Arc de l'Étoile, sometimes called Arc de Triomphe; see also next article, where the difference is explained. – This huge archway stands at the top of the Avenue des Champs Élysées. It is the largest triumphal arch that has been built in modern times, and the cost of its erections was nearly 10,000,000f., or £400,000 sterling. The Municipal Council of Paris, acting under the orders of Napoleon 1., decided upon its erection to commemorate the campaign of the Grande Armée in Russia, and the first stone was laid on the anniversary of Napoleon's birthday, the 15th August, in the year 1806. Chalgrin was the architect first entrusted with the work; which was afterwards continued by other men, and finished at last in 1836. The monument was inaugurated on the 29th of July in that year. The foundations were dug to a depth of 25 feet below the level of the ground. The height of the arch above the ground is 152 feet, its width 138 feet, its thickness 68 feet. the main archway measures 90 feet in height and 45 in width; the smaller lateral archways are each 57 feet by 25. On each side of the central arch facing the , are two colossal groups cut in full-relief, representing The Departure, and The Triumph; above these are two bas-relief, showing the Honours paid to General Marceau after his Death, and the Victory of Aboukir. On the other side of the arch, facing Neuilly, the lower groups represent Pease and Resistance; the bas-relief above them show the Taking of Alexandria, and the Passage of the Pont d'Arcole. On the frieze that runs all around the arch immediately underneath the cornice there is a long bas-relief, the work of six artists, representing on the side facing Paris and the halfway over the lateral arches, The Departure of the Armies; and on the opposite side, the side facing Neuilly, and also halfway over the lateral arches, The Return of the Armies. The figures upon this frieze are 6 ½ feet high. On that part of the entablature above the cornice there are thirty bucklers, each one bearing the name of a victory. Fifteen of these names are of battles gained under the Republic, and fifteen were gained under the Empire. The lateral sides of the arch are adorned also with bas-relief; on the right side there is a Battle of Austerlitz, and on the left side the Battle of Jemmapes. Inside the arcades there are the names of 384 marshals, generals, lieutenant-generals, and generals of divisions; and the name of those who fell on the field of battle are underlined.

There are two staircases inside the great arch, by which one may mount to the top; and on a Sunday or a fete-day, if the weather is fine, the crowd of people is often very considerable. The view obtained is well worth the trouble of the ascent, but it is perhaps not so interesting as that from the towers of Notre Dame, or from the Tour de St. Jacques.

Omnibuses and Tramways are always to be found close to the arch; and there is a Station de Voitures at the top of the Champs Élysées.

Arc du Carrousel was built in 1806, after the designs of Fontaine and Percier, and was placed opposite to the different additions you may gradually learn from it how much money you have to pay. (See also Cabs.) It may be well, however, to repeat here very shortly what would be the cab fares in such cases. Simply hiring a cab to go from one part of Paris to another, you pay by the course. For such cabs as are found in railway stations and upon the public thoroughfare the fare is: For a carriage with two places (that is, constructed to carry two passengers), 1f. 50c.; for a carriage with four places (or constructed to carry four passengers), 1f. 80c. In addition, luggage is charged 25c. for every piece not ordinarily carried in the hand; but beyond 75c. there is not extra charge demanded. If you have much luggage you may it at 1f. There is also driver's pourboire, which coming from the railway station should be from 30c. to 50c. There are hotels at which you may ask the concierge to pay the cab for you; but there are other hotels at which such a request would be politely refused. The proprietor may know nothing of his new customer, and may say that in his establishment the practice is not usual.

Arrondissements – This word means in France any division of the country that may be submitted to civil, military, or ecclesiastical authority. In Paris the arrondissements are municipal divisions. They are twenty in number, and each is subdivided into four quarters. Every arrondissement is presided over by a maire, who has under him his deputies or assistants. The mairie, or town-hall, is usually situated near the middle of its own arrondissment, but this has not been found possible in all cases. The mairies are under the control of the Prefect of the Seine. Upon some of the maps of Paris (see Maps) the twenty different arrondissments are marked by different colours, as the different countries are marked upon a map of Europe. The knowledge is not so necessary in one case as the other; but it may be well to explain the principle upon which it would seem the arrondissments in Paris have been planned.

