MOLIÈRE'S HOUSE IN THE RUE DE LA TONNELLERIE
Water-colour by Hervier
The Rue Quincampoix likewise contains some few old mansions now inhabited by certain "medical specialists," cheese-dealers, eau-de-seltz makers, &c. At Nos. 58, 28, 14, 15, and, notably, at No. 10, are seen remnants of forged iron, broken balconies, chipped grotesque masks of stone.... But the whole is tumbling to pieces, and to ruin, and only by a strong effort of the imagination can one reconstitute, out of these wretched fragments, the life of luxury, fever and stock-jobbing that once filled this old street, now foul with chemical smells and rancid odours of fried potatoes.
Collé's prophecy has been fulfilled: "One no longer belongs to Paris when one belongs to the Marais!"
Trade has laid hold of the fine mansions of yore; druggists have set up their distilleries in them, toy-makers sell their puppets in them, and the hawker with his Paris article is the monarch that governs them.
The population at present is poor, laborious, yet intelligent and active; and the contrast between it and the transformed dwellings wherein it dwells is not without interest and grace. A visit to the Archives, Marais and Saint-Merri quarters is certainly something no one should omit.
The picturesque line of central boulevards extends from the Bastille to the Madeleine Church. There Paris life may be studied under the most varied aspects, as well as the most elegant.
To speak of there being a general characterisation of the boulevards would be hardly correct, inasmuch as each of them has its special physiognomy.
THE TOWER OF SAINT-JACQUES-LA-BOUCHERIE ABOUT 1848
Lithographed by A. Durand