THE new church of _Sainte Genevieve_ was begun in 1757; but the building
was discontinued during the last war; in 1784 it was resumed, and is at
present almost finished. The whole length of the front is thus inscribed
in very large gilt capitals: _Aux grands hommes: la Patrie
reconnoissante_. To great men: their grateful country. And over the
entrance: _Pantheon Français. L'An III de la Liberté_.
As to the size of Paris, I saw two very large plans of that city and of
London, on the same scale, on which it was said, that Paris covered
5,280,000 square _Toises_, and London only 3,900,000. A _Toise_ is two
yards; and from the plan it appeared to be near the truth.
The new buildings which surround the garden of the Palais Royal form a
parallelogram, that for beauty is not to be matched in Europe. They
consist of shops, coffee-houses, music rooms, four of which are in
cellars, taverns, gaming-houses, &c. and the whole square is almost
always full of people. The square is 234 yards in length, and 100 in
breadth; the portico which surround it consists of 180 arches.
The celebrated _Jacobins_ are a club, consisting at present of about
1300 members, and so called, because the place of meeting is in the
hall which was formerly the library of the convent of that name, in the
_Rue St. Honoré_, about 300 yards distant from the National Assembly.
The proper name of the club is, _Society of the Friends of the
Constitution_. There are three or four other societies of less note.
The _Quai_, which was formerly called _des Theatins_ is at present named
_Quai Voltaire_, in honor of that philosopher, who died there in the
house of the Marquis de _Villette_, in 1778.
The street which was formerly called _Platriere_, and in which the
general post-office is situated, is called _Rue Jean Jaques Rousseau_,
in honour of this writer, who resided some time in this street. I found
him here in 1776, and he copied some music for me; he had no other books
at that time than an English _Robinson Crusoe_ and an Italian _Tasso's
Jerusalem_. He died 1st July, 1778, very soon after Voltaire, at the
country seat of le Marquis _de Girardin_ about ten leagues from Paris;
and is buried there, in a small island.
And the street which was formerly called _Chaussée d'Antin_ is now named
_Rue de Mirabeau_, in honour of the late patriot of that name.
The church _des Innocens_ was pulled down in 1786, and the vast
_cimetiére_ (burying ground) was filled up. Every night, during several
months, carts were employed in carrying the bones found there, to other
grounds out of Paris; it is now a market for vegetables. Very near this
place was a fountain, which is mentioned in letters patent so long ago
as 1273. It was rebuilt with extraordinary magnificence in 1550,
repaired in 1708, and at last, in 1788, carefully removed to the center
of the market, where it now stands.
The new _Quai de Gesvres_ was constructed in 1787, and all the shops
which formed a long narrow alley for foot passengers only, were
destroyed.
At this time no person was permitted to walk in any other part of the
_Tuileries_ gardens than in the terrace of the _Feuillans_, which is
parallel to the _Rue St. Honoré_, and under the windows of the _National
Assembly_; the only fence to the other part of the garden was a blue
ribband extended between two chairs.
Hitherto cockades of silk had been worn, the _aristocrats_ wore such as
were of a paler blue and red, than those worn by the _democrats_, and
the former were even distinguished by their carriages, on which a cloud
was painted upon the arms, which entirely obliterated them, (of these I
saw above thirty in the evening _promenade_, in the _Bois de Boulogne_:)
but on the 30th of July, every person was compelled by the people to
wear a linen cockade, without any distinction in the red and blue
colours.