The next object to St. Cloud, which attracted our attention, was the famous manufactory of _Sèvre_. The beautiful porcelain, which bears the name of this town, continues to be made here, under the immediate protection of the government. We visited the shop, or _magazin_, and were shown the several rooms of which it consists. In all of these were tables, covered with specimens of china made here, but I cannot say that they answered my expectation. They were neither as various, nor as splendid, as one should suppose they would be, at the principal dépôt of so renowned a manufactory. Probably, the situation in which France has been during the revolution, did not afford a sufficient number of purchasers, to induce the managers to keep by them any considerable quantity of expensive articles. There were several busts of Bonaparte in different sizes, all of which were strikingly resembling. There were also great and small busts of Voltaire, Franklin, and Rousseau. Going thence to Versailles, we drove to Rambrand’s, which is esteemed the principal hotel; but finding, on our arrival, that the best rooms were engaged, we changed our plan, and proceeded to _le Petit Trianon_ in the park, which, formerly the much loved retreat of Marie Antoinette, has, in the strange metamorphosis things as well as men have experienced in France, become a common inn. Having ordered dinner to be prepared in a small room, once celebrated as the luxurious _boudoir_ of the ill fated queen, we proceeded to view the curiosities of Versailles. The park has lost some trees, and has been neglected. In other respects, it is not much altered. The _orangerie_[63] still retains, unimpaired, all its beauty. We walked through long avenues of orange trees, all of which are in high health and rich foliage. The gardener assured us, that some of those which were of very large dimensions, had been planted in the reign of Francis I. We next visited the private library of the former kings of France, situate in a separate house in the town. There is nothing very particular in the building; but there were, above the several doors of the library, extremely pretty paintings of the different capitals of Europe. We were here shown a very beautiful collection of illuminated paintings, representing the splendid _fête_ and _tournaments_ given by the magnificent Lewis XIV.