The Coolidge examiner., 1937-04-15

scarcely raising tnelr headS as
prize-seeking hoofs pound by.
The Buttes Chaumont.
Homes of the rich overlook the
Pare Monceau, but Liberty, Equal
ity, and Fraternity" obtain in the
park itself. Working people come
in from across the Boulevard de
Courcelles as well as children from
the ariStocratic Avenues Velasquez,
Ruysdael, and Van Dyke.
Strangest of the Partisan parks is
the Buttes Chaumont, laid out by
Haussmann, the boulevard builder.
on the site of the old plaster-of-P Paris
quarries. Rising in the middle Of
its artificial lake is seeming noun
tain, and surrounding verdure glori-
fieS what was once hideous hole.
1t is pleasant to think that Hauss-
mann, ruthless wrecker of medieval
buildings, could create as well as
destroy.
Baron Haussmann did to teeming
Paris what L'Enfant had done on
paper for nascent Washington,
city of new republic. Haussmann
thought in terms of boulevards, with
the result that whole regions fell
before the hammer of the auction
eer and the onslaught of the house
wrecker. But, thanks to him, mo-
torcars move. He was one of the
few road builders of his day whose
mind was broad enough for any
thing but pedestrians. His boule-
wards have brought new notes to a
city whose very cobbles have been
cemented with human blood.
Spring brings life to the parks
and visitors to the Place de POpera.
People think of the Opera as hav-
ing always stood there. Yet when
the Germans entered Paris in 1871
Carriers masterpiece was not fin
ished and the Communards, who
| wreaked their vengeance on hun
dreds of buildings, spared this splen-
did structure, down whose grand
staircase not an aristocratic evening
gown or shirt front had yet passed.
The three-acre opera and ballet
| school, library and museum is
younger than many of the specta-
tors.
In this Partisan show place, where
evening dress is again compulsory
in the best seats three nights a
week, you are quite likely to hear
Tannhauser singing German to Eliz-
abeth's French, use of harmony
which shows how far art outruns
politics. As'ballets, "Coppelia" and
"Gisela' are much beloved.
On Two Famous Streets.
From the Opera, two famous
streets lead south. The Rue de la
Paix passes Carriers jewels, Coty' S
perfumes, the Ritz, and the Hotel du
Rhin, now empty, once leased by a
Boston club for its members to use
whenever they came to Paris. The
Avenue de POpera passes Bren-
tano's and the Comedie Francaise
on its way to the Louvre.
From the Louvre broad band of
beauty-like the Mall in Washing
ton-stretches westward to the
Seine, hurdles a few smokestacks,
and continues to st. Germain, St.
Cloud, and Versailles, II miles
away.
Standing in the Place du Car
rousel and looking up that incom-
parable vista past the obelisk in the
taxi-infested Place de la Concorde,
one can almost forgive the deStruc-
tive mania of the Communards, for
it was they who, by burning the
Tuileries palace, opened this view
toward the sunsets.
The Tuileries gardens seem to
have been laid out with square and
compass. AS if fresh from beauty
shop, Paris here challenges Am I
not fair?"
Yes, more than fair, for this COM
bination of promenade and garden,
forest and art gallery, playground
and yacht pond, woos with friend
illness as we'll as artifice.
Children adore that honest artisan
Pere Guignol, who carves and
paints his puppets, including Punch
and Judy, and then gives them
voice and action in his little theater
among the trees.
Conspicuous in Paris in the spring
are the students. Paris is the Mecca
| for students from all over the world.
Near the Sorbonne or Polytechnique
one can eat soup in many languages
and curdled milk in many more.
University education, born in the
cloisters of Notre Dame, soon
spread to the Left Bank. Poor but
proud, this republic of scholars
made Paris the intellectual capital
of the Middle Ages, the leavening
pan of the Renaissance. The per-
son of student was sacred, as the
Count of Savoisy learned to his cost
when his residence was destroyed
and he was banished because his
lackeys started a brawl with the
devoteeS of Latin and learning,