_June 17th._--No sooner were we out of bed than there came several men
before our windows, and played tunes. One man came into the street
with a fiddle, which he played on, made grimaces, and jumped about as
if he were crazy. He was a most extraordinary-looking creature; he
was dressed like a merry-andrew, with a white wig and a queue on his
head; if one had seen him in England one would have thought he was mad.
While he was capering about, another man came into the street with a
puppet-show; he put a table on the ground, and made first some men
and women, and then a carriage, go round it[24] In the middle of the
day we walked in the gardens of the Tuileries, which were excessively
crowded, and through the square of the Louvre. It is the most beautiful
thing of the kind I ever saw; I think it is a much more magnificent
palace than that of Versailles. It is beautifully carved round every
window and door, and excessively white and clean-looking. I altogether
admired this palace, and the Colonne de la Place Vendôme, the most of
any of the buildings in Paris. In the evening I walked with papa on
the boulevards as far as the Fontaine de Bondy, which was not playing.
It was dark when we came back, and the boulevards were crowded with
people. The cafés were lighted up, and were full of people sitting
taking refreshments. There were stalls like a fair, puppet-shows, and
conjurers. I never saw anything so unlike Sunday.[25]
[Illustration : FRENCH PUPPET SHOW]