We will suppose that the Place du Palais Royal is in the centre of the town' from that point we draw a circular line, going always from left to right, and the circle always becoming larger, one line overlapping the other. the arrondissments from 1 to 7 will form the first or the inner circle; the second circle is in fact only a semicircle and is seen only on the north side of the river, but in it we see the arrondissments numbered from 8 to 11; and the large outer circle contains all the arrondissments from 12 to 20, which is the last. The arrondissments are not divided with mathematical exactness into equal sizes, nor are they cut after any special pattern; perhaps the 2nd is the smallest, and the 15th the largest in acreage. Their names are given below, but let us look for a moment at a map and compare their names with the geographical situations. Of the 1st arrondissment we have already supposed that the centre is the Place du Palais Royal; of the 2nd, it may be the corner of the Rue de Cléry and the Rue Montartre; of the 3rd, about the middle of the Rue des Archives; of the 4th, the corner of the Rue Vieille due Temple and the Rue de Rivoli – (in the 4th arrondissment is included the whole of the Ile St. Louis and all that portion of the Ile du Palais east of the Boulevard due Palais, everything to the west of this boulevard belongs to the 1st arrondissment); of the 5th, the point where the Rue Lacépède crosses the Rue Monge; of the 6th, the Rue de Vaugirard by the side of the Jardin du Luxembourg; of the 7th, the corner of the Rue de Bellechasse and the Rue of Grennelle; of the 8th, the Rue de Penthièvre; of the 9th, the church Notre Dame de Lorette; of the 10th, the church St. Laurent, close to the Bouleard de Strasbourg; of the 11th, the middle of the Boulevard Voltaire; of the 12th, the middle of the Avenue Dausmesnil; of the 13th, a little to the east of the Place d'Italie; of the 14th, the Place Denfert Rochereau; of the 15th, the middle of the Re Lecourbe; of the 16th, the Avenue du Trocadéro; of the 17th, the École Monge, near to the Boulevard Malesherbes; of the 18th, at the point where the Rue Marcadet crosses the Rue de Clignancourt; of the 19th, Place Armand Carrel, outside the Parc des Buttes Chaumont; and last, of the 20th, Place des Pyrénées, a little way on the north side of the Cimetière du Père Lachaise.

The reader is not expected to go through all these names and places categorically with a map before him, but if he has any general notions of the geography of Paris, the names may help to give him some idea of the respective positions of the different arrondissments. Before 1860 there were only twelve arrondissments in Paris, but after the extension of the municipal boundaries of the town as far as the military fortifications, which took place on the 1st of January, 1860, the number of arrondissments was increased to twenty.

The following is a list of the twenty arrondissments, with the population of each, according to the census taken on the 18th December, 1881, and of the names of the different quarters in each arrondissment:

I. Louvre – 75,390

Quarters –
St. Germain l'Auxerrois
Des Halles
Du Palais Royal
De la Place Vendôme

II. Bourse – 76,394

Quarters –
Gaillon
Vivienne
Du Mail
Bonne Nouvelle

III. Temple – 94,151

Quarters –
Des Arts et Métiers
Des Enfants Rouges
Des Archives
Sainte Avoie

IV. Hôtel de Ville – 103,760

Quarters –
St. Merri
St. Gervais
De l'Arsenal
Notre Dame

V. Panthéon – 113,804

Quarters –
St. Victor
Du Jardin des Plantes
Du Val de Grace
De la Sorbonne

VI. Luxembourg – 97,715

Quarters –
De la Monnaie
De l'Odéon
Notre Dame des Champs
St. Germain des Prés

VII. Palais Bourbon – 83,388

Quarters –
St. Thomas d'Aquin
Des Invalides
De l'École Militaire
De Gros Caillou

VIII. Élysées – 88,828

Quarters –
Des Champs Élysées
Du Faubourg du Roule
De la Madeleine
De l'Europe

IX. Opéra – 122,896

Quarters –
St. Georges
Chaussée d'Autin
Du Faubourg Montmartre
De Rochechouart

X. Enclos St. Laurent – 151,718

Quarters –
St. Vincent de Paul
De la Porte St. Denis
De la Porte St. Martin
De l'Hôpital St. Louis

