' to nf of the Harris family THE ins ap; OB, PAEIS BY DAY AND NIGHT. BY JULIE DE MARGUERITTES. SECOND EDITION. QS , v PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY J. W. MOORE. 1857. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by JULIE DE MAEQ0ERITTES, In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. u u 649211 * ' I" I TO MY DAUGHTERS, oft JJinmh h Young as you are, my darlings, I dedicate this work to you. It des cribes the capital of your own country, which perhaps you may never see. .-< When, some years hence, you read these pages, you will call to mind how many tears you have seen fall upon them, and will remember then your mother's affection, her hard trials, and her devotion to you, my only consolation for the past, my only hope for the future. JULIE DE MARGUERITTES. Philadelphia, January, 1855. INTRODUCTION. PARIS has been often described, by travellers, by artists, by savants, by friends and by enemies, yet it was after reading most of the works descriptive of Paris that I felt how much there was still to be written, if not about Paris, at least about the Parisians. English prejudices, of two centuries ago, still swayed the minds and guided the pen of English writers. They came to Paris embued with these prejudices, and having no means of penetrating into the inner life of the Parisians, they judged of the surface, swayed, un- consciously perhaps, by traditional errors, and by a hatred, which, under the influence of a more complete acquaint- anceship and a common interest, excited by civilization against barbai ianism, is rapidly disappearing. The Englishman now no longer looks on his nearest neighbour as his mortal foe. Still, though the monuments of Paris, its sights, its Viii INTRODUCTION. cafes and its streets may have been well and accurately described, the soul of this moving population has remain- ed, to the transient visitor, enveloped in a brilliant but impenetrable veil. Though born in England, and somewhat of a cosmo- politan, Paris has been my home, and its language was the first I ever spoke, I have never judged it as a stranger, and was not for many years aware of the utterly absurd and false notions, entertained by other nations with re- gard to the private life of the people, supposed to be best known, and certainly the most frequently visited of all European cities. I believe that foreigners know more about the domestic manners of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, than do about the domestic manners of the Parisians they ; indeed the general opinion, I am convinced, is, that the Parisians have no domestic manners at all to describe, and that the piles and piles of houses are merely built to afford a temporary shelter for the night, but, that the ac- tual existence of the Parisians, goes on in the streets, the cafes and the theatres. It is to correct these errors, to show the Parisians as they are, scrupulous in the virtues which bind society together, loyal and true in all the relations of the do- mestic affections, and devoted to family ties, that I have undertaken the following chapters not as a guide book INTRODUCTION. IX to the monuments of Paris, but a guide book to its hearts and hearths. The French are though cordial and polite in manner reserved and unostentatious besides ; being generally very little versed in foreign languages, so that neither through their intercourse with foreigners, nor their knowledge of foreign literature, could they be aware of how wrongly they were judged, or probably, the work I now offer to the public, would have been written long since, and by an abler pen. Such as it is, how- ever, with all its faults, I claim for it two merits one that it is true, and another that the subjects treated are entirely new in the view taken of them and in the revelations they contain. The homes of Paris are perhaps for the first time described, and though it has been said that the word home has no equivalent in the French language, the thing itself is essentially French, just as the word ennui cannot be translated into Anglo-Saxon, though the thing itself is most unqestionably indigenous to the English soil. Some of the chapters of this work appeared in a New York journal of a high character, from thence they were copied into several European periodicals. En- couraged by this approval, I was induced to complete the work, anxious as I was that the truth should be X INTRODUCTION. known, and that the people of the United States, the companions of Lafayette and 1'Estaing should, in memory of their chivalric companionship with the fathers of the American Eevolution, whilst according their admiration, not withold from the French, either their friendship or their esteem, in all the humbler and holier duties of do- mestic life. