From the avenue of the Mont-Riboudet, we perceive this elegant church at
the end of a row of young trees. It is built after the plans of
Lebrument and ornamented by the chisel of Jadoulle; this modern building
is distinguished by the beauty of its architecture and of its
sculptures. It was terminated and consecrated the 7th april 1781.
The front, which faces the south, is composed of a peristyle, supported
by four corinthian columns. In the pediment, above the entablature, we
perceive a bas-relief, which represents a _woman suckling children_, the
symbol of charity. The representation of this virtue could not have been
better placed, than on the front of a church adjoining the Hotel-Dieu.
The interior of the edifice is composed of a nave and two aisles, at the
upper extremity of the nave rises an arched dome, which is surmounted on
the outside by an obelisk supporting a globe.
Several costly pictures decorate the chapels. Those which are perceived
at the extremities of the two aisles are more particularly esteemed.
They are by Vincent, a distinguished painter of the french school. That
on the right represents the _cure of the blind man_; that on the left,
the _cure of the paralytic_.
The chapel of the _religiouses_ of the Hotel-Dieu, is situated behind
the high altar.
(For a description of the hospital, see farther on, the article on civil
monuments).