S O U V E N I R O F P A R I S EN U SAN L . B S BY S . A K L ND : T C E . C. J C O ON . 1 6 H E N R I E T T A S T R E E T, W. C. ON TH E RIGHT BANK OF THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE TO TH E PLACE DE LA NATION . I V TH E LE K F TH E . ON FT B AN O QUAI D ’ORSAY TO THE PLACE D ’ITALI E THE ISLANDS OF TH E CITY AND ST. LOUIS VI THE E . H ART OF PARIS TH E MONTMARTRE QUARTER TH E EA RES MUSIC H LS D CO CER LS TH T , AL , AN N T HAL OF PARIS TH E B OIS DE BOULOGNE AND TH E PARKS . GREAT B UILDINGS OFF THE MAIN ROUTES INDEX L I ST O F I L L U ST RAT I O N S ’ THE AVENUE DE L OPERA On Cover NOTRE DAME TH E PARK OF ST CL D . OU TH E ARC DE TRIOMPHE PANORAMA OF PARIS F ROM TH E LOUVRE TH E PLACE DE L A CONCORDE TH E HOTEL DE VILLE TH E MINI STRY OF FORE IGN AFFAIRS TH E EI FFEL TOWER TH E HOTEL DES INVALID ES TH E CLUNY MUSEUM TH E PALACE OF TH E S ENATE E DES ES TH E CHURCH OF ST . G RMAIN PR L I E TH E CHURCH OF ST . SU P C TH E RU E DE R I VOLI TH E OPERA HOUSE TH E CHURCH OF TH E MADELEI NE TH E CHAMBER OF DEPUTI ES TH E CHURCH OF TH E SACRED HEART TH E PALACE OF TH E GRAND TRI ANON TH E PALACE OF LI TTL E TRI ANON THE DAI RY AND TOWER OE PETIT TRI ANON S O U V E N I R O F PA R I S C H A P T E R I A G REAT CITY ARIS "The name co njure s up so m any conflicting t h at memories and impressions , the attempt to give them adequate o r even orderly expression seems to savour of impertinence . Who has understood this wonderful ? The re city have been hundreds to try. Mirabeau said , “ ” S hinx Paris is a p , but I will drag her secret from her , - and to day Mirabeau is little more than a name, and the al o f capit his country retains its secret undivulged . Surely so o r no city has ever boasted many lovers , fostered o r o r set higher ideals , achieved greater accomplishments , o r a standard to so many countries , made such important o o r experiments in social , p litical, and religious life, mingled so much success with failure . Paris has practised o f e o f every art living, has drunk deep of the win life, has been a law to itself and a light to the Western world , is a country within a country, unconquerable even in o i defeat . It is a city in which the art f l ving seems t o b e a all m stered by classes . Paris sounds the highest note 2 S O UV E N I R O F P AR I S o f o f extravagance , the lowest note happy economy ; it t o f o f shel ers every form faith and the negation faith , i v e r eve virtue and every v ce . E y art finds stimulus i i s o f w th n its boundarie and so great is the power Paris , t it c tha can draw tribute from all the ivilised world . ' o f e no t The wealthy people every country, G rmany to d r o f excepted , must go to Paris , bow to the ec ees t o its fashions, to subscribe to its varied extravagances , o r be in the movement as long as health money lasts . o ne As soon as visitor leaves , his place is taken by another ; o ne o f as soon as fortune is spent , another source wealth la m is waiting to be tapped . The life de e is dear o en ugh in London , but in Paris is dearer still . Only in Paris has the writer visited restaurants where the menu se t o ut is with no price attached, the bill being merely ’ ’ an expression o f the management s view o f the patron s standing and his right to partake o f what the house t o ff This o f has o er. is but a single aspect Parisian see magnificence ; you others in the Bois , you see others at tou t P a ris the Race Meetings to which adjourns , you may be fortunate enough to catch a glimpse o f others in the ’ u wonderf l private palaces that house the city s wealthiest. The re is little ostentation only the half world descends “ ” to w Off o f what children call sho ing , and the gaiety al Paris is a thing with which money has but sm l concern . t t o The city has se herself deliberately enjoy life , and whether you have ten halfpence o r ten shillings or ten ’ ’ pounds to Spend o n an evening s amusement o r a day s is fo r idleness, there ample value the money , the satis A G R E AT C I TY 3 factory fee ling that the money is well spent . Rich an d and poor are catered for abundantly, a multitude o f cafés enables the Parisian to survey Paris from count f less points o vantage. Add to this that the city has an invigorating air , splendid open places , innumerable monu o f o ments , a finely arranged plan main streets , a t lerable o f i l direction , a sense humour, the w l to enjoy the move ment , a great history, a glorious past , a bright future, and it is possible to understand why the French capital ’ o f appeals to all classes the world s populace , from kings to commercial travellers . To the visitor from Great Britain the two most notice able features o f Parisian life are the comparative absence o f o f time limits , and the consequent privilege eating when o ne is hungry and drinking when o ne is thirsty - - at almost any hour in the twenty four, and the well nigh f o universal habit o living u t o f doors . The restaurant provides for everybody , and consequently everybody goes o f o n o to the restaurant , and , in spite the duties fo d , it is as cheap to eat in public as in private, and far more . Y o u o r cheerful can dine for a shilling in Paris, spend ten o n pounds a dinner for two or three people , and in either case there will be people at the next table doing the same thing. The grand boulevards are crowded with cafés ; yo u can sit as long as you like over a cup o f coffee o r a bock at an o ne o f y them , and read in the open air the halfpenny so o f evening papers that are full humour and invective. This o is the more pleasant , because the air f Paris is so d stimulating , and everybo y takes a certain amount of 4 S O UV E N I R O F P A R I S o n interest in everything that is going . No incident is t o o large o r t o o small to arrest the attention for a moment o f The secularised Sunday is a time great rejoicing, when every haunt o r home o f pleasure in and round the n in capital is thro ged , and before you have been long Paris the city has asserte d her claim t o be regarded as a country, quite removed in thought and in action from r the industrious France that surrounds her on eve y side . Her opinions , her movements, her whims and fancies sh e assume an enormous importance ; is , in a sense , the clock by which Western civilisation regulates its o wn n timekeepers . In many respects , hard to define but o t ffi di cult to realise, Paris is unlike any other European she n - co nfide nce capital ; has more i itiative , more self , and o wn o f more independence . She sets up her standard as living, and all who flock to her accept her decisions final. a u She m kes history , and , if she were once again nder a ’ sh e conqueror s heel, would rise in her Splendour to confound her conquerors . Nobody knows this truth better than the Parisian ; it colours his View o f life and gives him his abiding measure o f content . He lives o f in receipt homage , his fathers and forefathers did the same ; he stands o n heights from which he can survey critically every capital o f the world beneath him . Small wonder then that there is a large proportion o f gaiety in - n o his life, that he has self relia ce and c nfidence and faith in Paris and hi mself. ’ We cannot rival the Parisian s local patriotism . When f o a Londoner praises the beauty o London , his fell w A G R E A T C I TY 5 The m a citizens are a little surprised .