Glimpses of Paris collected from diaries and letters across centuries
I went this night with my Wife to a Ball at our neighbours…
Photography print available at Found View Gallery.I went this night with my Wife to a Ball at our neighbours the Marquis de Creve Coeurs, where were divers Princes, dukes & great persons; but that which I found very mean [common], it began with a puppet play.
Notes:
• From The Diary of John Evelyn
• John Evelyn was an English writer and diarist.
Paris being now strictly besieged by the Prince de Condé…
Photography print available at Found View Gallery.Paris being now strictly besieged by the Prince de Condé, my wife being shut up with her Father & Mother, I wrote a letter of consolation to her.
Notes:
• From The Diary of John Evelyn
• John Evelyn was an English writer and diarist.
I went the next day to consider the Louvre more attentively, with all its several Courts and Pavilions…
Photography print available at Found View Gallery.I went the next day to consider the Louvre more attentively, with all its several Courts and Pavilions. One of the quadrangles […] is a superb, but mixed Structure: The Cornices, mouldings and Compartments, together with the insertions of several coloured marbles being of infinite expense. We went through the Long Gallery, which is paved with white & black marble, richly fretted and painted a fresco […] but the front looking toward the river, though of exceeding rare work for the Carving, yet wants of that magnificence which a plainer & truer design would have contributed to it. […]
On the river is to be seen a prodigious number of Barges & boats of incredible length, full of hay, Corn, Wood, Wine & other Commodities which this Vast City consumes. […]
I this day finished with a Walk in the great Garden of the Tuileries, which is rarely contrived for Privacy, shade, or company by Groves, Plantations of tall trees, […] and that labyrinth of cypresses. […] At the bottom of the Garden, we were let into another, which being kept with all imaginary accurateness as to the Orangery, precious Shrubs, and rare fruits, seemed a Paradise.
Notes:
• From The Diary of John Evelyn
• John Evelyn was an English writer and diarist.
We went to visit some Hospitals. That of the Quinze-Vignts in the rue St. Honoré is really a noble foundation…
Photography print available at Found View Gallery.We went to visit some Hospitals. That of the Quinze-Vignts in the rue St. Honoré is really a noble foundation; but above all is the Hotel Dieu for men & Women near Notre Dame, a Princely, pious, and prodigious expense. That of the Charity near my Lodging is another, built by Queen Mary di Medices, where I have taken great satisfaction to see how decently and Christianly the sick People are tended, yea even to delicacy; being sometimes (as I have seen them) served by noble Persons, men and Women: They have also Gardens, Walks, and Fountains[….]
Notes:
• From The Diary of John Evelyn
• John Evelyn was an English writer and diarist.
I put my self in mourning for the French King’s death Lewes xiii; and having occasion to go to the Exchange, was curious to see the buildings about it…
Photography print available at Found View Gallery.I put my self in mourning for the French King’s death Lewes xiii; and having occasion to go to the Exchange, was curious to see the buildings about it. The late addition to the buildings is very noble, but the Galleries where they sell their petty merchandise nothing so stately as ours at London[….] Within the Place where they sell their wares is another narrower Gallery full of shops and Toys etc. which looks down into the Prison-Yard: Descending by a large pair of stairs we passed by St. Chapelle[….] Returning home we passed by the Isle du Palais […] where is an every-days Market of all sorts of Provisions, especially Bread, herbs, Flowers, Orange-trees, choice shrubs; besides Poultry & the like, and here is a shop called Noahs-Ark, where are to be had for money all the Curiosities naturally or artificial imaginable, Indian or European, for luxury or Use, as Cabinets, shells, Ivory, Porcelain, Dried fishes, rare Insects, Birds, Pictures, & a thousand exotic extravagances[….]
Notes:
• From The Diary of John Evelyn
• John Evelyn was an English writer and diarist.
Ever Paris 