Peter Whiffle : $b His life and works — John Shaqi
Peter Whiffle : $b His life and worksVan Vechten, Carl
General
Peter Whiffle : $b His life and works
Van Vechten, Carl
American fiction -- 20th century
I've seen enough. I don't mean that. I mean I've seen enough to
know. But I want to see it all, everything, Saint Sulpice, the
Folies-Bergère, the Musée de Cluny, the Nouvelle Athènes, the Comédie
Française, the Bal Bullier, the Arc de Triomphe, the Luxembourg
Gardens....
They close at sundown. My expression was the cue for him to continue,
They'll be open tomorrow and any other day. They're just around the
corner. You can go there when you get up in the morning, if you do get
up in the morning. But what do you want to do tonight?
Anything! Everything! I cried.
Well, we'll eat first.
So we blew out the candles, floated down the dark stairs--I didn't
really walk for a week, I am sure--, brushing on our way against a
bearded student and a girl, fragrant and warm in the semi-blackness,
out into the delicious night, with the fascinating indescribable odour
of Paris, which ran the gamut from the fragrance of lilac and mimosa to
the aroma of horse-dung; with the sound of horses' hoofs and rolling
wheels beating and revolving on the cobble-stones, we made our way--I
swear my feet never touched the ground--through the narrow, crooked,
constantly turning, bewildering streets, until we came out on a broad
boulevard before the Café d'Harcourt, where I was to eat my first Paris
dinner.
The Café d'Harcourt is situated near the Church of the Sorbonne on the
Boulevard Saint Michel, which you are more accustomed to see spelled
Boul' Mich'. It is a big, brightly lighted café, with a broad terrasse,
partially enclosed by a hedge of green bushes in boxes. The hands of
the clock pointed to the hour of eight when we arrived and the tables
all appeared to be occupied. Inside, groups of men were engaged in
games of checkers, while the orchestra was performing selections from
Louis Ganne's operetta, Les Saltimbanques. On the terrasse, each little
table, covered with its white cloth, was lighted by a tiny lamp with
a roseate shade, over which faces glowed. The bottles and dishes
and silver all contributed their share to the warmth of the scene,
and heaping bowls of peaches and pears and apples and little wood
strawberries, ornamenting the sideboards, gave the place an almost
sumptuous appearance. Later I learned that fruit was expensive in Paris
and not to be tasted lightly. Victor Maurel has told me how, dining one
night with the composer of The Barber, he was about to help himself
to a peach from a silver platter in the centre of the table when the
frugal Madame Rossini expostulated. Those are to look at, not to eat!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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