This is the name given to the promenades with which Paris is, in
part, surrounded for an extent of six thousand and eighty-four
toises.
They are distinguished by the names of the _Old_ and the _New_. The
_Old_, or _North Boulevards_, commonly called the _Grands
Boulevards_, were begun in 1536, and, when faced with ditches, which
were to have been dug, they were intended to serve as fortifications
against the English who were ravaging Picardy, and threatening the
capital. Thence, probably, the etymology of their name; _Boulevard_
signifying, as every one knows, a bulwark.
However this may be, the extent of these _Old_ Boulevards is two
thousand four hundred toises from the _Rue de la Concorde_ to the
_Place de la Liberté_, formerly the site of the Bastille. They were
first planted in 1660, and are formed into three alleys by four rows
of trees: the middle alley is appropriated to carriages and persons
on horseback, and the two lateral ones are for foot-passengers.
Here, on each side, is assembled every thing that ingenuity can
imagine for the diversion of the idle stroller, or the recreation of
the man of business. Places of public entertainment, ambulating
musicians, exhibitions of different kinds, temples consecrated to
love or pleasure, Vauxhalls, ball-rooms, magnificent hotels, and
other tasteful buildings, &c. Even the coffee-houses and taverns here
have their shady bowers, and an agreeable orchestra. Thus, you may
always dine in Paris with a band of music to entertain you, without
additional expense.
The _New_ Boulevards, situated to the south, were finished in 1761.
They are three thousand six hundred and eighty-three toises in extent
from the _Observatoire_ to the _Hôtel des Invalides_. Although laid
out much in the same manner as the _Old_, there is little resemblance
between them; each having a very distinct appearance.
On the _New Boulevards_, the alleys are both longer and wider, and
the trees are likewise of better growth. There, the prospect is
rural; and the air pure; while cultivated fields, with growing corn,
present themselves to the eye. Towards the town, however, stand
several pretty houses; little theatres even were built, but did not
succeed. This was not their latitude. But some skittle-grounds and
tea-gardens, lately opened, and provided with swings, &c. have
attracted much company of a certain class in the summer.
In this quarter, you seldom meet with a carriage, scarcely ever with
persons sprucely dressed, but frequently with honest citizens,
accompanied by their whole family, as plain in their garb as in their
manners. Lovers too with their mistresses, who seek solitude, visit
this retired walk; and now and then a poor poet comes hither, not to
sharpen his appetite, but to arrange his numbers.
Before, the revolution, the _Old_ Boulevards, from the _Porte St.
Martin_ to the _Théâtre Favart_, was the rendezvous of the
_élegantes_, who, on Sundays and Thursdays, used to parade there
slowly, backward and forward, in their carriages, as our belles do in
Hyde Park; with this difference, that, if their admirers did not
accompany them, they generally followed them to interchange
significant glances, or indulge in amorous parley. I understand that
the summer lounge of the modern _élegantes_ has, of late years, been
from the corner of the _Rue Grange Batelière_ to that of the _Rue
Mont-Blanc_, where the ladies took their seats. This attracting the
_muscadins_ in great numbers, not long since obtained for that part
of the Boulevard the appellation of _Petit Coblentz_.
Nearly about the middle of the North Boulevard stand two edifices,
which owe their erection to the vanity of Lewis XIV. In the
gratification of that passion did the _Grand Monarque_ console
himself for his numerous defeats and disappointments; and the age in
which he lived being fertile in great men, owing, undoubtedly, to the
encouragement he afforded them, his display of it was well seconded
by their superior talents. Previously to his reign, Paris had several
gates, but some of these being taken down, arcs of triumph, in
imitation of those of the Romans, were erected in their stead by
_Louis le Grand_, in commemoration of his exploits. And this too, at
a time when the allies might, in good earnest, have marched to Paris,
had they not, by delay, given Marshal Villars an opportunity of
turning the tide of their victories on the plain of Denain. Such was
the origin of the