spared
from disastrous misfortunes, and is, as it has been for many centuries,
the gayest and most animated city in Europe.

Let us take a rapid walk through the town, starting at the Place de la
Bastille, on the north bank of the Seine, where formerly stood the
fortress and prison of the Bastille. This prison was stormed and
destroyed at the commencement of the Great Revolution, on July 14, 1789,
and since that year July 14 has been the chief national festival-day. In
the middle of the square stands the July Column, and from its summit a
wonderful view of Paris can be obtained. We now follow the Rue de
Rivoli, the largest and handsomest street in Paris. On the left hand is
the Hotel de Ville, a fine public building, where the city authorities
meet, where brilliant entertainments are given, and where the galleries
are adorned with canvases of famous masters.

Farther along, on the same side, is the largest public building of the
city, the palace of the Louvre. Like the British Museum, it would
require months and years to see properly. Here are stored colossal
collections, not only of objects of art and relics from great ancient
kingdoms in Asia and Europe, but also of the finest works of European
sculptors and painters of all periods.

We walk on north-westwards through the luxuriant gardens of the
Tuileries, and stop a moment in the Place de la Concorde to enjoy the
charming views presented on all sides--the river with its quays and
bridges, the parks and avenues, the huge buildings decorated with
exquisite taste, the wide, open spaces adorned with glorious monuments,
and the never-ending coming and going of pleasure-loving Parisians and
Parisian ladies in costumes of the latest fashion.

From the Place de la Concorde we direct our steps to the Champs Elysees,
a magnificent park with a broad carriageway along which the fashionable
world rides, walks, or drives in smart carriages and motor cars. At the
northern side of the park lives the President of the Republic in the
palace of the Elysees.

If we now follow the double row of broad avenues northwards we come to
the Place de l'Etoile, a "circus" where twelve avenues of large streets
meet. One of them, a prolongation of the Champs Elysees, is named after
the grand army of Napoleon and leads to the extensive Bois de Boulogne.
In the middle of the Place de l'Etoile is erected a stately triumphal
arch, 160 feet high, in memory of Napoleon's victories.

From here we