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 _Hotel 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.
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