By this time the population had overflowed the walls of Philippe-Auguste, already enlarged by François I., and Louis XIV. overturned their towers and ramparts, and filled their _fosses_, believing that a strong community needed no such protections. These ancient fortifications were replaced by the boulevards which exist even unto to-day--not only in Paris, but in most French towns and cities--unequalled elsewhere in all the world. Up to the reign of Louis XIV. the population of Paris had, for the most part, been lodged in narrow, muddy streets, which had subjected them to many indescribable discomforts. Meanwhile, during the glorious reign of Louis XIV., Paris achieved great extension of area and splendour; many new streets were opened in the different _quartiers_, others were laid out anew or abolished altogether, more than thirty churches were built,--"all highly beautiful," say the guide-books. But they are not: Paris churches taken together are a decidedly mixed lot, some good in parts and yet execrable in other parts, and many even do not express any intimation whatever of good architectural forms. [Illustration: PONT NEUF.--PONT AU CHANGE] The Pont au Change was rebuilt, and yet four other bridges were made necessary to permit of better circulation between the various _faubourgs_ and _quartiers_. To the credit of Louis XIV. must also be put down the Hôtel des Invalides, the Observatoire, the magnificent colonnade of the Louvre, the Pont Royal, the Collège des Quatre Nations, the Bibliothèque Royale, numerous fountains and statues, the royal glass, porcelain, and tapestry manufactories, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and the Boulevards St. Denis and St. Martin. Saint Foix (in his "Essais sur Paris") has said that it was Louis XIV. who first gave to the reign of a French monarch the _éclat_ of grandeur and magnificence, not only for his court, but for his capital and his people. Under the succeeding reign of Louis XV. the beautifying of Paris took another flight. On the place which first bore the name of the monarch himself, but which is to-day known as the Place de la Concorde, were erected a pair of richly decorated monuments which quite rivalled in achievement the superb colonnaded Louvre of the previous reign, the Champs Elysées were replanted, the École Militaire, the École de Droit, and the Hôtel de la Monnaie were erected, and still other additional boulevards and magnificent streets were planned out. A new church came into being with St. Genevieve, which afterward became the Panthéon. The reign following saw the final achievement of all these splendid undertakings; then came the Revolution, that political terror which would have upset all established institutions; and if Paris, the city of splendid houses, did not become merely a cemetery of tombs, it was not because maniacal fanaticism and fury were lacking.