The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-08-30 00:00:00

LIFE IN PARIS.

The following extract la from an Interesting Wretch by
the Correspondent of the Deily Nem, writing from Paris on

a a
/Saturday :L
Owing to the rise in railway fares, people of small
means cannot DO frequently as they used take refuge
from the summer heats in the belt of woods round
Paris. The Bois de Boulogne is their principal re•
source. On the whole, for walking purpasee, it is
pleasanter than it was before the siege. The thickets
are more wild and weedy. The watering-tubes being
more sparingly used, one does not any longer feel in
the evening as if in • vaimur-bath ; and, carriages
being much less numerous, the duet in not so great on
the principal drives as in former timer. But, per
contra, refreshments are double the price they were.
A glass of very bad beer in any of the cafés runs away
with a franc. It is taxed at seventy five centimes,
and none but an English lady, travelling on cheap
sides on the Continent, would have the moral
courage to pocket the balance to which the waiter
thinks he has a right. By-the•bye. I have just received
a complaint from a countrywoman who has been vic-
timised at a restaurant near the Jardin d'Acelimatisa-
tion. In looking about for creature comforts, she saw
an Opera Comique sort of cottage, with thatched roof,
and clematis and jessamine climbing round the porch.
It could not occur to her that mercantile sharpness
might have fixed its abode in such a rustic bower. So
in she went end ordered • number of things which can
be had for next to nothing in a Romberville tea-garden,
but not in a Bois de Boulogne chAlet. Of course she
wanted a cup of tea. Now tea, save in hotels frequented
by English, is • rarity here, and is taxed at • fancy
price. Bread and butter is a hors d'aurre and
another fancy article only served a in carte. Shrimps are
considered a delicacy not to t dear for palls crewel*. and
the opens to whom they are in the habit of giving din.
flees. A waiter who can foist them upon ordinary
bourgeois receives higher waves than one who cannot.
Our countrywoman had no idea, on entering the jessa-
mine covered retreat, what she was doing when she
ordered tea with fresh cream, as 'ingested by the at-
tendant, shrimps, and bread and butter. She was
then asked what she would like in the way of meat?
There were chop., steaks, matdote, filet of sole sheep's
trotters il in poulette, brains au beurre now, and a host
of dishes the Free.ch names of which frightened her. No,
she wanted something simple. Hans? suggested the
waiter—ham of York ?—to which she added, "and a
couple of poached eggs, if you please, with some
English pickles." Our inexperienced tesveller
did not know that ham of York, or " d'Yorck,"
a la carte is another whet to the appetite which comes
to a heavy item in the restaurateur's bill. Poached
eggs are one of those dishes which amateurs, te.,
people who go through life on the regardles.-of-expense
principle, indulge in. Eggs a/a rogue, ala neige, au
plat, en emote* ,lure, and a hundred other ways, are
relatively cheap. I don't know why this is so, any
more than why a few stale shrimps or prawusare rated
higher than • slice of salmon; but so it is. My friend,
who had only lenrned in a young ladies' school, on
being asked if she wool i like some vegetable-, replied.
"By all means." What kind? Greens suggested
themselves • Int she did not know exactly bow to trans-
late this without committing herself to cabbage.
After •little circumlocution, she got out the word rer•
(lure. " Verdure ?" "Ma foi,' thought, no doubt,
the waiter, "Jyperda men Latin." " Oui, verdure;
des closes rertes," went on the lady. There
was spinach and watercress. Watercress would
exactly suit; for our countrywoman remembered to
have seen it marked at the greengrocer's at • soul a
bundle, and she thought she was safe in ordering it.
It came flanked by the oil and vinegar cruets; for In
this country the ideal of cookery is to eliminate the
naharal fi scour of fish, fowl, or vegetable. Mere was
the bill for the frugal repast—Tea, if. /ioe. ; fresh
cream, If.; bread 50c ; butter. If. 2.1.; shrimps, 31. 75c.;
poached eggs, If. 25c.; pickles, 75.4; • salad of cress,
1,0 total Aec. 01 course the lady opened her
eyes very wide, remonctrotsd as well as she could with
the waiter, and appealed to ths smiling dame de
comptoir, who in the most civil manner told her that
worn people indulged in recherche food they mutt ex-
pect to Tory for It. " But surely a cup of tea and
ehrimps " Mapiame, each country has its habits; I
am ignorant of English ways, but it is • French one
to charge amateu rs snore than parsons satisfied with
ordinary dishes."