Paris

Honore, the Champs Elysees and the Faubourg St. Germain have been occupied by mansions, but these areas, including the Champs Elysees as far west as the Arc de Triomphe, seem destined to be absorbed by business. The chief resorts of business and pleasure are concentrated within the Grands Boulevards, and more espe cially on the north bank of the Seine. No uniformity marks the street-plan of this or the other quarters of the city. One broad and almost straight thoroughfare bisects it, under various names, from Neuilly (west-north-west) to Vincennes (east-south-east). Within the limits of the Grands Boulevards it is known as the rue de Rivoli (over 2 m. in length) and the rue St. Antoine, and runs parallel with and close to the Seine from the place de la Concorde to the place de la Bastille. From the Eastern station to the ob servatory, Paris is traversed north-north-east and south-south-west for 21 m. by another important thoroughfare—the boulevard de Strasbourg, continued as the boulevard de Sebastopol, as the boulevard du Palais on the Ile de la Cite, and on the south bank as the boulevard St. Michel. A further line of boulevards has been developed between the place de la Concorde and the place Denfert Rochereau on the southern prolongation of the boulevard St. Michel, while the boulevard Jules Ferry has been made to give access from the boulevard Richard Lenoir to the quays beside the canal St. Martin, thus providing another way around the east of the city. The line of the Grands Boulevards from the Madeleine to the Bastille, by way of the place de l'Opera, the porte St. Denis and the porte St. Martin (two triumphal arches erected in the latter half of the 17th century in honour of Louis XIV.) and the place de la Republique, stretches for nearly 3 miles. It contains most of the large cafes and several of the chief theatres, and though its gaiety and animation are concentrated at the western end—in the boulevards des Italiens, des Capucines and de la Madeleine—it is, as a whole, one of the most celebrated avenues in the world. On the right side of the river may also be mentioned the rue Royale, from the Madeleine to the place de la Concorde ; the Malesherbes and Haussmann boulevards, the first stretching from the place Madeleine north-west to the former fortifications, the second from the Grands Boulevards near the place de l'Opera now right to the place de l'Etoile; the avenue de l'Opera, which unites the place du Palais Royal, approximately the central point of Paris, with the place de l'Opera ; the rue de la Paix, connecting the place Vendome with the place de l'Opera, and noted for its fashionable dress-making establishments, and the rue Auber and rue du Quatre Septembre, also terminating in the place de l'Opera, in the vicinity of which are found some of the finest shops in Paris ; the rue St. Honore running parallel with the rue de Rivoli, from the rue Royale to the Central markets ; the rue de Lafayette, one of the longest streets of Paris, traversing the town from the Opera to the Bassin de la Villette; the boulevard Magenta, from Montmartre to the place de la Republique ; and the rue de Turbigo, from this place to the Halles Centrales. On the left side of the river the main thoroughfare is the boulevard St. Germain, begin ning at the Pont Sully, skirting the Quartier Latin, the educational quarter on the north, and terminating at the Pont de la Concorde after traversing a quarter mainly devoted to ministries, embassies and other official buildings.

Squares.

Some of the chief squares have already been men tioned. The finest is the place de la Concorde, laid out under Louis XV. by J. A. Gabriel, the scene of the execution of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette and many victims of the Revolution. The central decoration consists of an obelisk from the great temple at Luxor in Upper Egypt, presented to Louis Philippe in 1831 by Mohammed Ali. The place VendOme, begun towards the end of the 17th century, has a column surmounted by a statue of Napoleon I., and decorated with plates of bronze, on which are depicted scenes from the campaign of 1805. The place de l'Etoile is the centre of 12 avenues radiating from it in all directions. The chief of these is the avenue des Champs Elysees, which connects it with the place de la Concorde ; while on the other side the avenue de la Grande Armee leads to the former fortifications, the two forming a section of the main artery of Paris; the well-wooded avenue du Bois de Boulogne leads to that celebrated park. In the