XI. Popincourt – 209,164

Quarters –
De la Folie Méricourt
St. Ambroise
De la Roquette
Ste. Marguerite

XII. Reuilly – 102,435

Quarters –
Du Bel Air
De Picpus
De Bercy
Des Quinze Vingts

XIII. Gobelins – 92,221

Quarters –
De la Salpêtrière
De la Gare
De la Maison Blanche
De Croulebarbe

XIV. Observatoire – 91,713

Quarters –
De Montparnasse
De la Santé
Du Petit Montrouge
De Plaisance

XV. Vaugirard – 100,348

Quarters –
St. Lambert
Necker
De Grenelle
De Javel

XVI. Passy – 60,702

Quarters –
D'Auteuil
De la Muette
De la Porte Dauphine
Des Bassins

XVII. Batignolles Monceaux – 143,187

Quarters –
Des Ternes
De la Plaine Monceaux
Des Batignolles
Des Épinettes

XVIII. Buttes Montmartre – 177,318

Quarters –
Des Grandes Carrières
De Clignancourt
De la Goutte d'Or
De la Chapelle

XIX. Buttes Chaumont – 116,772

Quarters –
De la Villette
Du Pont de Flandre
De l'Amérique
Du Combat

XX. Ménilmontant – 123,978

Quarters –
De Belleville
St. Fargeau
Du Père Lachaise
De Charonne

Of the twenty arrondissments two show a decrease of population since the previous census in 1876: the 2nd and the 7th. In the 2nd arrondissment the decrease is 1374, partly attributable to the pulling down of the General Post office, and also perhaps to the fact that as this district is in the centre of the commercial part of Paris there must be many business men who prefer to reside and sleep away from the heart of the city. In the 7th arrondissment the decrease is less: it is only 284. In the year 1876 the demolition of houses for joining the two ends of the Boulevard St. Germain was going on, but was not completed, and from the end of that year some hundreds of people must have had notice to quit their old houses to make way for the new street.

The increase of population in Paris generally has taken place in the outlying quarters, in "les quarters excentriques," where strips of land more or less large were either left altogether unproductive or used for growing kitchen-garden produce. Of the twenty arrondissments eight show an increase of more than 10,000 since 1876. The 11th has increased by 26,000; the 13th by 20,000; the 14th, by 16,000; the 15th, by 21,000; the 17th, by 26,000; the 18th, by 24,000; the 19th, by 18,000; the 20th, by 23,000. The names of the different arrondissments with their four quarters are given above; and bearing in mind that the different arrondissments are made to follow each other into circular lines, the line going from left to right, and the circle always becoming larger, we may perceive, even without looking at a map, that the highest numbered arrondissments are those farthest removed from the centre of the town, and it is in those that the population has the most largely increased. In point of fact, with the exception of the 16th arrondissment – the Passy district – the greatest increase of population has taken place in all the arrondissment bordering upon the fortifications, or at the extreme limits of Paris. Neither Passy nor Auteuil are great centres for the working classes, at least not so much Grenelle, on the south side of the river, or in the Batignolles and Montmartre quarters, to the north of Paris. In the more aristocratic parts of the town the increase of population, as one would naturally expect, has been much less. In the 7th arrondissment, which takes in all the Faubourg St. Germain, as we have seen, there has been a falling off in numbers. In the 8th arrondissment, taking in the Champs Élysées, the Faubourg ST. Honoré, the Boulevard Haussmann, the Place Monceaux, and the Quartier de l'Europe, the increase has not been 5000. In the 1st, the 3rd, and the 4th arrondissments – all business quarters – the average increase has been about 4000.

