various places of amusement succeed one another for miles, their character varying from the height of luxury and elegance in the western Boulevard des Italiens to the homely simplicity of the eastern Boulevards Beaumarchais and St Denis. Among the public squares or places the most noteworthy is the Place de la Concorde, which connects the Gardens of the Tuileries with the Champs-Élysées, and embraces a magnificent view of some of the finest buildings and gardens of Paris, at some of which open-air performances are given in summer. In the centre is the famous obelisk of Luxor,

covered over its entire height of 73 feet with hieroglyphics. It was brought from Egypt to France, and in 1836 placed where it now stands. On the site of this obelisk stood the revolutionary guillotine, at which perished Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Philippe Egalité, Charlotte Corday, Danton, and Robespierre. Of the other squares the following are some of the finest the Place du Carrousel, including the site of the Tuileries burned by the Commune and now completely pulled down and replaced by gardens; the Place Vendôme, with Napoleon's Column of Victory; the Place de

la Bastille, with its colonne de juillet, where once stood that famous prison and fortress; the Place Royale, with its statue of Louis XIII.; the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, formerly Place de la Grève, for many ages the scene of public executions. Triumphal arches are a feature in the architecture of Paris. The Porte St Martin and Porte St Denis were erected by Louis XIV. to commemorate his victories in the Low Countries, and are adorned with bas-reliefs representing events of these campaigns; the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile was begun by Napoleon in 1806, and completed in 1836 at a cost of more than £400,000. This arch, which bounds the Champs-Élysées, has a total height of 152 feet and a breadth of 137. It is profusely adorned with bas-reliefs and alto-reliefs, some of which, representing the departure and return of the Grande Armée, are masterpieces of sculpture.

The Seine in passing through Paris is spanned by thirty-two bridges, the latest of which, built in 1900, is the famous one-arched Pont Alexandre III. The most celebrated and ancient are the

Pont Notre Dame, erected in 1500, and the PontNeuf, begun in 1578, completed by Henri IV. in 1604. This bridge, which crosses the Seine at the north of the Île-de-la-Cité, is built on twelve arches and abuts near the middle on a small peninsula, jutting out into the river and planted with trees, that form a background to the statue of Henri IV. on horseback, placed in the central open space on the bridge. The bridges all communicate directly on both sides with spacions quays, planted with trees; together with the Boulevards, they give special characteristic beauty to the city. The bouquinistes or open-air booksellers are a special feature of those quays. During the last two centuries of the ancien régime the Pont-Neuf was the centre of Paris. It was a meeting-place of showmen and charlatans, and there popular orators addressed the mob. Early in the 12th cen tury Ogival or Gothic architecture took its rise in Paris, or the district immediately surrounding it, this event being one of the most memorable in the history of art. Unfortunately the Parisians, with

an impatience of everything not in the latest fashion, long neglected their old buildings in the style they had originated. Their Gothic churches were disfigured by incongruous additions and tawdry ornaments, which make them uninteresting if not repulsive to visitors. This remark does not apply, however, to the first two churches we shall mention. They have been admirably restored, and it is now difficult to say whether their incomparable beauty is to be more attributed to mediaval builders or to the modern architects by whom they have been renovated.

/ Among the district churches of Paris (upwards of sixty in number) the grandest and most interesting, from a historical point of view, is the cathedral of Notre Dame, which stands on a site successively occupied by a pagan temple and a Christian basilica of the time of the Merovingian kings. The main building, begun in the 12th century, is 400 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 110 high. The height of two towers is 218 feet, that of the flèche 300 feet. The interior consists of a principal and two flanking

Notre Dame: from the River.

naves, which are continued round the choir. It has been said that if the pillars of Notre Dame could speak they might tell the whole history of France. The kings, however, were crowned at Reims, and the only royal coronation celebrated at Notre Dame was that of Henry VI. of England in 1431. There, too, was sung in 1486 a memorable Te Deum when Paris was retaken by the troops of Charles VII. During the French Revolution the church was mutilated in order to destroy what were supposed erroneously to be emblems of royalty. In 1793, after childish and repulsive mockeries of the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church, it was converted into a temple of reason.' In 1804 Napoleon I., at the height of his power, resolved to impress Europe by an imposing ceremony-that of his coronation-in Notre Dame; and there it was that he, in presence of the pope, who never before had crossed the Alps at the bidding of king or emperor, placed the crown upon his own head. In 1831 the novel of Victor Hugo, Notre Dame, made the church interesting to all Europe. In France there was a general desire for its restoration, and in 1845 this great work was undertaken by the state. Viollet-le-Duc added to the building the great flèche, a structure

