+FRANCE.+ It is in France, Germany (including Austria), and England that the architectural progress of this period in Europe has been most marked. We have already noticed the results of the classic revivals in these three countries. Speaking broadly, it may be said that in France the influence of the _École des Beaux-Arts_, while it has tended to give greater unity and consistency to the national architecture, and has exerted a powerful influence in behalf of refinement of taste and correctness of style, has also stood in the way of a free development of new ideas. French architecture has throughout adhered to the principles of the Renaissance, though the style has during this century been modified by various influences. The first of these was the Néo-Grec movement, alluded to in the last chapter, which broke the grip of Roman tradition in matters of detail and gave greater elasticity to the national style. Next should be mentioned the Gothic movement represented by Viollet-le-Duc, Lassus, Ballu, and their followers. Beginning about 1845, it produced comparatively few notable buildings, but gave a great impulse to the study of mediæval archæology and the restoration of mediæval monuments. The churches of Ste. Clothilde and of St. Jean de Belleville, at Paris, and the reconstruction of the Château de Pierrefonds, were among its direct results. Indirectly it led to a freer and more rational treatment of constructive forms and materials than had prevailed with the academic designers. The church of +St. Augustin+, by _Baltard_, at Paris, illustrates this in its use of iron and brick for the dome and vaulting, and the +College Chaptal+, by _E. Train_, in its decorative treatment of brick and tile externally. The general adoption of iron for roof-trusses and for the construction of markets and similar buildings tended further in the same direction, the +Halles Centrales+ at Paris, by _Baltard_, being a notable example. [Illustration: FIG. 208.--PLAN OF LOUVRE AND TUILERIES, PARIS. A, A, _the Old Louvre, so called_; B, B, _the New Louvre._] [Illustration: FIG. 209.--PAVILION OF RICHELIEU, LOUVRE.]