Articles de Paris – By this somewhat vague designation are meant goods, either large or small, manufactured chiefly by Parisian industry; the term applying more especially to small articles of dress, of ornament, or of fancy. Flowers for ladies' bonnets; elegant fans painted in different styles; dolls dressed after innumerable fashions; toys of all descriptions; bonbon boxes, always appearing in a new form; drawing-room knickknacks, pretty but quite ingeniously useless – all these, and fifteen hundred other things, made principally by Paris workmen or workwomen, are commonly known by the title "Articles de Paris." Paris fancies herself to have a better taste than all the rest of the world. And as a rule, the delicate handiwork, when the intention is that it shall be good, of a skilled Parisian labourer, is admirable. There is about it a fineness and a firmness of touch that in other countries are often wanting, and in all matters of artifice the French are very ingenious in shaping their forms and matching their colours, so that the whole when finished shall produce a graceful and a pleasing effect. In such matters the desire to please is the main object, and this the well-made "Articles de Paris" generally attain.

Visitors who are desirous of taking away with them tasteful little presents for those at home will only be embarrassed by the profuse choice which they find offered by innumerable shops on the Boulevards des Capucines and des Italians, the Rue de la Paix, the Palais Royal, and other places. "Articles de Paris," it may be remarked, are not always cheap luxuries.

Asiles, a branch of the Assistance Publique. – The Salles d'Asile are open to poor children of both sexes from the age of two to six. The children are taken in and cared for during the day, and receive that treatment which they might expect at home. No contribution is asked from parents who are too poor to pay. The child must be free from any infectious disease, and must also have been vaccinated. They are taught reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. Religious instruction is also given to them; the girls are taught needlework. The Salle d'Asile receives the child as he leaves the crèche (see Crèche); it also precedes the school, but cannot take its place, for as soon as the child is six years old the Salle d'Asile may not keep them longer.

Assistance Publique – This is a formula somewhat recently introduced into the administrative language of France, signifying collectively those public services which are organizes with a view to give succout to the poor, to the sick, and to the infirm. We need not now concern ourselves with places outside Paris, but the principle is the same in the departments, though the actual organization may not there be so perfect.

In Paris the Assistance Publique has under its control eight general hospitals and seven hospitals intended for special maladies; ten hospices (see Hospitals for the difference between Hôpital and Hospice); three Maisons de Retraite; twenty Bueaux de Bienfaisance (one in each of the twenty arrondissments of Paris); besides the other establishments intended for the exercise of public charity. Since the year 1867 the head office has been in a large house, the entrance to which is in the Avenue Victoria, near the Hôtel de Ville. The administration have their own wine-cellar, their own butcher and baker, and their own chemist; they are thus enabled to buy those articles of which they are most in need at the lowest price. It is estimated that they expanded annually between 30,000,000 and 40,000,000 of francs (or between £1,200,000 and £1,600,000 sterling) in public charity. M. Du Camp thinks that the larger of these two sums is expended; but in a footnote he conscientiously quotes an authority against his own opinion. According to the latest figures, there are in Paris 151,000 indigent people who receive succor from public charity. (And see Poverty.) Without going deeply into the matter, for it may be seen at once that the subject is a large one, we may divide the Assistance Publique into nine heads, as follows: Asiles; Boîtes de Secours; Bureaux de Bienfaisance; Caisses d'Epargne; Cités Ouvriéres; Crèches; Enfants Trouvés, Hospice des; Hôpitals and Hospices; Ouvriors. Each one of these names will be found in the Dictionary in its proper alphabetical place.

Assomption, L', at the corner of the Rue St. Honore and the Rue Cambon. This church would not be worth including in the list but for the fact that it was the parish church of this part of the town before the Madeleine was built. It is now open to the public only on Sunday mornings, when service is being performed, from seven to twelve o'clock. The church has no architectural beauty. Its form is round, and there is a low dome serving as a roof to the building.

