ou approach the
farthest _Boulevards_ of Paris have a very dull appearance, consisting
in many instances of high walls and habitations separated from each
other, with market gardens behind, but which cannot be seen from the
street as they are all enclosed, and grass growing here and there in
patches give them more the appearance of roads which have been
abandoned than of inhabited streets. Some of the modern parts of Paris
are extremely handsome and indeed all which has been built within the
last five-and-twenty years. The _Chaussee-d'Antin_ is the favourite
quarter; there the streets are of a fair width and are well paved, and
some very recently built are really beautiful, especially one just
finished called the _Rue Tronchet_, just behind the _Madeleine_. The
quarter round the _Place Vendome_ is certainly one of the finest in
Paris, and most decidedly the dearest. I know persons who pay fourteen
thousand francs a year for unfurnished lodgings in the _Place Vendome_,
that is 600_l._ a year; a whole house in a fashionable quarter of London
may be had for the same money; indeed on the _Boulevards_, in some of
the _Passages_ and the most fashionable streets in Paris, shops let for
more money than in any part of London; there is an instance of a single
shop letting for 600_l._ per annum, and not one of particularly
extensive dimensions, but situated on the _Boulevard Montmartre_, which
is perhaps the best position in Paris. One of the greatest attractions
is the _Passages_, something in the style of the Burlington Arcade but
mostly superior; of these there are from twenty to thirty, so that in
wet weather you may walk a considerable distance under cover.

The _Palais-Royal_, the favourite resort of foreigners and provincials,
also affords that convenience. Although Paris on the whole is not so
regularly built as London, yet there is a sombre grandeur about it which
has a fine effect, owing in some degree to the large lofty houses of
which it is composed; the straightness, width, and neatness of the
streets of London form its beauty, but it is astonishing how foreigners
when they first behold it, are struck with the small size of the houses.
I remember entering London with an Italian gentleman who had ever before
been accustomed to the large massive palaces of Genoa, Florence, etc.,
and the first remark he made upon our grand metropolis was that it
looked like a city of baby houses; another feature in our dwellings does
not