Rue de Nevers (thirteenth century) was in past days closed at both ends and called therefore Rue des Deux-Portes. In Rue Guénégaud we find at No. 29 a tower of Philippe-Auguste’s wall. All its houses are ancient. At No. 1 we see the remains of a famous théâtre des Marionnettes. Rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie, in a line with Rue Mazarine, erewhile Rue des Fossés-St-Germain, is full of historic memories. The Café Procope at No. 13, now a restaurant, was the first café opened in Paris (1689). Noted men of every succeeding century drank, talked, made merry or aired their grievances within its walls: modern paintings there record the features of some of them. No. 14 was the theatre from which the street takes its name, succeeded by the Odéon (_see_ p. 184). Rue Grégoire-de-Tours shows us several curious old houses. At No. 32 we see finely chiselled statues on the façade. Rue de Buci, originally Rue de Bussy from the _buis_--box-bush--once growing there, the ecclesiastical “Via Sancti Germani de Pratis,” later Rue du Pilori, passed in ancient days through Philippe-Auguste’s wall by a great gate with two towers opened for the purpose. For it was an all-important thoroughfare. The _carrefour_ whence it started was the busiest spot of the whole district. Persons of ill-repute or evil conduct were chained there; those condemned to death were hung there. Sedan chairs for the peaceable were hired there. Thither Revolutionist volunteers flocked to be enrolled in 1792, and there the first of the September massacres was perpetrated. Most of the ancient buildings along its course have been replaced by modern structures. The street has been in part widened; the site of some old structures lately razed has not yet been built on. Rue Dauphine, named in honour of the son of Henri IV, later Louis XIII, dates from 1607. Most of the houses date from that century or the century following. Rue Mazet, opening out of it at No. 49, was famed in past days for the old inn and coaching station--“le Cheval Blanc.” It existed from 1612 to 1906. Near it was the restaurant Magny, where literary lions of the early years of the nineteenth century--G. Sand, Flaubert, the Goncourts, etc.--met and dined. Some old houses still stand there. [Illustration: COUR DE ROHAN]