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of oak and lead; and under the care of some of the ablest architects of France the church was converted into what is now described in Paris as the noblest of Gothic buildings. The Sainte Chapelle, built by St Louis in 1245-48, for the reception of the various relics which he had brought from the Holy Land, is perhaps the greatest existing masterpiece of Gothic art. Restored by Napoleon III. at a cost of £50,000, it was threatened by the Commune, but saved. One of the most interesting churches in Paris is St Séverin, buried in narrow streets of the Quartier Latin. A large part of it is in the English Gothic of the 15th century, showing that it was erected during the English occupation of Paris. St-Germain-des-Prés, which is probably the most ancient church in Paris, was completed in 1163; St Étienne du Mont and St Germain l'Auxerrois, both ancient, are interesting-the former for its picturesque and quaint decorations, and for containing the tomb of Ste Geneviève (q.v.), the patron saint of Paris; and the latter for its

rich decorations and the frescoed portal, restored at the wish of Margaret of Valois. Among modern churches is the Madeleine (1806-42), built in the style of a Corinthian temple, and originally intended by Napoleon I. to be a monument to the Grande Armée. It forms an oblong building, 328 feet long by 138 wide, independently of the flights of steps. The height of the columns is 62 feet, that of the entablature 14 feet, and the entire height from the ground 116 feet. There are in all fifty-two columns. The roof is of iron and copper. The interior is elaborately decorated with gold, white marble, paintings, and sculptures; but in spite of their religious subjects the building still produces on northern eyes the impression of a pagan temple rather than of a Christian church. The Panthéon (1764) was begun as a church, but converted by the Constituent Assembly of republican France into a temple dedicated to the great men of the nation, next restored to the church by Napoleon III. and rededicated to Ste Geneviève, but once more, on the occasion of the funeral of Victor Hugo (1885), reconverted into a monument, with the old inscription 'Aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante.' The Panthéon has been spoken of as rivalling St Peter's at Rome and St Paul's in London. The frescoes of the interior are very fine. In the crypt are the tombs of Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and Zola. The Chapelle des Invalides is particularly beautiful; there lie the remains of Napoleon I. The sarcophagus, hewn from a huge block of Russian granite, is of a grandeur and solemnity of design well worthy of that great warrior. Notre Dame de Lorette, erected in 1823, is a flagrant specimen of the meretricious taste of the day; St Vincent de Paul, completed in 1844, is somewhat less gaudy and more imposing in style. Among the few Protestant churches, l'Oratoire is the largest and the best known. For the great church of Sacré Coeur at Montmartre, see SACRED HEART.

Paris abounds in places of amusement suited to the tastes and means of every class. It has upwards of forty theatres, mostly cheaper than London theatres. The leading houses are the Opéra, the Théâtre Français-chiefly devoted to classical French drama-the Opéra Comique, and the Odéon,

(q.v.), the seat of the Paris faculties of letters, science, and Protestant theology, has been rebuilt and increased in size (1899). The Sorbonne contains lecture-halls and class-rooms, and an extensive library open to the public. Near the Sorbonne is the Collège de France, where gratuitous lectures are also delivered by eminent scholars and men of letters, as well as a large number of colleges and lycées, the great public schools of France for secondary instruction, filling the Quartier Latin with huge barrack-like buildings. The Scots College stands as it did in the 17th century, five stories high, with eleven windows in a row, a good specimen of the old Paris colleges. The Ecole Polytechnique, the School of Medicine and the School of Law, the Observatory, and the Jardin des Plantes, with its great museums of natural history, lecture-rooms, and botanical and zoological gardens, are situated in the same quarter of Paris. The principal of the public libraries is that of the Rue Richelieu, called the Bibliothèque Nationale (see LIBRARY), which originated in a small collection of books placed by Louis XI. in the Louvre. It is surpassed only by the British Museum in the number of its books and manuscripts.

