At the Paris Opera the _dieux de la danse_ were MM. Albert Paul and Ferdinand, all of whom visited London from time to time and the second of whom was known as _l’aérien_, a descriptive nickname emphasised by the quaint criticism of a contemporary who wrote: “Paul used to spring and bound upwards, and was continually in the clouds; his foot scarcely touched the earth or rather the stage; he darted up from the ground and came down perpendicularly, after _travelling a quarter of an hour in the air_!” M. Paul, by the way, later became a celebrated dancing-master at Brighton, in good Queen Victoria’s early days. Then, too, there was Paul’s sister who became Madame Montessu, hardly less celebrated than her brilliant brother. Then, too, Mlle. Brocard, who so won Queen Victoria’s girlish admiration that some of her dolls were dressed to represent the pretty dancer in character. Brocard, however, was more remarkable for her beauty than for her dancing. Another famous artist of the period was M. Coulon, to whose careful tuition the graceful, and _élégante_ Pauline Duvernay owed much of her success, as did also the sisters Noblet--Lise and Alexandrine, the latter of whom forsook the dance to become an actress. Of Lise Noblet a contemporary chronicler wrote in 1821: “_Encore un phénix! Une danseuse qui ne fait jamais de faux pas, qui préfère le cercle d’amis à la foule des amants, qui vient au théâtre à pied, et qui retourne de même!_” In 1828, she created, with immense success, the _rôle_ of Fenella, in _La Muette de Portici_, and was described as “_le dernier produit de l’école française aux poses géométriques et aux écarts à angle droit_”; the same critic drawing an interesting comparison between the old school and the rising new one, in adding: “_Déjà, Marie Taglioni s’avancait sur la pointe du pied--blanche vapeur baignée de mousselines transparentes--poétique, nébuleuse, immatérielle comme ces fées dont parle Walter Scott, qui errent la nuit près des fontaines et portent en guise de ceinture un collier de perles de rosée!... Lise Noblet se résolut non sans combat--à prouver qu’il y a au monde quelque chose de plus agréable qu’une femme qui tourne sur l’ongle de l’orteil avec une jambe parallèle à l’horizon, dans l’attitude d’un compas farée. Elle céda, à Fanny Elssler, ‘Fenella’ de La Muette qu’elle avait créée, et lui prit en échange--‘El Jales de Jérès.’ ‘Las Boleros de Cadiz’ ‘La Madrileña,’ et toutes sortes d’autres cachuchas et fandangos. Grâce à ces concessions, Mdlle. Noblet resta jusqu’en 1840, attachée à l’ Opéra._”