Roland Truslove and Henri de Blowitz

“ There is no elective mayor of Paris: the president of the municipal council, who is nominated by his colleagues, merely acts as chairman of their meetings. When occasion requires, the function of mayor of Paris is discharged by the prefect of Seine. The municipal council discusses and votes the budget of the city, scrutinizes the administrative measures of the two prefects and deliberates on municipal affairs in general. ”

“ This church, often imitated during the 13th and 14th centuries, is like an immense shrine in open work; its large windows contain admirable stained glass of its own date, and its paintings and sculptures (restored in the 19th century by Viollet-le-Duc) give a vivid picture of the religious beliefs of the middle ages. It has a lower storey ingeniously arranged, which served as a chapel for the palace servants. ”

“ The university and all those closely connected with it possessed the fullest rights and liberties. There was a municipal or bourgeois militia, which rendered the greatest service to Philip Augustus and St Louis, but afterwards became an instrument of revolt. The communal administration devolved on échevins or jurés, who, in conjunction with the notables, chose a nominal mayor called provost of the merchants (prévôt des marchands) . The powers of this official had been grievously curtailed in favour of the provost of Paris and his lieutenants, named by the sovereign. ”

“ The five faculties of medicine, law, science, literature and Protestant theology, and the higher school of pharmacy, form the body of faculties, the association of which is known as the University of Paris. The faculties of science and literature, together with their library, are established at the Sorbonne, which is also the seat of the académie, of which Paris is the centre, and of the École des chartes. ”

“ In art Paris has long held a leading place. The Société des Artistes français holds an annual salon or exhibition in May and June at the Palais d’Industrie. It is open to artists of all nationalities. Works are selected and awards (including the Prix de Rome) made by a jury of experts selected by the exhibitors. The society was founded in 1872, but the salon takes its name from the academy exhibitions, which, first held in the Palais Royal in 1667, were transferred to the Salon Carre in the Louvre in 1669. ”

“ Paris is poor in Romanesque architecture, which is represented chiefly in the nave and transept of St Germain-des-Prés, the choir of which is Gothic in tendency. The church, which once belonged to the celebrated abbey of St Germain founded in the 6th century, contains fine modern frescoes by Hippolyte Flandrin. The Transition style is also exemplified in St Pierre-de-Montmartre (12th century) . Besides the cathedral there are several churches of the Gothic period, the most important being St Julien-le-Pauvre, now serving as a Greek church, which is contemporary with Notre-Dame ”

“ The very day of his funeral, Paul Déroulède and Marcel Habert tried to make a coup d’état by urging General Roget to lead his troops, which had formed part of the guard of honour at the obsequies, against the Élysée. Immediately arrested and put on trial, Déroulède and Habert were acquitted by a timorous jury.
M. Émile Loubet, President of the Senate, was chosen successor to M. Félix Faure. Upon his return to Paris from the Versailles Congress, where he had been elected President of the French Republic, he was greeted by hisses and cries of “Panama!” cries in no wise justifiable. ”

“ In 508, at the return of his victorious expedition against the south, Clovis made Paris the official capital of his realm — Cathedram regni constituit, says Gregory of Tours. He chose as his residence the palace of the Thermae, and lost no time in erecting on the summit of the hill, as his future place of interment, the basilica of St Peter and St Paul, which became not long afterwards the church and abbey of St Geneviève. ”

“ Not only was the city traversed in all directions by new thoroughfares, and sumptuous houses raised or restored in every quarter, but the line of the fortifications was made in 1859 the limit of the city. The area was thus doubled, extending to 7450 hectares or 18,410 acres, instead of 3402 hectares or 8407 acres. It was otherwise with the population; to the 1,200,000 inhabitants which Paris possessed in 1858 the incorporation of the suburban zone only added 600,000.
Paris had to pay dear for its growth and prosperity under the second empire. ”

