Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1869-12-17
Notes OF Foreign Travel.
BY A CITIZEN OF INDEPENDENCE,
PARIS, August 22d,

Friend B:-We have been in Paris
nearly two weeks. We came down from
Cherbourg, where the ship arrived about
the 9th. We saw some delightful country
in the neighborhood of Bayeux, Evreuil,
Nantes, and in the vicinity of Paris, that l
have ever seen, TAR surprising in richness
of agricultural productions what We saw in
England, and being beau'i6ed by the uni
| versal presence of the vine.
Paris is the finest city in the world, and
the gayest. Since the present Emperor as
| cended the throne, he has almost rebuilt it
opening great, wide boulevards, and re-
building whole quarters Of the city-or rath-
er the owners Of the property have rebuilt
with magnificent rows OF houses, so that
some of these boulevards and streets are
the finest in the world. The houses have
large gateways, through which you enter in
to open courts, around which the houses
are built, and upon which many of the
rooms face, and all the doors open. This
gateway is in the charge of porter or con-
cierge, who has the general superinten-
| dence of the building, or is the servant Of
such superintendent, and whose business it
| is to direct visitors to the dodgers in the
thTlOuS TOOHS. loOtIS dtC IA All SaitSSS
and you can rent as many as you please,
and no one except the very rich occupy
more than part of house. Room rent in
some quarters is quite dear, the Grimeses
paying about $1,000 per year. or at that
rate, for five rooms, and great deal more
is paid. OF course you can live cheaply or
| extensively. as you please, but l am in
| clined to think that taking in considt ration
what you get, one can live about as cheaply
| in the United States as here-unless it may
be in New York or Washington. Respecta
bility costs here as there, and while you
can live here cheaply if you will, you must
expect, if you do SO, to put up with what
you wonld not put up with in the United
| States.
But Paris is a most enjoyable place. Its
boulevards are the most brilliant places
that can be imagined. They are lined with
cafes, with seats placed on the pavement,
about which men and women sit, and drink,
and eat, and watch the crowd, and are
looked at by the moving mass, which goes
laughing and Joking up and down the broad
pavement. The streets and stores are most
brilliantly lighted, and all the carriages are
compelled to carry lighted lamps, and the
vast crowd of them as they 60 fitting along
make a most brilliant panorama. The a.
mosphere seems charged with a current Of
gayetv, which you feel sensibly as soon as
you put foot in it. Every one says there is
but one Paris, and I think every one who
comes wishes that be could stay.
We have visited all the places of special
interest about the city, and they are many.
The Palace of the Tuileries and that of the
Louvre are connected, and form one vast
quadrangle, with each front, l should
think over thousand feet long, the
court within being crossed by wings or
nartlv encroached upon by projections.
The Louvre is filled with paintings, statuarv.
books, and rare historic souvenirs, which
would take very big volume even to emu
merate. But it is only one Of number Of
collectors. In the Hotel de Cluny,
the Palace of Luxembourg, the Pal.
ace of Versailles, are also vast collections,
particularly of paintings in the three pal
aces, many Of them by the old masters, and
most Of them Of great value. The Jardin
des Plants and the Jardin d'acclimation,
have rare collections of animals, birds, rep
tiles, fishes, &C., and the first vast muse
UNI of stuffed specimens in natural history,
as we'll as vast amount of rich and rare
geological and neurological specimens
Then Paris is full of splendid churches,
which we Wis ted. Notre Dame, Madelaine.
the Pantheon. St. Chapele, St Vincent de
St. Paul, St. GERMAN, Trinity. St. Angus
tine, &c. Then there are scores of great |
public buildings. like the Hotel de Vile, |
tie Invalides and Tomb of Napoleon-the |
finest mortuary monument in the world, |
the Palace of Justice, the Corps Legislatif,
the various public departments, the Palais
Royal, &c. The latter is another immense
quadrangle, one side of which is the resi-
dence of the Prince Napoleon, but most
occupied by small stores, of which there
are thousands, and mostly filled with Jew
elrv, diamonds and fancy articles, while the
two upper stories are devoted to restaurants,
&c. Then the Garden of the Tuileries and
The Palaces of Luxembourg and Versailles
are most beautiful. The latter is an hours
ride from Paris, and is one of the most
lovely spots in existence. 1t would be i'm
possible to give you any idea of the noble
arched avenues of trees, the splendid foun-
tains. the beautiful sculpture, the splendid
parterres. the charming lakes, and the won
derful Vi riety of shrnbbery which there
abound. From the Palace of the Tuiler-
les going west. we have the Garden of the
Palace; the Place de la Concerto. splen-
did open space, full of statuary, and men,
orable as the location of the gulllo;ine un.
der which fell the heads of Louis XVI,
Marie Antoinette, Madame Elizabeth, Ma.
dame Roland, Robespierrre. and thousands
of others; then the Champ d Elysee, a
broad avenue lined with several rows of
trees and many fountains, and wine aud
beer gardens, cafes cAantant, or singing
places, and along which are the Crystal
Palace and many splendid residences.
The street is paved with asphaltum, as are
all the new streets in Paris and many of
the old ones, and is as smooth as the most
nicely jointed floor. The promenade is
wide, and along its whole extent of a mile
and half are placed chairs for those who
wish to sit and watch the idle crowd saun-
tering by, or tie vast procession of car.
riages and cabs going and coming. At its
western terminus on one of the most eleva-
ted spots in the city is the Arch d Etoile,
or Arch of Triumph, one of the most SPLEEN
did structures-indeed the most splendid
arch-ancient or modern-in the world
1t is about l60 feet high and about l40
wide and perhaps nearly as deep, and COW
cred all over with sculpture and bas reliefs
the victories of the LIST
Napoleon. Then still going west, the ave-
nue. extends from the Arch to the Bots de
Boulogne couple Of miles farther, where
it enters this magnificent park, perhaps the
longest in the world, and presenting the
greatest variety of ornamented surface.
Take this whole vast section, as have i'm.
perfectly and hurriedly sketched it, and
more beautiful drive or more lovely scene,
can scarcely be imagined. On the day Of the
fete the whole space from the Tuileries to
The Arch Of Triumph, two miles at least,
was brilliantly illuminated with gas Jets
from pipes run from lamp post to lamp
post along the street, about the open spaces,
around the fountains, and wherever a
lamp post stood. The ordinary burner on
he post was taken off. and collections Of
burners, branching in all directions put on.
Every burner, too, was covered with glass
globe, and you can imagine not only how
brilliant the scene looked, but how many
globes must have been provided, and the
consequent expense. The arch surmonnt-
ing the whole was outlined with colored
glass, and surmounted by the name of Ma.
polecn, with crown above. When light
ed, the great structure looked at d distance
like some fairy palace, with the crown for