The central part of the town, which is by far the oldest, has narrow crooked streets, formed by lofty houses, chiefly built of stone. The outer parts of the town are more regularly laid out. The old streets are without foot-pavements and the kennel is in the middle of the street. The streets are lighted with gas. Great improvements have been made of late years; pavements have been laid with flagstones for pedestrians: all modern streets are provided with foot pavements, which have also been extended to the older streets that are wide enough to admit of them. The boulevards are a line of streets form ing a circuit of smaller extent than the city wall. They indicate, ou the north of the river, the line of the ramparts and ditches demolished and filled up by Louis XIV.; on the south side they are of later date, and take a wider circuit than the ancient walls. They are planted throughout with alleys of trees. The northern boulevards are the gayest thoroughfares in Paris: they are flanked by fine ranges of houses and adorned with numerous fountains. lies are some of the principal hotels, coffee-houses, and restaurants of Paris. On the north side of these boulevards are the Porte-St.-Martin and the Porte St.-Denis, two splendid triumphal arches, erected in honour of the victories of Louts XIV.
The largest of the old places, or squares, are the Place-de-la-Con conic, the Place-VendOme, the 1lace•des.Victoircs, and the Place-du Tr6ne (both circular), and the Place-Royale. These places are adorned with columns, statues, fountains, or other decorations. In the Place des-Victoires is a statue of Louis XIV. In the Place Louvois, oppo site the great library, in the Rue-Richelieu, is a splendid fountain, erected on the spot where the Due de Berry was assassinated in 1820. The Place-du-Carrousel, to the east of the Tuileries, hardly any longer exists, having become absorbed in the great square inclosed by the Palace of the Tuileries and the Louvre, as will be explained below. There are numerous fine public walks, as the gardens of the Tuileries, the gardens of the Luxembourg, the Palais-Royal, the Champs-Elyges, the Avenue-de-Neuilly, and the numerous avenues in the neighbour hood of the Ecole Militaire and the Invalided, which are streets lined with alleys of trees, like the boulevards. The Champ-de-Mara is a very large inclosure, attached to the Ecole Militaire, and used for reviews ; the Esplanade-des-Invalides is a garden, or pleasure-ground, extending from the Hotel.des-Invalides to the Seine. To the west of the city outside the great bastioned wall is the Bois-de-Boulogne, which is laid out in magnificent drives and embellished with fine sheets of water, fountains, and jets-d'ean.
The Place-de-la-Concorde, an octagonal apace, lies at the intersec tion of two magnificent perspectives, one between the church de-la Madeleine and the Chamber of Deputies, the other between the Tuileries gardens and palace on the east, and the triumphal arch de l'Etoile on the west at the head of the Champs-Elysnes. It is splendidly paved, lighted, and decorated ; allegorical figures of the principal provincial towns of France surmount the eight pavilions of the octagon. In the centre stands the obelisk of Luxor, which occu pies the site of the guillotine in the first revolution, under which Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Robespierre himself, and many others, illustrious and ignoble, fell during that bloody con vulsion. A little west of the Place-de-la-Concorde the Avenue-de
Marigny leads past the Elya6e palace, the front of which is in the Rue-du-Faubourg-St.-Honor6.
There is perhaps no city in the world which has such a number of handsome public buildings as Paris. A few of the principal struc tures are here briefly mentioned ; to describe all would require not an article but volumes. The cathedral of Notre-Dame, crowned by its two gigantic towers, is considered one of the boldest and most success ful existing specimens of gothic architecture. It was commenced A.D. 1010 and not completed till 1260. The extreme length externally is 442 feet ; breadth 162 feet ; breadth of nave 42 feet, length to transept 186 feet, transept 155 feet, width of front 134 feet, and height of towers 235 feet. The plan is divided into a nave and four aisles, besides a range of chapels on each aide between the external buttresses. The whole building has been recently cleaned and reno vated. Notre-Dame stands in the most ancient part of Paris, in the The archbishop's palace, which stood on the south side of the cathedral, was destroyed at the revolution of 1830. On the Isle are also the 116tel-Dien, one of the beat regulated hospitals in the world, making up 1000 beds; the vast Palais-de-Justice, which with its beautiful Saints-Chapelle (built in 1238), has been recently thoroughly restored ; the Place-Dauphine, a triangular space, in which is a fountain surmounted by a bust of Desaix, the hero of Marengo ; and the prefecture of police. In the Palais-de-Justice all the law courts are united except the tribunal of commerce. The Conciergerie, dis tinguished by its two lofty towers, on the Quai-de-l'Horloge, is also in the ile-desla-Cit6 : in the western of these towers Marie Antoinette was Imprisoned.
The former Pantheon, one of the finest buildings in Paris, has been again restored to ecclesiastical uses by the present emperor and to its I old title of the church of Sainte-Genevieve. It is a beautiful edifice with good general proportions and much grace and elegance in the outline. The exterior presents a design marked by grandeur and simplicity. A single large order, whose columns are 60 feet high, forms a Corinthian hexastyle crowned by a pediment filled with sculpture ; there are however 12 other columns, besides 4 attached I ones. The entablature is continued along the whole building, of which it constitutes almost the sole decoration, there being no windows, as the interior is lighted by the dome, and by large semicircular windows above the internal colonnades, which are not visible exter nally. The lower part of the dome is encircled by a Corinthian peristyle of 32 columns 36 feet high, on an unbroken podium, or stylobate. The dome is entirely constructed of atone 67 feet in diameter and 100 feet above the ground. The interior is a Creek cross in plan, the length from east to west being 295 feet, that of the transept 262 feet, and the breadth uniform, namely 104 feet. Instead of pier-arches, the aisles are formed by insulated Corinthian columns 40 feet high, thereby producing an air of great richness and lightness. The total length of the church, including the portico, is 352 feet. In close proximity to the church of Sainte-Genevieve, are the Ecole-de-Droit, the fine church of St.-Etienne-du-Mont, the poly- I technic school, the college Henri IV., and the collage Louis-le-Grand, the Rne-St.-Jacques from the Sorbonne.