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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 77

Chapter VII. — Gay Paris

Chapter VII.

Gay Paris.

Before leaving New Zealand we had made up our minds to visit, if possible, the French capital. Leaving Scotland, we now set out on [unclear: r] way to Paris. But previously in making arrangements, we defied to place ourselves in the hands of Cook's Tourist Agency. Their head office is in London, with, as everyone knows, branches all over the world. This plan may be rather more expensive, but it is thoroughly satisfactory, especially when the time is limited and the language unknown. We paid a lamp sum in London. This included English railway, steamer, French railway. hotel bill, and carriage drives.

Leaving London at 9 o'clock at night, we reached New haven in about two hours. The Channel steamers, built to [unclear: arry] about 100 passengers, travel at a great pace.

We reached Dieppe, the French seaport. at 3 in the morning. Early though it was, our things were soon inspected by the Customs' officers, and after getting some breakfast we started by train for Paris, passing on our way the old town of Rouen. The country we were speeding through is not nearly so find as that which most parts of England can show, while the cattle, sheep, and horses are a long way inferior. Near Rouen, as early as 5 o'clock in the morning, we saw great crowds of workpeople going to their daily toil in the factories. By 7 o'clock we had reached Paris. The first thing was to find our hotel, the "London and New York." At last, by showing a policeman the printed address, he pointed out the building. Here we found English-speaking people from all parts of the world. Staying there was a professor in a Scotch University, who assured us that his experience of wide travelling in Europe led him to see that the English language was becoming so generally known that in fifty years' time it would not be necessary to be familiar with any other—for purposes of travel.

Cook's Agency have a number of conveyances, each carrying about 30 passengers (nearly all English-speaking people), taking whole day excursions around Paris.

Through the summer months there is a constant stream of these tourists.

A great feature of the throbbing daily life of this gay city is its cafes, or restaurants. How to live outside in the open air the French know to perfection. In summer small tables for four people stand out often half-way across the pavement. Each cafe will provide 20 or 30 such tables. Numbers of Parisians make a rule of spending half an hour when business is over smoking cigarettes, sipping coffee, and listening to music at their favourite restaurant. Throughout the evening there is a scene of great animation and gaiety. If London can be seen to advantage from the top of a 'bus, an hour at one of these tables affords a fine chance of studying Parisian life. It is said that the annual amount of wine sold in this city is 100 million gallons, yet it should be added that during our stay we came across no one the worse for drink.

The omnibus and tramway systems are admirable. Both trams and railway are worked by electricity. Several of the railways are underground, and rival, if they do not excel, the London Underground and "Twopenny Tube" railways. Travellers can get swiftly and cheaply to almost any part of Paris by these lines. Another cheap and pleasant way of travelling is by the river; it must be understood that the Seine runs right through the city, and that there is a fine steamboat service. The river is spanned by forty bridges, the finest Port Alexander III., whose foundation stone was laid by that Emperor in 1896, commemorating the alliance between France and Russia. No other bridge crosses the river in one span. It is 360 yards long and 130 wide.

Among specimens of fine architecture are churches. Although religion sits lightly on the Parisians, there are plenty of places of worship. About twenty of these are English, all of our leading denominations being represented. The Salvation Army has not succeeded to the page 14 same extent as the McAll mission, the latter especially being a great evangelistic power.

In the Roman Catholic churches fine organs and excellent music can always be reckoned on. The great Notre Dame Cathedral has the second largest organ in the world. Strange to say, Sydney, New South Wales, has the largest, or had up to the time of the St. Louis Exhibition. Prodigious sums of money are expended in decorating the interiors of the finer churches with carvings and pictures. A carving representing the Last Judgment, another the Burial of the Virgin, both superb works of art, are in this Notre Dame. This cathedral, founded in 1103, is capable of holding 20,000 people. Amongst its relics are said to be fragments of the Crown of Thorns, and a nail from the true Cross. In 1793, during the first revolution, the terrible edict went forth that this glorious pile of buildings was to be destroyed. To the gain of piety and art the order was rescinded; but Notre Dame has had its vicissitudes—it was then turned into a Temple of Reason. Restored by Napoleon in 1802, by the Communists in 1871 it was used as a military depot. Afterwards these vandals tried to burn it.

Perhaps the finest church is the Madeleine. It, too. in its chequered career has had painful reminiscences of war—of civil war. In that same fatal year, 1871, it was held by the Communists against the Government. Bullet marks are still plainly seen. When the Versailles army finally prevailed some hundreds of these Communists were bayoneted in the very church itself.

Amongst the many buildings to arrest attention is the Grand Opera House. It is the largest in the world, and covers nearly three acres. Five hundred houses were pulled down to make room for it. The material with which it is built was gathered from every country in Europe. It cost £1,500,000. It may be mentioned that our guide (part of Cook's contract) was a Dutchman, speaking nearly all the languages of Europe, including "first-class English." He next took us to the Place de Concord, a great square. In its centre is the obelisk of Luxon (sister obelisk to Cleopatra's Needle, now in London). This obelisk, placed there in 1830, is a solid piece of stone 76ft high, and weighs 240 tons. It is erected on a granite block weighing 96 tons. It stands on the spot where the guillotine was fixed which, in 1793, finished the earthly life of King. Queen and 2000 citizens. In this square there are eight fine statues, representing the chief towns of France; the one in honour of Strasburg, which became German after the war in 1871, is draped in mourning once a year. Here in this square foreign armies have three times encamped, and amongst them the English in 1815. It is well worth seeing at night, when it is lit by innumerable jets of gas.

"Now," said our guide, "for the palace of the French President." Built in 1718, it has been occupied by every ruler of France since that time. The last royal personage to enter it was the German Emperor, in 1871. while his armies were in Paris. After that we visited the Eiffel Tower, known as "The Nightmare of Paris." Its height, 985 feet, leaves all other constructions in the world 430 feet lower than itself. It is a lattice work of steel. What is its appearance? In shape, at any rate, rather like a great tree with all its branches stripped off. On this tower are three platforms, the first about the height of St. Paul's Cathedral. London. Visitors by the hundred congregate here. For their convenience are various shops, restaurants and cafes—and. in fact, on all three platforms, even of the third, which is 863 feet high, there is a theatre, and a post office. Think of the roaring trade therein carried on in post cards despatched to friends in all parts of the earth, with the Eiffel Tower post mark stamped large on them. The city below, creeping, so to say, all round the tower, and then outwards, and still again inwards, looks like a map. When the light is favourable the country for fifty miles round can easily be distinguished. A hydraulic lift takes visitors right to the top; return fare 2/6. Should anything break in connection with the lift, what happens? Nothing. It is impossible that there should be a fall of more than a few inches.

From the Tower one thing caught our gaze—the fortifications of the city. In the past a wall 33 feet high, with a moat 18 feet deep, extended for 45 miles round the city. Modern military conditions have rendered all this obsolete. The present defences have been built further out. There is an impression amongst Englishmen that they are tremendously strong, and that the French artillery is the best in the world. The largest and page 15 strongest fort is Mount Valerien. it [unclear: used] great destruction amongst the [unclear: German] invaders in 1871, and when, as sequel to this invasion, there was [unclear: ongst] the French themselves that body struggle between anarchy and Government. this fort helped to decide a the interests of order.