centre of the place, the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, the largest triumphal arch in the world (162 ft. high by 147 ft. wide), com memorates the military triumphs of the Revolutionary and Napo leonic troops. Under it has recently been placed the "Grave of the Unknown Soldier." In the place de la Republique stands a huge statue of the Republic. The place de la Bastille stands a little to the east of the site of the famous State prison. It contains the Colonne de Juillet, erected in memory of those who fell in the revolution of July 1830. The place du Carrousel, within the west ern wings of the Louvre, and so named from a revel given there by Louis XIV., was enlarged about the middle of the 19th century. The triumphal arch on its west side commemorates the victories of 1805 and formed the main entrance to the Tuileries palace (see below). Facing the arch there is a stone pyramid forming the background to a statue of Gambetta. Other squares are the place des Victoires, dating from 1685 ; the place des Vosges, formerly place Royale, formed by Henry IV. on the site of the old Tour nelles palace; the place de l'Hotel de Ville, once the place de Greve ; the place du Chatelet, on the site of the prison of the Grand Chilelet, pulled down in 1802, with a fountain and a column commemorative of victories of Napoleon, and the place de la Nation, corresponding at the east of the city to the place de l'Etoile at the west.

South of the Seine are the place St. Michel, one of the great centres of traffic in Paris ; the Carrefour de l'Observatoire, with the monument to Francis Jarnier, the explorer, and the statue of General Ney standing on the spot where he was shot ; the place du Pantheon; the place Denfert Rochereau, adorned with a colossal lion symbolizing the defence of Belfort in 1871; the place St. Sulpice, with a modern fountain embellished with the statues of the preachers Bossuet, Fenelon, Massillon and Flechier ; the place Vauban, behind the Invalides; and the place du Palais Bourbon, in front of the Chamber of Deputies. On the Ile de la Cite, in front of the cathedral, is the place du Parvis-Notre-Dame.

The Seine.

The Seine flows for nearly 8 m. through Paris. As it enters and as it leaves the city it is crossed by a viaduct used by the circular railway and for ordinary traffic ; that of Point du Jour has two storeys of arches. Three bridges—the Passerelle de l'Estacade, between the Ile St. Louis and the right bank, the Pont des Arts and the Passerelle Debilly (close to the Trocadero)—are for foot passengers only; all the others are for carriages as well. The most famous, and in its actual state the oldest, is the Pont Neuf, begun in 1578, the two portions of which rest on the extremity of the island called La Cite, the point at which the river is at its widest (863 ft.). On the embankment below the Pont Neuf stands the equestrian statue of Henry IV. Between La Cite and the left bank the width of the lesser chan nel is reduced to 95 feet. The river has a width of 54o ft. as it enters Paris and of 446 ft. as it leaves it. After its entrance to the city it passes under the bridges of Tolbiac, Bercy and Auster litz, that of Sully, those of Marie and Louis Philippe between the Ile St. Louis and the right bank; that of La Tournelle between the Ile St. Louis and the left bank; that of St. Louis between the Ile St. Louis and La Cite. The Cite communicates with the right bank by the Pont d'Arcole, the Pont Notre-Dame, built on foundations of the 15th century, and the Pont au Change, owing its name to the shops of the money-changers and goldsmiths which bordered its mediaeval predecessor; with the left bank by that of the Archeveche, the so-called Pont au Double, the Petit Pont and the Pont St. Michel, the original of which was built towards the end of the 14th century. Below the Pont Neuf come the Pont des Arts, Pont du Carrousel, Pont Royal (a fine stone structure lead ing to the Tuileries), and those of Solferino, La Concorde, Alex andre III., Invalides, Alma, Iena (opposite the Champ de Mars). Passy, Grenelle and Mirabeau. The Seine has at times caused disastrous floods in the city. A canal to unite the Marne (from Arnet) with the Seine near St. Denis, below Paris, is to protect Paris from inundation, the danger of which is greatly increased by the fact that the Seine and Marne meet just above Paris.