to the 

 north of the capital, must have enjoyed an uninterrupted 

 view of the open country beyond, dotted here and there 

 with little villages or rich abbeys — the ancient fane of St, 

 Denis lifting its grey towers in conscious superiority above 



