Supposing that you have regained the north bank of the Seine, by means of the _Pont Notre-Dame_, you follow the quays, which skirt that shore, till you reach the PONT MARIE. This bridge forms a communication between the _Port St. Paul_ and the _Ile St. Louis_. The _Pont Marie_ was named after the engineer who engaged with Henry IV to build it; but that prince having been assassinated; the young king, Lewis XIII, and the queen dowager, laid the first stone in 1614: it was finished, and bordered with houses, in 1635. It consists of five arches. Its length is three hundred feet by sixty-two in breadth. An inundation having carried away two of the arches, in 1658, they were repaired without the addition of houses, and in 1789, the others were removed. Passing through the _Rue des Deux Ponts_, which lies in a direct line with the _Pont Marie_, we arrive at the PONT DE LA TOURNELLE. This bridge takes its name from the _Château de la Tournelle_, contiguous to the _Porte St. Bernard_, where the galley-slaves used formerly to be lodged, till they were sent off to the different public works. It consists of six arches of solid construction, and is bordered on each side by a foot-pavement. You are now acquainted with all the bridges in Paris; but should you prefer crossing the Seine in a boat, there are several ferries between the bridges, and at other convenient places. Here, you may always meet with a waterman, who, for the sum of one _sou_, will carry you over, whether master or lackey. Like the old ferryman Charon, he makes no distinction of persons. [Footnote 1: Workmen are, at this moment, employed in the construction of three new bridges. The first, already mentioned, will form a communication between the _ci-devant Collège des Quatre Nations_ and the _Louvre_; the second, between the _Ile du Palais_ and the _Ile St. Louis_; and the third, between the _Jardin des Plantes_ and the Arsenal.] LETTER XXXVI. _Paris, December 20, 1801._ What a charming abode is Paris, for a man who can afford to live at the rate of a thousand or fifteen hundred pounds a year! Pleasures wait not for him to go in quest of them; they come to him of their own accord; they spring up, in a manner, under his very feet, and form around him an officious retinue. Every moment of the day can present a new gratification to him who knows how to enjoy it; and, with prudent management, the longest life even would not easily exhaust so ample a stock. Paris has long been termed an epitome of the world. But, perhaps, never could this denomination be applied to it with so much propriety as at the present moment. The chances of war have not only rendered it the centre of the fine arts, the museum of the most celebrated masterpieces in existence, the emporium where the luxury of Europe comes to procure its superfluities; but the taste for pleasure has also found means to assemble here all the enjoyments which Nature seemed to have exclusively appropriated to other climates.