Athénée (Théâtre de l'Athénée Comique), 17, Rue Scribe.

1000 places
PRICE OF ADMISSION

Advant scènes (rez de chaussée) – 7f. 0c.
Advant scènes des premières – 6f. 0c.
Baignoires – 5f. 0c.
Loges de balcon – 5f. 0c.
Fauteuils d'orchestre – 5f. 0c.
Fauteuils de balcon – 4f. 0c.
Stalles d'orchestre 3f. 0c.
Loges de galerie – 2f. 50c.

This house was opened as a theatre in 1868; and now small comedies, vaudevilles, and revues (see Revue) are played here.

Omnibus Route, Boulevard des Capucines; Tramway, Boulevard Haussmann; Station de Voitures, Boulevard Haussmann.

Auctions – The great auction-room in Paris is known as the Hôtel des Ventes, or, as it is more popularly called, the Hôtel Drouot, so named because it is situated in the Rue Drouot. This is the only auction-room of any note, except the small rooms, 28, Rue des Bons Enfants – on one side of the Palais Royal – known as the Salle Crétaine, formerly called the Salle Sylvestre. In the Salle Crétaine books only are sold, and they are rarely sold at the Hôtel Drouot. Sometimes it may be thought advisable that they library of a gentleman who was well known to have a rare and choice collection of books, should, together with other things, furniture, etc. be sold at the Hôtel Drouot, but such instances are, upon the whole, uncommon. And when books are sold at the Hôtel Drouot it is usually expected that they will fetch high prices. In the spring or early summer of the year 1879 the Missal of Charles VI. of France was sold there for 75,000f.! It is not every day that you can get the chance of giving £3000 for a volume that you may carry about with you in your pocket. The auctioneer's fees were probably 5000f. more.

The book sales in the Salle Crétaine begin usually at eight or at half-past eight in the evening. At the Hôtel Drouot the sales begin at from one to two in the afternoon. The order marked upon the catalogue is not always kept; the different lots are sold as the auctioneer may think expedient. From three to four o'clock the rooms are usually at their fullest, and the best articles are then put up for sale. If the auctioneer knows the buyer, he merely writes his name upon a bit of paper, or upon his catalogue opposite to the lot sold, otherwise the buyer must pay at once for what he has bought, and also pay at the same time the auction fees. These will vary from 5 to 30 per cent. No auction may take place but in the presence of men qualified by law to possess the right of selling by auction. The "commissaires priseurs," or auctioneers, in Paris form an important body of men, and they are among themselves the proprietors of the large Hôtel Drouot. The sale of an auctioneer's office may be worth from 100,000f. to 200,000f., and before a man is admitted as an auctioneer he must deposit a considerable sum as caution-money.

In Paris, as in London, a man should be very well wide-awake before he entrusts himself confidently upon the sea of "picking up" things at auctions. Very often what you pickup is not worth what you drop. Rightly or wrongly – and here all the moralizing in the world won't help you – the dealers usually find it worth their while to keep gentleman buyers out of the market, and they practically do so. Such is their theory of the division of labour. If you wish to crush all the knowing vendors of various works of art, and you say to yourself I will have that china cane-handle, or, I will have that gold snuff-box, you may perhaps succeed if your purse be long enough. the man who buys for his own use, or for his own comfort, has better abstain from articles such as these – at least in Paris – but with a little, or, perhaps, a good deal, of time and patience, he may, at the Hôtel Drouot, be able to buy some of the ordinary necessaries of life, such as tolerably good furniture, and other things, probably for less money than he would have to pay for them at a respectable shop. If, however, the legs of his chairs break within the first week, he is absolutely without redress of any sort.

But here, as in other cities, he must take his chance; and if his purchases (as purchases at auctions so often do) appear very different when the articles have been brought home to what they did when looked at in the excitement of the competition, he has only, in Paris as elsewhere, to bring and bear it.