“ The huge Sorbonne buildings date from the latter years of the 19th century with the exception of the church, which belonged to the college as reconstructed by Richelieu. The astronomical observatory, through the centre of which runs the meridian of Paris, is a splendidly equipped building erected under Louis XIV., according to the designs of Claude Perrault. The École des Beaux-Arts (facing the Louvre on the left bank of the Seine) , with its interesting collections, partly occupies the site of an Augustine convent and comprises the old Hôtel Chimay. ”

“ It was under the first empire that the new series of improvements were inaugurated which have made Paris a modern city. Napoleon began the Rue de Rivoli, built along this street the wing intended to connect the Tuileries with the Louvre, erected in front of the court of the Tuileries the triumphal arch of the Carrousel, in imitation of that of Septimius Severus at Rome. In the middle of the Place Vendôme was reared, on the model of Trajan's column, the column of the Grand Army, surmounted by the statue of the emperor. ”

“ Dead meat, game, poultry, fruit, vegetables, fish and the other food-supplies have their centre of wholesale distribution at the Halles Centrales, close to the Louvre, which comprise besides a large uncovered space a number of pavilions of iron and glass covering some 10 acres. Close to the Halles is the Bourse de Commerce, which is a centre for transactions in alcohol, wheat, rye and oats, flour, oil and sugar; and a market for flour, the trade in which is more important than that in wheat, is held in the Place St Germain l’Auxerrois, sales being effected chiefly by the medium of samples. ”

“ Topography.—The development of Paris can be traced outwards in approximately concentric rings from the Gallo-Roman town on the Île de la Cité to the fortifications which now form its boundary. A line of boulevards known as the Grands Boulevards, [3] coinciding in great part with ramparts of the 14th, 16th and 17th centuries, encloses most of old Paris, a portion of which extends southwards beyond the Boulevard St Germain. ”

“ Though the Merovingian period was for art a time of the deepest decadence, Paris was nevertheless adorned and enriched by pious foundations. Mention has already been made of the abbey of St Peter, which became after the death of Clevis the abbey of St Geneviève. On the same side of the river, but in the valley, Childebert, with the assistance of Bishop St Germain, founded St Vincent, known a little later as St Germain-des-Prés, which was the necropolis of the Frankish kings before St Denis. ”

“ On the right side of the river commerce and the progress of centralization continued to attract new inhabitants, and old villages become suburbs were enclosed within the line of a bastioned first enceinte, the ramparts of Étienne Marcel being, however, still left untouched. Although Louis XIII., except during his minority, rarely stayed much in Paris, he was seldom long absent from it. His mother, Mary de' Medici, built the palace of the Luxembourg, which, after being extended under Louis Philippe, became the seat of the senate. ”

“ Markets.—The slaughter-houses, cattle-yards, and with few exceptions the markets of Paris, belong to the municipality. The chief slaughter-house is the abattoir général of La Villette, covering a space of 47 acres in the extreme north-east of the city on the bank of the Canal de l’Ourcq; adjoining it, with an area of about 55 acres, on the opposite bank of the canal, are the municipal cattle-yards and markets, which have accommodation for many thousands of animals, and are connected with the Ceinture railway so that the cattle-trucks are brought straight into the market. ”

“ In obedience to public opinion a great sortie was undertaken; this, in fact, was the only alternative to a surrender; for, the empire having organized everything in expectation of victory and not of disaster, Paris, insufficiently provisioned for the increase of population caused by the influx of refugees, was already suffering the horrors of famine. ”

“ None of these works were completed till the time of the empire. It was also in the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV., and under the first republic, that the quarter of La Chaussée d'Antin was built.
The history of Paris during the Revolutionary period is the history rather of France, and to a certain extent of the whole world (see France: History; French Revolution; and the articles on the Jacobins and other clubs) . During the Consulate hardly anything of note took place at Paris except the explosion of the infernal machine directed against Bonaparte on the 24th of December 1800. ”

“ In addition, there are other provision markets in various quarters of the city, owned and supervised by the municipality, as well as numerous flower-markets, bird-markets, a market for horses, carriages, bicycles and dogs, &c. Two fairs are still held in Paris—the foire aux jambons in the Boulevard Richard Lenoir during Holy week, and the foire au pain d'épices in the Place de la Nation and its vicinity at Easter time. Market and market-places are placed under the double supervision of the prefect of Seine and the prefect of police. ”

