THEATERS AND PLACES OF AMUSEMENT.--Paris has numerous theaters. The
leading houses are the Opéra, the Théâtre Français--chiefly devoted to
classical French drama--the Opéra Comique and the Odéon, which receive a
subvention from government. The new opera house, completed in 1875,
cost, exclusive of the site, five million, six hundred thousand dollars.
Montmartre is the center of the bohemian life of Paris, and contains
many _cafés_ and places of amusement. It has upwards of forty theaters.
LATIN QUARTER AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.--The chief institutions connected
with the University of France, and with education generally, are still
situated in the Quatier Latin.
The Sorbonne, the seat of the Paris faculties of letters, science, and
Protestant theology, has been rebuilt and increased in size. The
Sorbonne contains lecture-halls and class-rooms, and an extensive
library open to the public. There gratuitous lectures are given and
degrees are granted by the University of France.
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.
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, are situated in the same quarter of Paris.
The principal public library is Bibliothèque Nationale, which originated
in a small collection of the books placed by Louis XI. in the Louvre.
INDUSTRIES OF PARIS.--Paris cannot be described as a manufacturing town.
Its chief and peculiar industries produce articles which derive their
value not from the cost of the material, but from the skill and taste
bestowed on them by individual workmen. They include jewelry, bronzes,
artistic furniture, and decorative articles known as articles de Paris.
In consequence of the intelligence and taste required in their trades
the Paris workmen are in many respects superior to the machine hands of
manufacturing cities.
[Illustration: =STAIRWAY OF HONOR, GRAND OPERA HOUSE=]
=Versailles= (_vér-sālz´_ Fr. pron. _ver-säy´_), is situated eleven
miles west-southwest of Paris. It contains a famous royal palace, a
great part of which is now occupied by the Museum of French History,
consisting of paintings; but some of the apartments are still preserved
with the fittings of a royal residence. The chapel is well proportioned
and sumptuous. The great gallery, called the Galerie des Glaces, is one
of the finest rooms existing; it is two hundred and forty by thirty-five
feet, and forty-two feet high, adorned with mirrors and gilding, and
with ceiling-paintings by Lebrun representing the triumphs of Louis XIV.
Here King William of Prussia was proclaimed German emperor in 1871. The
council-chamber, the bedroom of Louis XIV., the antechamber of the Mil
de Boeuf, the Petits Apartements of the queen, and the theater are all
historic and highly interesting.
The gardens are the finest of their kind. They abound with monumental
fountains profusely adorned with groups of sculpture, and supplied the
model for those of half the palaces of Europe.
=St. Denis= (_saṅ-dė-nē´_), two and one-half miles north of the
fortifications of Paris, is chiefly notable for its abbey church, the
historic burial-place of the kings of France. Dagobert built the church,
which was the nucleus of one begun by Pepin, finished by Charlemagne in
775, and demolished and a larger one built on its ruins four hundred
years later. During the Revolution the church was pillaged. It was
restored by Viollet-le-Duc. Here Charlemagne was anointed; the Oriflamme
was kept; Abélard dwelt; Joan of Arc hung up her arms; Henri IV. abjured
Protestantism; and Napoleon I. was married to Marie Louise. The bones of
the kings of France from Dagobert (630) to Louis XV. (1774) were buried
here; and the mad Revolutionists tore them from their tombs, and buried
them in a common ditch. They are now in the crypt, and superb royal
monuments adorn the church, whose interior is lighted by splendid
stained windows, and enriched with mosaics and statuary.
Among the monuments of greatest interest are those of Frédégonde,
Dagobert, Pepin, Charlemagne, Clovis II., Charles Martel, Henry II.,
Catherine de Médicis, Francis I., Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Henry
IV., Louis XII., and Louis XIV.
Of the 167 sepulchral monuments, 53 are new or were brought from other
churches. In 1817, Louis XVIII. caused the remains of Louis XVI. to be
removed from the Madeline cemetery to St. Denis.
[Illustration: =THE EIFFEL TOWER=
Contains three stories, reached by a series of elevators. The platform
at the summit is nine hundred and eighty-five feet above the ground. It
cost about one million dollars.]
