At the present day, Paris may be said to be a city of cafes and
restaurants. The railroads and steamboats enable the rich of every
quarter of the globe to reach the most attractive of all European
cities with comparative economy and facility. All foreigners arriving
in Paris seem by instinct to rush to the restaurateurs', where
strangers may be counted by tens of thousands. It is not surprising
that we find in every important street these gaudy modern triclinia,
which, I should observe, are as much frequented by a certain class of
French people as by foreigners, for Paris is proverbially fond of
dining out; in fact, the social intercourse may be said to take place
more frequently in the public cafe than under the domestic roof.
In 1815, I need scarcely remark that the condition of the roads in
Europe, and the enormous expense of travelling, made a visit to Paris a
journey which could only be indulged in by a very limited and wealthy
class of strangers. Hotels and cafes were then neither so numerous nor
so splendid as at the present day: Meurice's Hotel was a very
insignificant establishment in the Rue de l'Echiquier; and in the Rue
de la Paix, at that time unfinished, there were but two or three
hotels, which would not be considered even second-rate at the present
time. The site of the Maison Dore, at the corner of the Rue Lafitte,
was then occupied by a shabby building which went by the name of the
Hotel d'Angleterre, and was kept by the popular and once beautiful
Madame Dunan. The most celebrated restaurant was that of Beauvilliers,
in the Rue de Richelieu; mirrors and a little gilding were the
decorative characteristics of this house; the cuisine was far superior
to that of any restaurateur of our day, and the wines were first-rate.
Beauvilliers was also celebrated for his supreme de volaille, and for
his cotelette a la Soubise. The company consisted of the most
distinguished men of Paris; here were to be seen Chateaubriand, Bailly
de Ferrette, the Dukes of Fitzjames, Rochefoucauld, and Grammont, and
many other remarkable personages. It was the custom to go to the
theatres after dinner, and then to the Salon des Etrangers, which was
the Parisian Crockford's.
Another famous dining-house was the Rocher de Cancaille, in the Rue
Mandar, kept by Borel, formerly one of the cooks of Napoleon. Here the
cuisine was so refined that people were reported to have come over from
England expressly for the purpose of enjoying it: indeed, Borel once
showed me a list of his customers, amongst whom I found the names of
Robespierre, Charles James Fox, and the Duke of Bedford. In the Palais
Royal the still well-known Trois Freres Provenceaux was in vogue, and
frequented much by the French officers; being celebrated chiefly for
its wines and its Provence dishes: it was in the Palais Royal that
General Lannes, Junot, Murat, and other distinguished officers, used to
meet Bonaparte just before and during the Consulate; but the cafes,
with the exception of the Mille Colonnes, were not nearly so smartly
fitted-up as they now are. The Cafe Turc, on the Boulevard du Temple,
latterly visited chiefly by shopkeepers, was much frequented: smoking
was not allowed, and then, as now, ladies were seen here; more
especially when the theatres had closed.