“ If the city on the left side of the river neither extended its circuit nor increased its population, it began in the 16th century to be filled with large mansions (hôtels) , and its communications with the right bank were rendered easier and more direct when Henry IV. constructed across the lower end of the island of La Cité the Pont Neuf, which, though retaining its original name, is now the oldest bridge in Paris. ”

“ Of the faubourgs of Paris those to the north and east are mainly commercial (Faubourgs St Denis, St Martin, Poissonnière) or industrial (Faubourgs du Temple and St Antoine) in character, while to the west the Faubourg St Honoré, the Champs Élysées and the Faubourg St Germain are occupied by the residences of the upper classes of the population. The chief resorts of business and pleasure are concentrated within the Grands Boulevards, and more especially on the north bank of the Seine. ”

“ Attached to the ministry of commerce and industry are the École centrale des arts et manufactures for the training of industrial engineers, works managers, &c.; the Conservatoire des arts et métiers, which has a rich museum of industrial inventions and provides courses in science as applied to the arts. ”

“ The conseils de prud’hommes settle differences between workmen and workmen, or between workmen and masters; the whole initiative, however, rests with the parties. There are four of these bodies in Paris (for the metal trades, the chemical trades, the textile trades and building industries) , composed of an equal number of masters and men. The tribunal of commerce, sitting in a building opposite the Palais de Justice, is composed of business men elected by the “notables” of their order, and deals with cases arising out of commercial transactions ”

“ South of the Seine are the Place St Michel, adorned with a monumental fountain, and one of the great centres of traffic in Paris; the Carrefour de l’Observatoire, with the monument to Francis Jarnier, the explorer, and the statue of General Ney standing on the spot where he was shot; the Place du Panthéon; the Place Denfert Rochereau, adorned with a colossal lion symbolizing the defence of Belfort in 1871; the Place St Sulpice, with a modern fountain embellished with the statues of the preachers Bossuet, Fénelon, Massillon and Fléchier ”

“ The Palais Royal, built by Richelieu about 1630 and afterwards inhabited by Anne of Austria, the regent Philip II. of Orleans and Philippe Égalité, is now occupied by the Council of State and the Théâtre Français. The Palace of the Luxembourg stands on the site of a mansion belonging to Duke Francis of Luxembourg, which was rebuilt by Marie de Medici, wife of Henry IV. The architect, Salomon Debrosse, was ordered to take the Pitti Palace at Florence as his model, but notwithstanding the general plan of the building is French. ”

“ Germany alone confined her co-operation to the display of some paintings. The Shah of Persia, in honour of whom splendid fêtes were organized, and the King of Greece, the Prince of Wales, the Lord Mayor of London, several Russian grand dukes, Annamite, Tunisian, Moorish, Egyptian and African princes successively visited the Exhibition. There were 30,000,000 visitors. On the 18th of August a banquet was given in the Palais de l'Industrie by the Paris Municipal Council to all the mayors in France, and 15,000 of these officials were present. ”

“ Certain parts of Paris lie too low for their drains to run into the main sewers, and special elevators are required to raise the sewage of the districts of Bercy, Javel and the Cité. The sewers are used as conduits for water-pipes, gas-pipes, telegraph and telephone wires and pneumatic tubes.
Lighting.—Gas-lighting in Paris is in the hands of a company whose operations are supervised and directed by municipal engineers. The company pays to the municipality an annual sum of £8000 for the privilege of laying pipes in the streets and 2 centimes for every cubic metre of gas consumed ”

“ Population.—Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements. Only the first twelve belonged to it previous to 1860; the others correspond to the old suburban communes then annexed. The first four arrondissements occupy the space on the right of the river, extending from the Place de la Concorde to the Bastille, and from the Seine to the line of the Grands Boulevards; the 5th, 6th and 7th arrondissements lie opposite them on the left side; the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th surround the first four arrondissements on the north ”