- Bicyclists ( Carrefour d'Ermenonville )
While at the Potinière we admire the velocemen and velocewomen in possession of all the secrets of art, we only meet here the laggards studying under the eye of professionals. It is assured that the ordinarily gifted people are, after ten lessons, in a condition to direct themselves properly. But just as some students take a long time to do their law far beyond the statutory years, so we find certain temperaments refractory to equilibrium which persist in capsizing at every turn of the wheel beyond all expectations. - Besnier and his wings
In 1678, Besnier, a French locksmith, constructed a curious flying machine consisting of two wooden bars which rested on his shoulders. At the ends of the bars he attached muslin wings, arranged to open on the down stroke and close on the up stroke. The wings were operated by moving the arms and legs. Although Besnier failed to realize that no man had sufficient muscular strength to fly as the bird flies, he did sense part of the truth—that gliding with the air currents was possible. During his experiments he is said to have jumped from a window sill, glided over the roof of a near-by cottage, and landed on a barge in the river. - Beheading
Beheading.From the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552. - Banner
- Ballet
Representation of a Ballet before Henri III. and his Court, in the Gallery of the Louvre.--Fac-simile of an Engraving on Copper of the "Ballet de la Royne," by Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx (folio, Paris, Mamert Patisson, 1582.) - Ball Costume 1825
Ball Costume 1825 - Bain-froid Chevrier
- At the Races on the Champ de Mars
- At the confectioner ( Boulevard de la Madeleine )
Foresighters did not wait until January 1 to send their gifts, but the latecomers who waited until the last moment pile up at the confectioner's and go jostle to get the obligatory bag. The unfortunate thing is that in these extreme times the supplies of renowned specialists are often exhausted, and that to meet "the requirements of the public", they sometimes find themselves in the need to replace their usual products poisonous sweets and adulterated chocolates from the nearest grocer.— " Tarde venientibus ossa, " said the poet on forgotten New Years. - At the bookstore ( Boulevard des Italiens )
Here, it is the meeting place for gourmets of intelligence, who prefer to the satisfaction of vulgar gluttony the feast of the spirit. No indigestion to fear if the chance of the title has misled you; the heaviest products have never had more serious effects than bringing sleep, sometimes anticipated, but always calm and often deep. The great advantage of this kind of gift is for the donor that it is not forced to taste it; the danger is to give, without having read it, a book which demolishes the political, religious and social tendencies of the important personage to whom he offers it for the sole purpose of making himself a protector as devoted as it is persevering. - Assassination of Henry IV
Assassination of Henry IV, Rue de la Ferronnerie, may 14, 1610. - Armes Symboliques de la Ville de Paris
- Armed Parisians meeting the king
Armed Parisians meeting the king, 1383 From an illuminated manuscript in the National Library, Paris. - Anne of Austria
engraved by W. Greatbach from a Print by Masson, after P. Mignard - Ancienne Porte du Palais de Justice
- Ancienne Habitation à Bourges
- An Opera Ball
- An omnibus station ( Place de la Madeleine )
It is an open-air circle, without subscription, and with this advantage that women are admitted to it. It is undoubtedly for this reason that we see regulars there, who, although provided with numbers, never decide to take their place in the vehicles which succeed one another, however, without interruption. - An official ball in the Strassbourg Theatre
- an incident
An incident - An Execution in Paris
The woodcut represents the execution, in Paris, of a famous captain of robbers, Aymerigol Macel. The scaffold is enclosed by a hoarding; at the nearer corners are two friars, one in brown and one in black, probably a Franciscan and a Dominican; the official, who stands with his hands resting on his staff superintending the executioner, has a gown of red with sleeves lined with white fur, his bonnet is black turned up also with white fur. In the background are the timber houses on one side of the place, with the people looking out of their windows; a signboard will be seen standing forth from one of the houses. The groups of people in the distance and those in the foreground give the costumes of the ordinary dwellers in a fourteenth-century city. - An electric tramway ( Rue Tronchet )
