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[Page 67]
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Madame Louise's Milliners shop.
The Paris women are the most beautifully dressed women in the world as Paris is regarded as the fashion centre of the world. There are no trams in the city proper (the same as London) only 'buses. The Tubes and the Metropolitan Underground are the same as London.
The first afternoon we had a look over the city on various 'buses. That night we went to the National Opera House and witnessed a performance of the Grand Opera – "Othello". This is the most famous Opera House in the world. It occupies a whole square and the magnificence of it is wonderful. It is situated in the centre of the city and all the streets radiate from it (Place de l'Opera). The exterior is grand. Great statues of musicians adorn every vantage point. The wonderful marble staircase inside is world famous and we walked up it to our seats. Then the magnificent chandelier is world famous also.
Next day a party of twenty in charge of an English lady, went by train to Fontainbleau – 40 miles from Paris. Saw all through the great Castle there. The great courtyard in front of the building is known as the Coeur des Adieux, being the spot where Napoleon bade farewell to his generals before his abdication to Elba in 1814. One ascends the famous horseshoe staircase and passes through rooms (with magnificent ceiling, frescoes, and furniture) where our guide points out the table on which Napoleon signed his abdication in 1814. We see his throne room and the magnificent bed chamber of Marie Antionette [Antoinette] and the room set apart for Pope Pius VII who was kept prisoner here for eighteen months, because he refused to sanction the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine, and also a lock of Napoleon's hair and many other things of historical and artistic interest.
We returned to Paris and on the following morning (Sunday) a party of us went to the British Embassy Church and were seated in the front seat where the Prince of Wales had sat the previous Sunday when he attended Church there. It was quite nice to hear a proper church service in English again, and the sermon was preached by Bishop Gwynne of Khartoum. In the afternoon went to the Pantheon where we saw many ancient and interesting things and then went on to the Hotel des Invalides to see Napoleon's tomb. After passing through many ante chambers one ascends a broad flight of steps and is quickly in a circular chapel. The remains of the great Napoleon are in a red marble tomb – the gift of the Emperor Nicholas of Russia (said to be carved out of the largest single block of marble in the world) which reposes in the centre of a sunken crypt, surrounded by twelve massive figures, representing his chief victories. Only by paying a silent act of homage can one view the tomb, for in looking over the marble balustrade, it is necessary to bow the head.
The tomb of Napoleon II is nearby, and an empty niche is also there. This was ready to receive the tomb of Napoleon III, but after his abdication and flight to England – in 1870 – he died there and is buried, together with the Empress Eugenie, at Farnborough Roman Catholic Church, and which I have seen.