Augustin, Saint, is situated at the converging point of the Boulevard Malesherbes and the Avenue Portalis. This church, begun about the year 1860 and finished about eight years afterwards, is one of the handsomest modern churches in Paris, though the piece of ground on which the architect was constrained to build did not allow him to give to it all the ordinary developments. The shape and disposition of the church are peculiar. There is, strictly speaking, no separate part of the building that can be called the choir. The singers are place at the back of the high raised alter, and between the alter and the apse there is a small organ. The larger organ in the church is at the end of the nave over the main doorway. The nave of the church is wide; the side-chapels in the aisles are shallow near to the doorway, and gradually get larger as they come nearer to the transepts; but the clerestory walls above are built in a straight line, and are rectangular with the main façade. Over the raised alter there is a large, handsome gilded iron baldacchino, which is very suitable to the general disposition of the church. the style of architecture is ornate Gothic. Most of the windows have round arches, the high arches of the triforium are much decorated. The chapters of the pillars are also decorated. The dome of the church is fine, and there is a gallery running all round inside the cupola. Outside the church the dome is flanked with four octagonal towers, and at the top of the dome there is a round iron construction, bearing a gilt cross.

Omnibuses pass in the Rue de Laborde in front of the church, and they cross the Boulevard Haussmann, also in front of the church, a little lower down. Tramways, Boulevard Malesherbes and Boulevard Haussmann; Station de Voitures, Boulevard Malesherbes, near the Rue de la Boétie.

Austria and Hungry – Embassy, 7, Rue Las Cases. Omnibus Routes, Rue de Bellechasse and Rue de Bac; Tramway, Boulevard Saint Germain; Station de Voitures, Faubourg St. German, at the corner of Rue de Bellechasse.

Consulate, 21, Rue Laffitte. Omnibus Route, Boulevard des Italiens; Tramway, Rue Taitbout; Station de Voitures, Boulevard des Italiens.

Avenues – It would be a fruitless task to mention the names of those streets in Paris to which this somewhat euphuistic title has been given. Frenchmen have humorously complained that when any large new street is opened, it is now always made to bear the name of some Avenue, and that the older and homelier title of street is becoming forgotten. This may be all very well, they urge, for the fine folk who can afford to live in the Avenues; but those who cannot afford such luxury will, they fear, gradually fall into disestimation. The municipal government of the town may have in their minds' eye some principle distinguishing avenues from boulevards, but ordinary human begins see no difference, except that of a more modern appellation. The reason, however, may be fully sufficient though it is no, strictly speaking, obvious.

The Avenue de l'Opera is one of the most commercially important. This is a fine street, in which the traffic is yearly increasing, the shops of the better kind have been established there by slow degrees. At one time there was a proposal made to lay down tramway lines along this street, but the idea seems to have been abandoned, and appearances for the while are saved. There are some good hotels in this avenue, and there are two first-class restaurants – Bignon's and the Café de Paris. The Avenue de l'Opera was the first street in Paris lighted by electricity; the electric light having been tried there during the summer of the 1878, the year of the Paris Exhibition. On the 1st of November, 1876, the work of pulling down the houses for the making of this avenue was begun, at the end close to the Place du Théâtre Français, and from that time it was pushed on rapidly until it was at last accomplished. House rent here is very high.

Those who like the vista given by long and broad avenues in which there are no shops, may go to the Place de l'Étoile. From or into this large, round, open space – in which stands the huge triumphal monument – run no less than twelve avenues, nearly all reminding us by their names of battles won by French armies or of French generals. Official dignity has called this Place Le Rond Point de l'Étoile, but the name of Le Rond Point des Champs Élysées, nearly opposite to the Palais de l'Industrie – consequently one Rond Point only is popularly known. Avenues are not wanting in other parts of Paris; anyone with a map before him will have no difficulty in finding them. Perhaps the main difference between the avenues and the boulevards, or the streets, is that in the avenues there is a generally an of shops.