Though it is forty years since these remarks were written, they still, _mutatis mutandis_, apply to the present day. Even the greatest and most fashionable shops on the Boulevards have their names or painted signs; the subjects are mostly taken from the principal topic of conversation at the time the establishment opened, whether politics, literature, the drama, or fine arts: thus we have _à la Présidence_; _au Prophète_; _au Palais d’Industrie_; _aux Enfants d’Edouard_, (the Princes in the Tower;) _au Colosse de Rhodes_; _à la Tour de Malakoff_; _à la Tour de Nesles_, (tragedy;) _au Sonneur de St Paul_, (tragedy;) _à la Dame Blanche_; _à la Bataille de Solferino_; _au Trois Mousquetaires_; _au Lingot d’Or_, (a great lottery swindle in 1852;) _à la Reine Blanche_, &c.[48] Some of these signs are remarkably well painted, in a vigorous, bold style, with great bravura of brush; for instance, _les Noces de Vulcain_, on the Quai aux Fleurs, is painted in a style which would do no discredit to the artist of _les Romains de la Décadence_. _Roger Bontemps_ is still frequent on the French signboard, where he is represented as a jolly rubicund toper, crowned with vine-leaves and seated astride a tun, with a brimming tumbler in his hand; this is a favourite sign with publicans. At the tobacconist’s door we may see a sign representing an elderly Paul Pry-looking gentleman enjoying a pinch of snuff. The _Bureaux des Remplacements Militaires_ particularly excel in a gaudy display of military subjects, where the various passages of a soldier’s life are represented with all the romance of the warriors of the comic opera. Here can be seen the gallant troopers now courting Jeanette or Fanchon; now charging Russians, Cabyles, or Austrians, according to the date of the picture. Elsewhere a lancer on a fantastic wild horse; a guide, walking with a pretty _vivandière_, or an old grenadier with the Legion of Honour upon his breast;--“all the glorious pomp and circumstance of war” portrayed to entice the French clodhopper to sell himself “to death or to glory.” More pacific pictures may be observed at the door of the midwife; there we see a sedate-looking matron in ecstasy over the interesting young stranger she has just ushered forth into the world, whilst paterfamilias stands with a triumphant look in the background. Then there is the Herculean coalheaver at the door of the _auvergnat_, who sells coals and firewood; and landscapes with cattle at the dairyshops. But amongst the best painted are those at the doors of the _marchands de vins et de comestibles_, where we see frequently bunches of fruit, game, flowers, glasses, hams, fowls, fish, all cleverly grouped together, and painted in a dashing style. There is one, for instance, in the Rue Bellechasse, and another in the Rue St Lazare, that are well worth inspection. These paintings are generally on the door-posts and window-frames; they are painted on thin white canvas, fixed with varnish at the back of a thick