STREETS, BUILDINGS, 1()NUINIENTS, ETC. The private houses. most of which are of the apart ment or flat-house order, rising to six or seven stories, as well as the public buildings, are built of a light-colored limestone. easily wrought and carved ornamentally. Among the finest of the wide and straight streets are the Rue de Rivoli, two miles in length. the Rue de la Pa ix, the Rue du Faubourg, and the Rue Royale. The boulevards. which extend in an irregularly circular line on both sides of the Seine, generally on the site of the ancient ramparts. between the nucleus of the city and its surrounding quar ters, present the most striking feature of Pari sian life. In all the better parts of the city they are lined with trees, seats, and little towers called Vespasiennes, covered with advertisements. Restaurants, cafes. shops, and various places of amusement succeed one another for miles, their character varying from the height of luxury and elegance in the Boulevard des ltaliens and the Boulevard Ilaussmann. to the domestic simplicity of the Boulevards Beaumarchais and Saint-Denis. Among the public squares or places, of which there are over 130, mostly owned by the munici pality. the most noteworthy is the Place de la Concorde, which connects the gardens of the Tuileries (q.v.) with the Champs Ely=tles q.v.), and embraces a magnificent of some of the finest buildings and gardens of Paris. In the centre is the famous obelisk of Luxor. brought from Egypt to France in 1S'36. and covered over its entire height of 76 feet with hieroglyphics. On the site of this obelisk stood the Revolution ary guillotine, at which perished Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Philippe EgalitO, Danton, Robespierre, and a host of other victims. Of the other squares, the following are son e of the handsomest: the Place du Carrousel. west of the Louvre, with the Are de Triomphe du Car rousel. erected by Napoleon I. in commemoration of his victories in the campaigns of 1s05-06: the Place de Ia ROpublique. with a fine bronze statue of the Republic; the Place the FOpcsra : the Place Vendeime, with Napoleon's column of victory: the Place de Ia Bastille. where once stood that famous prison and fortress (see BAsrrtax) : the Place de la Nation, formerly Place du Trite with its fine fountain and monumental group, the Triumph of the Republic) ; the Place de PH6tel de Ville. formerly l'laee de ha Gr?sve,
for many ages the scene of public executions. and the at which some 13' the bloodiest deeds of the Revolution were perpetrated. The Porte Saint-Martin and Porte Saint-Denis, which mere erected by Louis XIV. to commemorate Ili, vic tories in the Low Countrh:s, and arc adorned with representing It cuts of these campaigns, mark the ancient limits of the mot turbulent quarters of the Paris of the past; the Arc de Triomphe de TEtoile. 160 feet high and 116 feet wile. begun by Napoleon 1. in Ism,. and completed in I536 at a cost of more than may be said to form the extreme west ern boundary of the aristot ratio quarters. it is profusely adorned with bas-reliels and alto-re licf-. representing victories of Napoleon. The great streets which radiate from the Are de Triomphe de l'Etuile are among the most mag nificent of Paris. and form the faiest quarter. The Place de l'Etoile is connected with the Champs Ely by the Avenue d.. I hamps with the celebrated Bois de Boulogne (q.v.) by the Avenues Grande Bois de Boulogne, and Victor Hugo, and the Porte.; Dauphinr.„ and Maillot: and it emu munieates by the Avenue, N.le'ller and with the Place, the Pare, and the Palais TroeadOro.
The Palais du Trocadern, named after a ( adliz fort taken in 1S23 by the French. dates fn in the exhibition of Is7S: it is a mammoth building of Oriental architecture and crescent form. WI an elevation surmounting a huge cascade of orna mental water. It has valuable museum, of com parative sculpture and of ethnography, and its fine Salle de, Fites. containing a huge can accommodate 6000 persons. In the well-kept park i= a subterranean aquarium. The Pont d'i6na leads from the l'ark aeros- the seine to the historic Champ de Mar: (q.v. •, the site of the universal expositions since 1s67. and of the End Tower (q.v.), 9S-I feet high. built for the Exposition of Iss!). On tine southeast i- the Ecole Militaire, founded in 1752 and formerly used as barracks for infantry and cavalry. hut now occupied by the Ernie tie I;iterre. Near by is the LIMel des Invalides (q.v.), founded in 1670 for disabled soldiers. The crypt of the church contains the sarcophagus, hewn from a huoe block of Russian granite. in whi(11 lie the remains of Napoleon I.. deposited there in lsto.