The horses had scarcely begun to get used to the steam trams, their smoke and their whistles, which it was thought fit to use electricity. — It was doubtless with good intention, since these new vehicles run noiselessly and smoke-free. Nevertheless they cause the Parisian cavalry an invincible terror. — The animals, who are only half stupid, are always wary of what they cannot explain, and the sight of this car that nothing apparently does not set in motion, and which stirs however, inspires them with a distrust which does not seem completely unintelligent to me. - An appointment at the Cafe des Tuileries
- An accident ( Rue de Rivoli )
The wooden pavement is sometimes slippery, - this is often the result of natural humidity; - more frequently still, this dangerous state of the roadways results from an insufficient watering which does not remove any of the refuse on which the horses skate. - These days, there are as many animals lying as standing, and without the spirit of brotherhood that leads our fellow citizens to help each other, the circulation would become decidedly impassable. - Ambulant Merchants ( Rue Montmartre )
Very sympathetic to the housewives of the district who support them against all odds, they are the masters of the road, and the heaviest vehicles are obliged to give way to them. — If an unfortunate coachman has the audacity to walk at the smallest trot , or the awkwardness of passing too close to a customer installed in the middle of the street, he is in the grip of a vocabulary which reveals the neighborhood of the halls. - Alain René Le Sage
In a little garden summer-house behind a Paris street, Le Sage sat at his desk, dipped through Spanish books, and wrote with a light heart of the people that he knew, disguised in foreign clothes, and moving in places he had never seen. - A Wedding ( La Madeleine )
The crowd is generally sympathetic to weddings. The hour at which they are accomplished generally coincides with that of the lunch of the milliners and other dressmakers of the district, which their lack of dowry maintains in the state of celibates without depriving them of the desire and the hope of going up in `rank`. They constitute the fund of spectators, and their special knowledge enables them to estimate with precision the probable resources of the new spouses and their entourage. - A walk in the Tuileries Gardens
A walk in the Tuileries Gardens - A show ( Place Vendôme )
The downpour, so impatiently awaited during certain summers, sometimes multiplies in such a way that this cataclysm becomes the daily event. — Despite this regularity, the phenomenon varies so much the hours of its appearance, and occurs with such instantaneousness, that 'he succeeds each time in surprising and flooding a satisfactory number of walkers, who had thought they could profit from a fallacious clearing. - A refuge ( Line of large boulevards )
It is certainly the most important step that has been taken towards social reform since the new era. — The refuge adds to human rights that of being crushed only when it wants to, when it is lacking of patience, or that his physiognomy is unfriendly to the peacekeeper responsible for interrupting the movement of devices to crush the members of the poor people. - A Public Room at Frascatis
A Public Room at Frascatis - A Merovingian Queen
A Merovingian Queen - A Lady at Play
The court of France was, at this period, the most depraved in morals, the grossest and most unpolished in manners, of any in Europe. The women of the bourgeoisie, envious of the great ladies, called them dames à gorge nue; and the latter retaliated by designating the women of the people as grisettes, because of their gray (grises) stockings,—a name retained almost down to the present day. In the sittings of the États Généraux, the President, Miron, complained bitterly of the excesses of the nobility, the contempt for justice, the open violences, the gambling, the extravagance, the constant duels, the "execrable oaths with which they thought it proper to ornament their usual discourse." - A gathering in the Luxembourg Gardens
A gathering in the Luxembourg Gardens 1800 - A game of Emigrette
- A gambling hell in the Palais-Royal
A gambling hell in the Palais-Royal 1800 - A fire ( Place of the School of Medicine )
An impressionable porter saw smoke on his staircase. — In his zeal, he went to smash the windows of all the warnings in the neighborhood, and from all points of the horizon the firefighters rushed to the scene of the disaster, a little unsure of his exact situation. All the kids they met escorted them with long strides, while the city sergeants stopped the traffic, under the fallacious pretext of ensuring it. - A Drive in a Whiskey
- A check in the Park at Bagatelle
A check in the Park at Bagatelle Hunting dress 1807 - 1813
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