CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME. Pirtff - AY, PEEPS AT GREAT CITIES PARIS MARGERY WILLIAMS WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR ALLAN STEWART LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK IQIO CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. PARIS, .... II. FIRST IMPRESSIONS ...... 6 III. FRENCH HOUSES . . . . . . 3 IV. SOME EVERYDAY TYPES . . . . . l8 V. IN THE STREETS ...... 3 VI. A PARIS MARKET ...... 7 VII IN THE GARDENS . . . . . - 33 via. IN THE GARDENS continued . . . .38 IX. FRENCH CHILDREN 4 2 X. THE SEINE ....... 45 XL CHRISTMAS IN PARIS . . . . . 5 1 XII. STUDENTS AND THE STUDENT QUARTER . - 55 XIII. THE BOIS ....... 6O XIV. THE BOIS continued ...... 66 XV. A PARIS CR CHE ...... 7 XVI. THE BABIES OF PARIS . . . . . - 74 XVII, HOLIDAYS AND F TE8 . . . . . .78 XVIII. ROUND ABOUT PARIS ...... 83 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALLAN STEWART CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME . . . frontispiece FACING PAOK A COCHER . Viil A KIOSK 9 AN OPEN-AIR RESTAURANT . . ., . 1 6 CHAMPS-ELYStfES AND THE ARC DE TRIOMPHK, . 2 THE FLOWER MARKET, - 3 2 CHILDREN IN THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS . .,4 FEEDING THE SPARROWS IN THE TUILERIES GARDENS . 48 A STREET IN OLD PARIS, ST. GERMAIN . ., 57 PONT ALEXANDRE III .64 THE SEINE AND iLE DE LA CITf FROM THE PONT DU CARROUSEL . . . . . . . - 73 A CORNER IN THE BOIS 80 A Picture Plan of Central Paris inside front cover. vn PARIS CHAPTER I PARIS EVERY great city in the world, from Troy downwards, has been beloved by its own inhabitants, but there is, perhaps, no city so much loved by the inhabitants of other countries as Paris. Nearly everyone who has ever visited it falls under its charm, and to all who have at one time or another lived there its name brings up happy recollections. Paris is cosmopolitan it has drawnto itself people from all over the world, of every race and nationality., and yet it has remained in itself curiously uninfluenced. In spite of all the improvements and alterations made during the last hundred years, of the vast number of visitors who come there yearly, and of its own extensive foreign population, Paris is as characteristically French to-day as it was in the time of the Revolution. The real spirit of the city has remained unchanged, and it is largely through preserving its own character intact that it appeals so strongly to the people of other lands. Paris does not set itself to imitate other cities. It has its own manners and customs, its own ways of doing things, and you must take it as it is. If you PA I I Paris find some inconveniences, 7011 will put up with them for the sake of all else that Paris gives you its beau tiful streets and gardens, its museums, its art galleries, its theatres, and amusements. Paris is one of the richest cities in the world, and its wealth is added to constantly by the numbers who come here on business or pleasure. It is the visitor who supports very largely the commerce of the city. Fortunes are spent here yearly in clothes alone, for Paris has always been the centre of the worlds fashions. From all over the globe people who have money to spend come to Paris to spend it. In a sense it is the playground of other nations, for in no other city is the pleasure-seeker so catered for at every turn. To pass along the Grand Boulevard of an evening, at an hour when the audiences are dispersing from the theatres, and every cafe and restaurant is a blaze of lights, one might well imagine that the majority of people here had no other aim than toamuse them selves. Gaiety is in the very air of Paris, and relaxa tion, after the days business is over, is an actual necessity to countless hundreds. Nowhere else do people work so hard or enjoy themselves so whole heartedly. It has been said that to the Parisian home has no meaning, that he spends his leisure time preferably at the cafe or on the street. This is only partly true, and it must be remembered that French people are by nature of a much more sociable temperament than the English...