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST ENTRANCE INTO PARIS. Entrance into Paris General aspect of the City The Hotel dea Princes The Table d'Hote The "offs" and the "skys," and a great Lady The English in Paris The Hotels Seeking a Lodging Madame Antoine Your month's ex- pensesA word of advice. .... ....17 CHAPTER II. THE BOULEVARDS. Paris in May The Middle Class and Good Taste The Flaneur The Place de la Madeleine The Flower-Market and the Lorettes The Omnibuses The Citadine The Boulevards des Capucines The Boulevards des Italians The Shop-Women Tortoni's and the Passage de 1'Opera The Ballet-Girls and the Bourgeoisie The Passage des Panoramas The Boulevards Montmartre The Boulevards Pois- " soniere The Porte St. Martin and its Theatre The Chateau d'Eau The Am- " " " " bigu," the Comique," La Gaiete," the Gymnase," and the Varietes" The Place de la Bastille. ..----..-27 CHAPTER III. THE TUILERIES. Six o'clock at evening The Terrace of the Rue de Rivoli The Employ^ of the Home Department The Menage Another EmployeA School for Young Girls The Terrasse des Feuillants The Rendezvous, and the Impatient Lover Ahl there she is La Petite Provence Children and Old Soldiers The Galleries of the Rue Rivoli Madame Minette, and a Discussion on the Gender of Shirts " The Allee des Grangers Babies, and what they live on Model" Wet Nurses The Promenaders of the Allee des Grangers The Duchess and the Dandies The Banker's wife Male Gossip The Artist and his Country Relations" Voulez vous du Plaisir!" The Terrasse du Bord de I'Eau and the Ou-dinerai-je ?" The Garden of the King of Rome The Due de Bordeaux Reflections Napoleon and the Tuileries Louis XVIII., and the Pavilion de Flore The Duchess de Berri and the Galerie de Diane Louis Philippe and his Household. 44 CHAPTER IV. THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, ETC. The Obelisk du Luxor The Rue Royale and the Madeleine The View The Spot of the Guillotine Louis XVI., Marie Antoniette, and Charlotte Corday The Champs Elysees Napoleon's Exit and Return The Promenade Sunday in the Champs Elysees Popular Amusements The Fete-day Crowd The Habits and Enjoyments of the Working Class The al fresco Ball The Illumination The Fireworks The Grand Bouquet. ....... 68 11 . CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. THE FAUBOURG ST. GERMAIN. The Paris of the last Century The Homes of the old Noblesse The Morning Mass St Sulpice A French Wedding How matches are made in France The Courting The Corbeille The Trousseau Happy Marriages. - - 81 CHAPTER VI. THE STUDENTS AND THE LUXEMBOURG. The Students' Costume The Grisette The Student's Menage His Income The Palace du Luxembourg The Sunday Fete of the Grisette and StudentsHis- torical Reminiscences Ths Chaumiere Another al fresco Ball A Sound Sleep. 90 CHAPTER VII. THE THEATRES AND THE PRESS. The Cafes and the Dame de Comptoir The Boulevards The Grand Opera The Ballet The Dramatic Critics Parisian Journalists The Petits Soupers of the Ac- " tresses Boheme" and its Drawing-Rooms The Audience The Imperial Box and the Boxes of the three Royalties, the Aristocracy, and the Loge des Lions The other Theatres The Theatre Frangais "Une Demoiselle" "Une Par- isienne" The VarieWs Les Lorettes Paris Fashions and the Fashion-Plates. 100 CHAPTER VIII. THE ODEON, THE GRISETTES, AND FRANCONl's. The One Theatre of the Faubourg St. Germain The Audience and its Occupations The B'hoys of Paris The Disconsolate Ouvreuse The Grisettes, their Origin and History The Virtuous Grisette The Life and Home of the Grisette and the Student The Ambigu Franconi's The Cafe Turc The People and the Students. 118 CHAPTER IX. A BAL MASQUE, AND THE LITERATI. The rationale of a Bal Masqu6 The Balls at the Opera, and at Musard's, Valen- tino's, and the Casino Character of the Company The Orgies in full bloom The Galop de Musard The Grand Opera Ball Its apparent Dullness What is really going on The Foyer Rachel in domino Madame de Girardin Madame d'Agoult Madame B de B and Mildred Vernon Jules Janin Balzac Alphonse Karr Alexandre Dumas Alfred de Mnsset St. Beuve To bed I 128 CHAPTER X. SENTIMENTS AND CEMETERIES. French philosophy of Life and Death Adorning the Home of the Dead "Le Jour des Morts" Throngs of Visitors at Persia Chaise Graves far sale Procession of Priests the grave of Abeilard and Heloise Military Statues Lafontaine Molifire Talma Garcia Bellini Giuletta Grisi and her tribute The Princess Demidoff The Monument without a name The Graves of the Humble The Baby's Grave Touching Inscriptions Fosse Commune The Maison Dor6e and a diner maigre.