=Fontainebleau= (_Fong´tehn-blȯ´_), near the Seine’s left bank,
thirty-seven miles southwest of Paris, is chiefly famous for its royal
château, and the beautiful forest that surrounds it. The château, said
to have been founded by Robert the Good toward the end of the tenth
century, was rebuilt in 1169 by Louis VII., and enlarged by Louis XI.
and his successors. After being allowed to fall into decay, it was
repaired and embellished by Francis I., Henry IV., Napoleon I., and
Louis-Philippe.
[Illustration: =PETIT TRIANON, VERSAILLES=
This beautiful little palace was the favorite residence of the
unfortunate Marie Antoinette, after Louis XVI. came to the throne of
France. It is now a museum of the personal relics of this beautiful and
ill-fated Queen.]
=Barbizon= (_Bar-bee-song´_), is close to the Forest of Fontainebleau.
It is a great artists’ resort, and was the home and death-place of
Millet. Corot, Diaz, Daubigny, and Rousseau were other members of the
“Barbizon School” of painters.
=Chief Industrial Centers.=--Textile manufactures are the most important
of the mechanical industries of France.
_Lyons_, the third city of France, at the junction of the Saône with the
Rhone, is the center of the silk-growing region and the metropolis of
the _silk manufactures_, in which the country stands unrivalled. _St.
Etienne_ (146,000), southwest of Lyons, comes second to it in this
manufacture, after which come _Nimes_, near the delta of the Rhone,
_Tours_, on the Loire, and _Paris_. Inland trade and manufactures in the
south are most active at ancient _Toulouse_, on the Garonne, and at
_Montpellier_, near the Rhone delta.
_Woolen, linen, and cotton manufactures_ are almost entirely confined to
the northern region. Foremost among these manufacturing towns of the
north stands _Lille_, with its neighbor towns of _Roubaix_ and
_Tourcoing_, still nearer the Belgian manufacturing region; and
_Cambrai_, _Douai_, _Valenciennes_, and _St. Quentin_, southeast of it.
_Rouen_, on the Seine in Normandy, and _Amiens_, on the Sommer, between
Rouen and Lille, _Reims_, in the Champagne district, _Sedan_, on the
Ardennes and _Nancy_, in French Lorraine, still farther east, are the
other chief manufacturing towns of the northern region.
At _Sèvres_, southwest of Paris, are the chief _porcelain_ factories,
which give the models and take the lead in this industry. _Limoges_ is
also a noted center of porcelain manufacture.
_Glass_ is very extensively made in the northern departments. Paris
itself excels in every kind of luxurious and fanciful manufacture.
_Besançon_, the largest town near the frontier of Switzerland, is a
great depot for the produce of the French half of that country, and
manufactures watches largely.
The mining industries of France are comparatively limited. _Coal_ is
drawn chiefly from the _basin of Valenciennes_, which continues the
Belgian coalfield on the north, from the basin of the Loire and Rhone,
and from that of _Creuzot_, on the south of the heights of the Côte
d’or. Iron occurs in eleven districts and is of excellent quality, but
generally lies distant from the fuel necessary to smelt it, so that this
metal must also be imported in large quantity. _St. Etienne_, southwest
of Lyons, is the most noted center of the French hardware manufactures,
especially of guns and machinery; _Le Creuzot_, in the midst of its coal
basin, has also noted ironworks.
The trade of France is only inferior to that of Britain, Germany, and
the United States; the position of the country, with coasts on three of
the most frequented seas, is exceedingly favorable to its commerce. The
great seats of maritime traffic with all the world are _Marseilles_, on
the Mediterranean coast; _Bordeaux_ and _Nantes_, with _St. Nazaire_, on
the coast of the Bay of Biscay; _Le Havre_ (at the mouth of the Seine),
_Boulogne_, _Calais_, and _Dunkerque_, on the English Channel. All of
these may in a sense be called the harbors of the central point of the
life of the state, luxurious _Paris_.
=Naval and Military Centers.=--The naval arsenals of France, dockyards,
and stations of the fleet, are at _Cherbourg_ and _Brest_, on the
northwest coast; _L’Orient_ and _Rochefort_ (south of La Rochelle) on
the Bay of Biscay; and _Toulon_, on the Mediterranean. _Nice_ and
_Cannes_, on the Riviera, are favorite winter resorts.
France has more than one hundred fortified places; indeed almost every
town along the northern and northeastern border is a fortress.
_Briançon_, the highest town in the country, in the Alps, south of the
pass of Mont Cenis into Italy, is the chief arsenal and depot of this
mountain barrier, and is considered impregnable.