Go out again. As you emerge from the door, observe the cold and bare side of the Panthéon, contrasted with the internal richness of St. Étienne. Curious view of the late Gothic portion of the church from the little Place on the N side. Return by the Rue Cujas and Rue St. Jacques, passing the Lycée Ste. Barbe, Lycée Louis-le-Grand, University, and other scholastic buildings, which give a good idea of the character of the quarter. III RENAISSANCE PARIS (THE LOUVRE) [PARIS, which spread rapidly Southward at first, was somewhat slower in its =Northward= development. Nevertheless, by the time of Philippe Auguste, the Town =La Ville=—the commercial portion N of the river—more than equalled the learned district on the S side. This central northern region, however, containing the Hôtel de Ville, St. Eustache, and some other important buildings, I purposely postpone to the consideration of =the Louvre= and its neighbourhood, which, though later in date, form the heart and core of Renaissance Paris—the Paris of François I^{er} and his splendour-loving successors. Most of the buildings we have hitherto considered are mediæval and Gothic. The Louvre introduces us at once to a new world—the world of the =Renaissance=. The transition is abrupt. In Italy, and especially in Florence, the Renaissance was _a natural growth_; in France it was A FASHION. It came in, full-fledged, without history or antecedents. To trace its evolution, one must follow it out in detail in Florence and Venice. There, it grows of itself, organically, by gradual stages. But in France, Gothic churches and mediæval _châteaux_ give place at once, with a bound, to developed Renaissance temples and palaces. The reason for this fact is, that the French kings, from Charles VIII onward to Henri IV, were thoroughly Italianate. They fought, travelled, and married in Italy, to parts of which they laid claim; and being closely allied with the Medici and other Italian families,—husbands of Medici wives, sons of Medici mothers,—they introduced at once into France the developed products of the Italian Renaissance. At the same time the increased and centralized power of the Crown enabled them to build magnificent palaces, like the Louvre and Fontainebleau; and to this artificial impulse is mainly due the sudden outburst of art in France under François I^{er} and his immediate successors.