Interpreters.-Attached to each hotel are individuals called Valets de Place, whose business it is to speak various languages, and possess a perfect knowledge of Paris and its Environs; they are to be hired at 5frs. or 6frs. per day. These men are both cunning and intelligent, not easily embarrassed, and prompt to obey the most distant hint; they know how to judge of and flatter the tastes of their ephemeral masters, and not unfrequently turn their weaknesses to their own advantage; however, with proper care, they will be found very serviceable.

Coffee Houses (Cafés) abound in Paris, particularly in the leading thoroughfares and on the boulevards; their number, variety, and elegance are striking, and they are every way adapted for convenience and amusement. Of late years they have been fitted up with the most lavish expenditure, one person having laid out no less a sum than £8000 in decorating his café. Here all classes mix together; strangers converse with each other; some play at dominoes, some read the newspapers and periodicals, others sip their coffee, liqueur, or enjoy their glass of lemonade. Attired in an elegant costume, and adorned with jewels, on an elevated seat, and surrounded by bouquets, sits a female, who directs the proceedings, and receives the money. These presiding deities are generally chosen for their beauty; they are agreeable in their manners, and the smile of good humour seems to have taken possession of their lips. The waiters are active and polite, and as the charge for every article is presented on a printed bill, there is no fear of imposition. When the word estaminet is added, it implies that smoking is allowed. The principal Cafés are

The Cafe de Paris, Boulevard des Italiens. Beneath the windows of this fashionable resort is a favourite lounging place, where ladies and gentlemen sit in chairs ranged along in the summer evenings to chat and take the air, while the pedestrian loungers of the boulevards walk between the seated idlers, gazing on and gazed at.

The Café de Foy, Palais Royal. This was the first place of the kind opened here, and still continues to stand

high. Far from being the most brilliant in Paris, it is perhaps the most frequented.

The Café de la Régence, place du Palais Royal, famous for its chess playing. Here formerly resorted the celebrated Philidor, J. J. Rousseau, and other distinguished

men.

The Café Tortoni, Boulevard des Italiens, celebrated for its ices, of which in the summer months some thousands are consumed every evening. It is the fashionable resort from eight to eleven at night of the higher classes, and perhaps a more brilliant assemblage cannot be met with in any public resort in Europe.

The Café Turc, Boulevard du Temple, has a large garden attached, set out with tables and chairs for the enjoyment of the fresh air in fine weather; the interior of the building is in the most costly style of embellishment, in the oriental fashion. The expense of fitting up was 200,000frs. The number of the coffee houses of all denominations in Paris and on the outskirts is beyond calculation.

RESTAURATEURS AND TRAITEURS, OR EATING HOUSES. THESE establishments, being frequented by the greater portion of the inhabitants, both male and female, are very numerous (for a list see the Almanac de Commerce). At these houses, the articles for the day's consumption are priced upon a printed list, containing frequently as many as 300 dishes, from which each person according to his taste or his means may choose. At many, dinners are given at a stated price per head; at the best of the houses, at fixed prices, a good dinner may be had, including a pint of wine, for two francs; yet almost every street in Paris contains houses where tolerable dinners may be had for 22, 25, or 30 sous. The dinner in all cases consists of soup, three dishes of meat or vegetables, a dessert, bread at discretion, and wine; two sous are generally added for the waiter. The safer plan for the English traveller will be to prefer one of the better class

houses, though he may pay a little more. There are three or four English houses of this sort, one of which, kept by Mr. Byron, rue Favart, is very well attended, both by French and English.

The Traiteurs are establishments where dinners are cooked and sent out according to order. A family residing at an hotel or in lodgings, will find it a good plan to arrange with a neighbouring traiteur to supply so many dishes daily, at a certain hour, at so much per head. There are also two English pastry-cooks, one in rue Neuve du Luxembourg, the other in rue St. Honoré; both these houses undertake to supply dinners and suppers.

NEWSPAPER PRESS.

