THERE is a Wall which encompasses Paris, of about twelve feet high and
two feet thick, about nine miles long on the North side, and five on
the South side; this was built just before the Revolution, and was
intended to prevent goods from being smuggled into Paris. On the North
side are thirty-six barriers, and on the other side eighteen; of these
fifty-four I saw only ten. They were intended for the officers of the
customs; at present they are used as guardrooms. Most of them are
magnificent buildings, of white stone, some like temples, others like
chapels; several of these are described in the new _Paris Guides_; but
views of none of them have as yet been engraven.[4]
[Note 4: The _Rotunda D'Orleans_, in this wall, at the back of the
gardens of the _ci-devant_ Duke of that name is worthy of observation.]
A bridge of white stone was just finished and opened for the passage of
carriages; it was begun in 1787, it is of five arches, the centre arch
is ninety-six feet wide, the two collateral ones eighty-seven feet each,
and other two seventy-eight, each of these arches forms part of a
circle, whose centre is considerably under the level of the water; it is
thrown over the river from the _Place de Louis XV._ to the _Palais
Bourbon_.
The _Champ de la Federation_, formerly _Champ de Mars_, is a field which
served for the exercises of the pupils of the Royal Military School; it
is a regular parallelogram of nine hundred yards long, and three hundred
yards broad, exclusive of the ditches by which it is bounded, and of the
quadruple rows of trees on each side; but if these are included the
breadth is doubled. At one extremity is the magnificent building
above-mentioned,[5] and the river runs at the foot of the others. In
this field is formed the largest _Circus_ in the world, being eight
hundred yards long and four hundred broad; it is bordered by a slope of
forty yards broad, and of which the highest part is ten feet above the
level ground; the lower part is cut into thirty rows, gradually elevated
above each other, and on these rows or ridges a hundred and sixty
thousand persons may fit commodiously; the upper part may contain about
a hundred and fifty thousand persons standing, of which every one may
see equally well what is doing in the _Circus_. The National
confederation was first held here, 14th July, 1790, and at that time a
wooden bridge was thrown on boats over the river for convenience.
[Note 5: In 1788 the school was suppressed, the scholars were placed
in the army, or in country colleges, and the building is intended, when
the necessary alterations are completed, to be one of the four hospitals
which are to replace that of the _Hôtel-Dieu_. This hospital is in such
a bad situation, being in the midst of Paris, that a quarter of the
patients die. It contains only two thousand beds; each of the four new
hospitals is to contain twelve hundred beds.]
Of the _Bastille_ nothing remains but the foundations; it was demolished
and levelled with the ground in about eleven months; the expences at the
end of the first three months amounted to about twenty thousand pounds
sterling. The materials were sold for half that sum, and the nation paid
the remainder. And on the 14th of July, 1790, the anniversary of the day
of its having been taken, a long mast was erected in the middle of the
place where it stood, crowned with flowers and ribbands, and bearing
this simple and expressive inscription; _Ici on Danse_. Here is
dancing.