France -- Description and travel; France -- Social life and customs
a very sweet smell. While dinner was preparing we walked out towards
the palace stables. We passed by several neat houses, with gardens
and trellis-work covered with vines before the door. The trellis-work
was arched: I should think when it is covered with bunches of grapes
it must be very pretty. The stables consist of one enormous building,
six hundred feet in length and forty in height; above the entrance are
some very fine figures and horses. There was formerly a figure, which
the Allies melted into cannon balls when they were quartered there.
The palace was destroyed by a mob from Paris early in the Revolution;
a smaller château connected with it was spared, which is now the
habitation of the Prince of Condé. Several people asked if we wanted
to see the inside of the stables, but we had not sufficient time. It
was a very fine evening, the country round was very beautiful; there
was a great deal of wood about it. We walked a little in the garden
belonging to the inn; there were an immense number of cockchafers that
flew humming over our heads. Soon after we returned there was a great
deal of thunder and lightning. Before I went to bed I sat and watched
it at a window; when it lightened, the whole sky seemed illuminated. It
continued during part of the night, so that we were obliged to close
the windows. I liked Chantilly better than any place I had seen in
France.
_May 4th._--Before we set off we got some rolls to take in the
carriage. They were not the rolls, a yard and half a quarter long, but
quite round like rings, that the bakers carry hung over their arms. We
took a turn in the garden, where we met with an Irishman, who told us a
great deal about the stables, etc. He said that the Prince of Condé had
an extensive forest, where he was very fond of hunting; that one day he
would hunt the wild-boar, another day the roe-buck, another the stag,
and so on. After we had left Chantilly the country was very pretty,
and the forest of Chantilly soon began to skirt the road on the left.
Near Ecouen is a seminary for the education of the orphan daughters
of the members of the Legion of Honour. As we approached Paris, the
postillions were very smart, their queues were well powdered, and
at one place their boots were so large that they stepped into them.
Whenever the French postillions come near to a town or village, they
begin to crack their whips very dexterously, with which they make an
immense noise. The horses are tied with ropes, have sheep-skins over
their backs, and are always three abreast. Near many of the villages
we saw crucifixes and images. There are some little obelisks on the
side of the road, where Philip the Bold and his brothers rested when
they bore the corpse of their father from Paris to St. Denis. There is
an avenue of trees on each side of the road which bears marks of the
ravages of war. Soon after the village of La Chapelle we passed the
barrier of Paris. We entered Paris along the Rue de Clichy. We stopped
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