BEFORE the first Revolution, the Journals of Paris were few, very small, and confined to the movements of the court, the fashionable world, accidents, and the drama. The press becoming free in 1789, a great number of daily papers were published. Under Buonaparte the censorship became as rigorous as under the old régime, and the daily papers were reduced to five or six. After the restoration of the Bourbons, the censorship was abolished, but no political journal could appear without the special permission of the government; and such as abused the liberty of the press were liable to be prosecuted and suppressed. In 1830, an attempt to renew the rigours of the censorship (among other causes), led to the Revolution which placed the present dynasty on the French throne. Since that period, the press has wonderfully increased in number and importance. The daily papers are altogether political; they have one great failing, they do not sufficiently represent the material interests of society; a wrong done in private life finds little sympathy in the Paris press, unless it can be made to shadow forth some political feeling. A daily English paper is published with great success since 1814, called the Messenger, and also a weekly paper devoted to literature alone. All the papers may be seen daily in places called "Cabinets de Lectures," each person paying

one penny for a sitting. The reader is not confined to any number of papers, but may read them all if he have time and patience. These reading-rooms are very numerous. There is also an English reading-room in the rue St. Honoré, No. 366, and one in the rue Vivienne, No. 18.

HACKNEY COACHES, CABS, ETC.

EVERY carriage in Paris is numbered, and the number registered at the Police Office; those plying for hire have their numbers marked in a conspicuous manner. Of the latter there are nearly 2500. A tariff drawn up by the police regulates the fares of all, and each driver of a vehicle is bound to have a copy of the tariff on his person to refer to in case of dispute. In taking a vehicle, the stranger should say whether he intends to take it by the hour or for a single drive. A coach called fiacre costs lfr. 50c. per course for any distance within the Outward Wall; the same carriage costs 2frs. 25c. for the first hour, and 1fr. 75c. for each following hour. The charge for Cabriolets is lfr. the course; 1fr. 75c. the first hour, and 1fr. 50c. each succeeding hour. These prices are from six o'clock in the morning till twelve at night; after that hour the tariff is much higher. There are besides these, glass coaches, having all the appearance of private carriages, and which do not go on the public stands, the fares of which are much higher. There are also what are termed Cabriolets de Remise, a neater species of cab, which are also more expensive than the ordinary cab. There are, moreover, four-wheeled Cabs, Mylords, Citadines, or small carriages for two persons. We have given the fares of the principal sort merely to serve as a standard. The stranger can seldom be at a loss, as every carriage has a printed card in a conspicuous part of the interior, with a list of fares. The drivers mostly are very civil, and their honesty is proverbial. Every driver is obliged by the police regulations to hand his fare a printed card containing his number, as he is going into the carriage or cab. These tickets should be preserved as the

means of recovering any property that may have been inadvertently left in the carriage, or indeed in case of any complaint it may be necessary to make. The office to apply at in case of need is 31, rue Guénégaud.

Omnibuses.-This convenient and social conveyance is numerous in Paris, and on a novel plan. Sets of a given name traverse Paris in all directions from a very early hour in the morning till ten or eleven at night; six sous is the fare for the whole line, each line crossing the town completely in its direction; but should the passenger's road lie in an angle, the omnibus he starts in sets him down at the office on the line of another omnibus in a cross direction, (except on Sundays and fête days,) giving him a ticket, which entitles him to the remainder of his road without any further outlay. This is termed corresponding, and is very convenient for the Parisian or stranger, though it seems a very complicated arrangement; however, it seems to answer very well. Omnibuses are licensed to carry fourteen or sixteen persons. They go rather slowly, but when once the start is made, they do not linger on the road, having no competition to fear, as each line belongs to a company. The omnibuses start

every ten minutes through the day, and there is a constant succession of them backwards and forwards. There are many of these vehicles plying between Paris and the several places of note within two leagues.*

*The following list of the small places round Paris, with the places that coaches or omnibuses start from, may be interesting.

Arcueil, bureau rue Christine, No. 4.

Argenteuil, rue de l'Arbre Sec, No. 66, rue de Rivoli, No. 2.

Ablon, chemin de fer de Corbeil.

Arpajon, bureaux rue Mazarine, No. 36.

Auteuil, place du Carrousel.

Belleville, omnibus place des Petits Pères et place de l'Hôtel de Ville.

Bellevue, chemin de fer de la rive gauche.

Bercy, omnibus place de l'Oratoire.

Bicêtre et Villejuif, quai de la Cité.

Boissy St. Léger, place de la Bastille.

Bourg la Reine, quai Conti.

Brie, rue Cloche Perche St. Antoine.

Chantilly, rue du Faubourg St. Denis, No. 51.