THE LEFT BANK AND THE RIGHT.
Paris and London--The _Rive Gauche_--The _Quartier Latin_--The
Pantheon--The Luxemburg--The School of Medicine--The School of Fine
Arts--The Bohemia of Paris--The _Rive Droite_--Paris Proper--"The West
End."
An effective contrast might be drawn between London and Paris. But,
unlike as they are in so many features, physical, moral, and historical,
they differ most widely, perhaps, by the relative parts they have played
in the history of their respective countries.
The history of Paris is the history of France itself. The decisive
battles which brought the great civil and religious wars of the country
to an end were fought outside or in the very streets of Paris. It was in
Paris that the massacre of St. Bartholomew--darkest blot on the French
annals--was perpetrated. The Revolution of 1789, again, was prepared
and accomplished in the French capital; and, thenceforth, all those
revolutions and _coups d'état_ by which the government of the country
was periodically to be changed had Paris for their scene. In England, on
the other hand, London had little or nothing to do with the battles of
the great Rebellion, the Revolution, or the two insurrections by which
the Revolution was followed.
[Illustration: THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS.]
But the English visitor to Paris is in the first place struck by
external points of dissimilarity. As regards the difference in the
structural physiognomy of the two great capitals (less pronounced now
than at one time, though Paris is still loftily, and London for the most
part dwarfishly, built), it was ingeniously remarked, some fifty years
ago, that the architecture of one city seemed vertical, of the other
horizontal.
To pass from the houses to their inhabitants, the population of Paris is
as remarkable for variety as that of London for uniformity of costume.
For in Paris almost every class has its own distinctive dress. In
England, and especially in London, the employer and his workmen, the
millionaire and the crossing-sweeper, wear coats of the same pattern.
In London, again, every work-girl, every market-woman, wears a bonnet
imitated more or less perfectly from those worn by ladies of fashion.
When Gavarni first visited London, he was astonished and amused to
see an old woman in a bonnet carrying a flower-pot on her head, and
made this grotesque figure the subject of a humorous design, with the
following inscription beneath it: "_On porte cette année beaucoup de
fleurs sur les chapeaux._"
Shop-girls and work-girls in Paris wear neat white caps instead of
ill-made, or, it may be, dilapidated bonnets; though the more aspiring
among them reserve the right of appearing in a bonnet on Sundays and
holidays. The French workman wears a blouse and a cap, and looks upon
the hat as a sign, if not of superiority, at least of pretension.
"Car moi j'ai payé ma casquette,
Et toi, tu n'as pas payé ton chapeau!"
was the burden of a song very popular with the working classes during
the revolutionary days of 1848 to 1851.
Owing to the varieties of dress already touched upon, a crowd in Paris
presents a less gloomy, less monotonous appearance than the black-coated
mobs of London; and in harmony with the greater relief afforded by the
different colours of the costumes are the animated gestures of the
persons composing the crowd. Observe, indeed, a mere group of persons
conversing on no matter what commonplace subject, or idly chatting as
they sip their coffee together on the boulevards, and they appear to be
engaged in some violent dispute.
To mention yet another point on which Paris differs from London: the
most interesting part of Paris lies on the right bank of the Seine,
whereas all that is interesting in London lies on the left bank of the
Thames.
The left bank of the Seine possesses, however, buildings and streets
of historical interest. Here, too, is the quarter of the schools: the
Quartier Latin, as it is still called, not by reason of its Roman
antiquities, which, except at the Hotel Cluny, would be sought for
in vain, but because, in the mediæval period whence the schools for
the most part date, even to comparatively modern times, Latin was
the language of the student. On the "left bank," moreover, stand the
Institute, the Pantheon or Church of Ste. Geneviève, as, according to
the predominance of religion or irreligion, it is alternately called;
the Ste. Geneviève Library, the Luxemburg Palace, with its magnificent
picture gallery, the School of Medicine, and the School of Fine Arts.
Many of the great painters, too, have their studios--often little
academies in themselves--on the left bank of the river; while among the
famous streets on the "left bank" is that Rue du Bac so often referred
to in the chronicles and memoirs of the eighteenth century. The famous
Café Procope, again, literary headquarters of the encyclopædists, stands
on what is now considered the wrong side of the water. So too does the
Odéon Theatre, once the Théàtre Français, where, in modern as well as
ancient times, so many dramatic masterpieces have been produced.
On the other hand, there is scarcely on the left bank one good hotel:
certainly not one that could put forward the slightest pretension to
being fashionable. Nor, except in the case of professional men connected
with the hospitals or the schools, would anyone mixing in fashionable
society care to give his address anywhere on the left bank.
Jules Janin, one of the most distinguished writers of his time, and one
of the most popular men in the great world of Paris from the reign of
Louis Philippe until that of Napoleon III., did, it is true, live for
years in a house close to the Luxemburg Gardens. But Janin possessed a
certain originality, and thought more of what suited himself than of
what pleased others. On one occasion, having engaged to fight a duel,
he failed to put in an appearance by reason of the inclemency of the
weather and his disinclination to get out of bed at the early hour for
which the meeting had been fixed. Such a man would not be ashamed to
live on the left bank if he happened to have found a place there which
harmonised with his tastes.
Apart, however, from all question of inclination and fashion, it is
really inconvenient to anyone who mingles in Parisian life to live on
the left bank of the Seine, remote as it is from the boulevards, the
Champs Élysées, the best hotels, the best restaurants, the best cafés,
and the best theatres.
At the same time, no sort of comparison can be established between the
transpontine districts of Paris and those of London. In London, no one
who is anyone would dream of living "on the other side of the water,"
where neither picture galleries, nor public gardens, nor artists'
studios, nor famous streets, nor great houses of business, nor even
magnificent shops are to be met with. Even Jules Janin, had he been an
Englishman, would have declined to live in the region of Blackfriars or
the Waterloo Road.
On the right bank of the Seine--the Paris West End, and something
more--we find much greater concentration than in the West End of
London. Here, indeed, all that is most important in the artistic,
financial, and fashionable life of the capital may be found within a
small compass.
The Théàtre Français is close to the Bourse, and the Bourse to the
Boulevard des Italiens, which leads to the Opera by a line along which
stand the finest hotels, the best restaurants in Paris. From the Opera
it is no far cry to the Champs Élysées, the Hyde Park of Paris; while,
going along the boulevards in the opposite direction, one comes step
by step to a seemingly endless series of famous theatres. All the best
clubs, too, all the best book-shops and music-shops, are to be found
on the most fashionable part of the boulevard, extending from the
Boulevard des Italiens, past the Opera House, to the adjacent Church of
the Madeleine: architecturally a repetition of the Bourse, as though
commerce and religion demanded temples of the same character.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: NOTRE DAME.]