St. Landry democrat., 1880-06-05
Student Life in Paris--.The Latin Guar.
ter,


If you have map of Paris by you,
start from the Seine by the Rue DIES
Saints-P eres, across the Boulevard st.
Gcrmain, up the Rue de Renncs, easterly
and northerly along the Roulevards
Montparnasse. Port Royal, st. Marcel
and de pHospital, and along the river
back to the starting point; You will then
have made the circuit of the Latin Quar-
ter of to-day; a vast, crowded part of the
city in which the students no longer pre-
dominate, and containing heterogcne-
Gus mixture of factories, hospitals, muse
Ims and tenements, schools, monasteries
and churches. One side of this broad
district swells up into the Montagne-
Ste. -Genevieve, crowned by that most
picturesque group formed Of the dome
of the Pantheon, the irregular mass of
the Church of ST. Etienne du Mont Gin
which repOse the sacred and miracle
working bones of Ste. Genevieve, patron
saint of PARIS, and the crumbling tower
of the old Lycce Napoleon. From this
height, which commands all Paris, the
crowded labyrinth of narrow, crooked
streets and tall and ancient houses, lean
ing in picturesque confusion to north
and SOUTH east and west, slopes down
to the river, crossed and quartered by
the two elegant but prosaically modern
boulevards-St. Michel and St. German
which have let air and light into the
gloominess of narrow streets and alleys
of the quarter.
Very dear to the student-heart is this
IL Ivy, Il
matter what his tastes he is sure to find
in the cher pays latin. something to graf
fly them. If he is a lover of the pictur-
esque, what pleasure viii he take in its
tortuous streets, its leaning houses its
incomprehensible and wonderful roofs,
spotted-I had almost said spattered-
with dormers and skylights in the strang-
est confusion! Here and there he will
stumble on some Anticipated turret, Or
ancient gable: or catch little glimpses
through narrow and darkly-shaded al
leys of some church cloister or carved
portal; and SO on every side he finds
something to admire. Or if he love no.
BILE architecture, there is Notre Dame in
clear view from almost any point and
st. Etienne- du-Mont is lie most pictur-
esque church in Paris; while the Panthe-
on is the most coldly elegant and impos-
ING editice of the classic school, Here
are the trim towers and vast portico of
St. Sui pice, and in another direction is
the beautiful Hotel Cluny with its price
less museum of art and antiquities. And
the artist can hardly help spending hours
of his time gazing into the fascinating
windows of the print shops, or looking
through their portfolios, where at his
leisure he may examine photographs
and paintings, sketches by famous mas
ters,- or engravings from the brain of
Durer, or Morghien. Or Raimondi. In
these bookstores and stalls, sidewalk
booths, the book-worm will find the
works of countless dead and forgotten
authors in ponderous black-letter tones
with red edges, with quaint and edifying
dissertations on subjects that men were
once interested in, mingled with more
modern productions of every description,
text books and pamphlets, sermons and
disquisitions, essays and treatises in En-
glish, French, German, Latin, or Italian,
The student of history remembers that
here in ancient times took place those
formidable intellectual encounters be-
tween Duns ,Scotus from Britain and
Thomas from Italy; that here the friar
Bacon pondered and studied; and here
were laid the foundations of the glory of
that brilliant era which gave Louis XIV.
the title of the Sun-king, le R0i Solei,
and whose chief monument in the quarter
to-day is the Palace of the Institute of
France, which had its beginning in the
College DIES Quatre Nations established
by the Cardinal Mazarin. And perhaps
if this student be young and gay he will
sigh for the return of the early days of
the University, when it gave its name to
one-third the city, and its students were
not amenable to city laws, and no one
could arrest them for debt save the Uni
versity authorities themselves-andt they
generally would not. He forgets per-
haps that in those days gas, and side
walks, and the cafe chanta,ate and Thea
ter Cluny and the Closerie DIES Lilas, and
other similar and elevating modern inn
provements, were unknown, and daggers
were sharp, and tempers hot and quick,
and books cost small fortune. Christ
inn Union