Old and New Paris: Its History, Its People, and Its Places, v. 1

Lutetia--La Cité--Lutetia taken by Labienus--The Visit of Julian the Apostate--Besieged by the Franks--The Norman Invasion--Gradual Expansion from the Île de la Cité to the Oute...

The Cathedral of Notre Dame, a Temple to Jupiter--Cæsar and Napoleon--Relics in Notre Dame--Its History--Curious Legends--The "New Church"--Remarkable Religious Ceremonies--The...

Hôtel Carnavalet--Hôtel Lamoignon--Place Royale--Boulevard du Temple--The Temple--Louis XVII--The Theatres--Astley's Circus--Attempted Assassination of Louis Philippe--Trial of...

The Louvre--Origin of the Name--The Castle--Francis I.--Catherine de Medicis--The Queen's Apartments--Louis XIV. and the Louvre--The Museum of the Louvre--The Picture Galleries-...

"Paris," said Heinrich Heine, "is not simply the capital of France, but of the whole civilised world, and the rendezvous of its most brilliant intellects." The art and literatur...

Lutetia--_La Cité_--Lutetia taken by Labienus--The Visit of Julian the Apostate--Besieged by the Franks--The Norman Invasion--Gradual Expansion from the _Ile de la Cité_ to the...

An effective contrast might be drawn between London and Paris. But, unlike as they are in so many features, physical, moral, and historical, they differ most widely, perhaps, by...

The Cathedral of Notre Dame, a Temple to Jupiter--Cæsar and Napoleon--Relics in Notre Dame--Its History--Curious Legends--"The New Church"--Remarkable Religious Ceremonies--The...

One of the oldest and most interesting churches in Paris is that of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, which, dating from the last days of Lutetia, before the name of Parisius, or Paris,...

Paris in 1886 contained, according to the census of that year, 2,344,550 inhabitants, of whom 1,714,956 (or 73.15 per cent.) lived on the right bank of the Seine. So much more i...

The most important, the most interesting, the most absorbing thoroughfare on the right bank of the Seine, and, therefore, in Paris generally is that of the boulevards, in which...

Hôtel Carnavalet.--Hôtel Lamoignon.--Place Royale.--Boulevard du Temple.--The Temple.--Louis XVII.--The Theatres.--Astley's Circus.--Attempted Assassination of Louis Philippe.--...

Just beyond the Porte Saint-Martin the Boulevard Saint-Denis crosses the great thoroughfare, which is called on one side Boulevard de Sébastopol, on the other, Boulevard de Stra...

The history of France is in a large degree the history of its cafés; and the French might well retort that the history of England is to be read in its tavern signs. On the conne...

The Boulevard des Italiens derives its name from the so-called Comédie Italienne, the original Opéra Comique of Paris, which owes its existence to letters patent granted to it a...

At the corner of the Rue Marivaux stands the Café Anglais, now the only one remaining of the historical Paris restaurants, which for the most part date their reputation from the...

The Rue Royale, a continuation of the Boulevard de la Madeleine, leading to the Place de la Concorde, was the scene of some of the most violent outrages on the part of the Commu...

At the point where the long line of boulevards, extending for three miles from the Place de la Bastille to the Madeleine, comes to an end the road bifurcates. The Rue Royale lea...

Between the Church of St. Roch and the Place Vendôme is the Rue du Marché and the Marché, or market, itself; chiefly interesting at the present day as occupying the ground on wh...

The whole history of Paris may be read along the line of the Boulevards, and the whole life of the capital observed there in concentrated form. The Palais Royal, however, with i...

Let us now return to the Palais Royal, and to the theatre which adjoins it. The Comédie Française, or Théâtre Français, as it is also called, was never, as the first of these na...

The most interesting edifice in the Rue Richelieu is the Library, called, according to the existing form of Government, Royal, National, or Imperial. Its original title was King...

The Louvre--Origin of the Name--The Castle--Francis I.--Catherine de Medicis--The Queen's Apartments--Louis XIV. and the Louvre--The "Museum of the Louvre"--The Picture Gallerie...

Before entering the Champs Élysées, the greatest pleasure thoroughfare in Paris, next to, if not before, the line of boulevards, a brief examination of the frontiers, as approac...

A whole chapter might be devoted to the café concerts, the swings, the merry-go-rounds, and other entertainments of a constantly varying kind, which are to be witnessed and, acc...

If the Place de la Concorde, with the line of the Champs Élysées leading from it in one direction, and that of the Rue Royale and the line of boulevards in another, may be regar...

Next to Notre-Dame the most interesting edifice in the island of the City, at the corner of the Quai de l'Horloge, is the Palais de Justice, which dates from the time of the Rom...

The Tribunal of Commerce, standing north of the Rue de Lutèce, has for pendant on its south side (that is to say, between the Rue de Lutèce and the quay) the barrack of the Repu...

In the matter of police administration and of civic government generally; the Hôtel de Ville is to the whole of Paris what the Mansion House and the Guildhall are to that part o...

The Hôtel de Ville, new by its architecture, is old by its history, and to some extent by the buildings still surrounding it; though the ancient streets of the neighbourhood hav...

The Rue Quincampoix and the Rue Saint-Martin are connected by a narrow lane or alley scarcely ten feet wide, called Rue de Venise, which has a sinister renown in connection with...

The Rue Saint-Denis is by ancient tradition, and still in the present day, as a matter of fact, the favourite abode of the French bourgeois. Our aldermen have long ceased to liv...

The street in which Mme. de Saint-Huberty lived, besides suggesting her fatal end, is connected with a whole series of tragedies. The Street of the Dry Tree--Rue de l'Arbre Sec-...

The executioner is one of the most curious, interesting, and important figures in the history of France in general and of Paris in particular. Going back to the thirteenth centu...

Before crossing the river to the left bank, we must say a few words about some of those districts of Paris which are reached naturally, and as a matter of course, by the great t...

Parisian duels are no longer to the death. As a rule, one of the combatants receives a scratch, and the farce is at an end. The story is well known of a Paris journalist's wife,...

If art and fashion, industry and commerce, are chiefly represented on the right bank of the Seine, science and the schools have their headquarters on the left. The "Latin countr...

Perhaps the most distinct type of character in Paris is the chiffonnier. Every evening, towards eight o'clock in the summer, and somewhat earlier in the winter, the streets of t...

Another extremely interesting type of character in Paris--likewise of the vagrant nature--is the Bohemian. According to the definition of a French lexicographer the Bohemian is...

The waiter of Paris, whose manners are of velvet, whose flittings are bird-like, and whose smile is eternal, is another pronounced type of character. The _garçon_ may be said to...

From the Paris waiter to the Paris cook the transition is, in literary phrase, "easy and natural." There is probably no prouder personage in the world than this artist, who know...