No city on this side of the Alps is richer than Paris in fine-art collections, and among these the museums at the Louvre stand pre-eminent. Among its chief treasures may be mentioned, in the museum of antique sculptures, the famous Venus of Milo, and in the Salon Carré the great works of the Italian, Flemish, and Spanish masters, one of which, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, La Joconde (Mona Lisa), was stolen in 1911, but was subsequently found in Italy and returned to France by the Italian government. It is impossible to do more than refer to the long succession of galleries in which are exhibited Egyptian, Assyrian, Elamitic, Greek, Roman, mediæval, and Renaissance relics and works of art. The Musée Carnavalet or historical museum of the city of Paris has been specially devoted to the collection of everything interesting connected with the municipality. On the demolition of the old houses many objects were found which formed the nucleus of the collection, which is constantly receiving large additions which make it one of the most interesting of the Paris museums. The Hôtel de Cluny contains curious relics of the arts and usages of the French people, from the earliest ages of their history to the Renaissance period. The potteries, sculptures, paintings, arms, furniture, and tapestries of the middle ages and of the 16th and 17th centuries are of the highest historical interest and value. The Museum of Artillery at the Hôtel des Invalides is devoted to arms and armour, flags and war dresses. The Musée Guimet, or 'National Museum of Religions,' includes objects used in religious ceremonies, savage, Indian, Chinese, &c. The Mint deserves notice for the perfection of its machinery; and the Gobelins (q.v.), or tapestry manufactory, may be included under the fine arts, as the productions of its looms are all manual, and demand great artistic skill. The Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, in the Rue St Martin, contains a great collection of models of machinery, and class-rooms for the instruction of workmen in all departments of applied science. The great Paris exhibitions have all left behind them important buildings. The spacious building in which the exhibition of 1878 took place was named Palace of the Trocadéro, and is now used for musical entertainments and as an architectural and ethnological museum. For the exhibition of 1889 was erected one of the most striking monuments of modern Paris, the Eiffel (q.v.) Tower, while the exhibition of 1900 left as bequests the

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Grand and the Petit Palais which the republic can justly boast of.

The fortifications, demolished in 1919-22, formed a rampart of over 22 miles. They were begun under Louis-Philippe, cost £5,500,000, and when completed entirely encircled the city except for the necessary openings for roads, for railways, for canals, and for the Seine. Long before the time of their destruction their strategic uselessness had been recognised. At the various gates was collected the octroi or town dues, an important but troublesome source of revenue to the city; the expectation that these dues would disappear with the fortifications was disappointed. On the left bank of the Seine is the Ecole Militaire, founded in 1752, and used as barracks for infantry and cavalry; it can accommodate 10,000 men and 800 horses. Near it is the Hôtel des Invalides, founded in 1670 for disabled soldiers.

Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements. The prefect of the Seine is the chief of the municipal government, and is appointed by the govern ment. There is a large municipal council, chosen by popular election. Each arrondissement has a maire and two assistant-councillors. The prefect of police is at the head of the civic guard or gendarmes, the fire-brigade, and the sergents de ville or city police, who are armed with swords and revolvers, since the spread of hooliganism (apaches) in many quarters of Paris. The cleaning, sewerage, and water-supplies of Paris are under the charge of the prefect. In some districts of the city, and in most suburban localities, there is no main sewerage system, but street improvement makes for extension. The water-supply is plentiful, though not invariably readily accessible. The street lighting is usually good, but the streets themselves, for the most part cobbled, are rough, and traffic is dangerous owing to lack of proper control. In 1818 public slaughter houses, or abattoirs, were established at different suburbs; only there are animals allowed to be slaughtered. Large cattle-markets are held near the licensed abattoirs. There are in the heart of the city numerous halles, or wholesale, and marchés, or retail markets. The principal of these is the Halles Centrales, near the church of St Eustache, covering nearly 20 acres. A striking feature of modern Paris is its anglicisation. Tea-rooms are now to be found in nearly all quarters of Paris : so are English shops with English goods. English fashion for men is considered the height of chic, and to this craze probably must be attributed the increase in music-halls, bars, and saloons in fashionable parts of the town, and the eagerness of modern Parisian youth for sports, tennis, and so forth, at various clubs in and outside the city.

History. The earliest notice of Paris occurs in Cæsar's Commentaries, in which it is described, under the name of Lutetia, as a collection of mud huts, composing the chief settlement of the Parisii, a Gallic tribe, conquered by the Romans. Lutetia soon acquired great strategic importance, due to its lines of defence-the windings and marshes of the Seine and Marne to the east and west, and the forest-clad hills on the north and south. It lay midway between the chief enemies of Rome in Gaul, the Germans on the east and the unsubdued Celts of Armorica on the west. 53 B.C., accordingly, Cæsar assembled there the delegates of the Gallic tribes, and it became an important Roman town. Two ruins of this period remain south of the Seine. One formed part of the Palais des Thermes, the abode of the Roman governors of Lutetia and afterwards of the Merovingian kings of France. The other ruin is that of the arenes or amphitheatre of the Roman city. The foundations and parts of the old wall were discovered in 1870, and since then excavations have

In