Preface.
The object of the following volume is to render the
visitor to the French metropolis and N. France as independent
as possible, and enable him to apportion the time
at his disposal to the best advantage.
The information given concerns objects of general
interest, described by the Editor from personal experience.
A detailed account of all the specialties of Paris would
far exceed the limits of a work of this character.
Visitors to picture-galleries and other collections may
generally dispense with catalogues, as these pages contain
sufficient information respecting all the most striking
objects of interest.
Probably no city in the world has ever undergone such
gigantic transformations in its external aspect as the French
metropolis of late years Many unwholesome purlieus,
teeming with poverty and vice, have been entirely swept
away, to make room for spacious squares, noble avenues
and palatial edifices. The city may even now be regarded
in many respects as in a state of transition. This will
explain some possible inaccuracies in the following pages,
which might otherwise be attributed to want of fidelity
on the part of the Editor.
The subdivision of the Plan of the city into three
sections of different colours, accompanied by a key-map,
will be found materially to facilitate reference, and entirely
obviates the necessity of unfolding several square
feet of paper on every occasion.
As many travellers merely pass through Paris on their
way to more distant scenes, some brief itineraries to Switzerland
and the Rhine will, it is hoped, be found serviceable.
A brief account of the principal towns of N. France, with
their magnificent specimens of Gothic architecture and their
frequent traces of old-world peculiarities, will be acceptable
alike to the archæologist, the architect and the nonprofessional
visitor.
Besides the first-class hotels, many establishments of
modest pretensions are enumerated which may safely be selected
by the "voyageur en garçon", with little sacrifice of
real comfort and great saving of expenditure. Those which
the Editor and his correspondents believe to be most
worthy of commendation are denoted by asterisks. It should,
however, be borne in mind that hotels are liable to constant
changes, and that the treatment the traveller experiences
is often contingent upon a variety of circumstances which
can neither be foreseen nor controlled.
N. B. Everything particularly worthy of note is indicated by an asterisk.
