Galignanis News Room <1>Paris.
Thursday. Decr 4th/68.
My dear Father.
I left London on Tuesday last as soon as my passport was ready going down to Dover by the night express. I slept at the Lord Warden <2> and crossed to Calais and came on here yesterday. I left Lon Dover by the morning boat and had a remarkably smooth passage but a wet one. I preferred staying on deck with one of those waterproofs which the people give you to going down into the saloon where some people were sure to be sick, and so though I got rather damp I did not even feel uncomfortable though I had hardly got any sleep the night before. I think the sea air kept me awake which I beli think it sometimes does when I first come across it.
I came on to Paris by a train which sometimes goes very fast down inclines,. and The carriage gave a sort of short quivering shake which was all very well as long as ones head was not against the sides, but when it was, the shaking rather interfered with the felicity with which one would otherwise have gone to sleep.
It is a drizzly day in Paris and a dull one. – I have been walking about a good deal, and went inside Notre Dame. I was rather dissapointed with it. It is not to so fine in its proportions as a church at Chalons Sur Marne <3> which it much resembles, and there is such a deal of painting and of coloured glass that the interior is very dark. It is also unpleasantly cold in the choir and chevette –.
I was shewn a large collection of treasures in the charge of the Sacristan. Many gifts of Napoleon 1st, not many Medieval relics, but some very handsome works given by the present emperor, and made in Paris in the “style Grec” not classical you understand by but Greek church. – .
I like the external view of the Apse of Notre Dame, much of the circular tracery &c being fine, but the effect rather detracted from by the flying buttresses –. The sides of the Seine with its quays are by no means equal to the new Thames Embankment. – I did not get into the Sainte Chapelle <4> today but I took a walk round it. – There is very little of antiquity remaining in the neighbourhood of Notre Dame.
A man asked me just now in the Rue de Rivoli if I was an Englishman, and then began a story about his not being able to pay his hotel bill this even today but would tomorrow. I at once said decidedly that I could not assist him and walked off. Of course he was a sharper. <5> –
Every body seems to be walking under the arcades in the Rue de Rivoli, as it is wet.
I went in to St. Etienne du Mont, which is very singular semi Renaissance, and the elaborate screen and gallery which is the best thing in the church is not so good in reality as it appears in the photographs.
Would you be so good as to ask Goodwin <6> to bring two leather cigar cases of mine which are lying about in the cloister dressing room, and which I forgot. also if also if he can find room it might be a good thing to bring two flannel shirts of mine, but not the Red & Blue one
Some of the building of the present period that I have seen I like very well, others I think very inferior.
I am staying at the Hotel d’Orient. I do not think I shall stay long here, particularly if the weather continues rainy. – I am [illegible deletion] writing also to Italy.
Your affect son
Charles –
[envelope:]
Angleterre
H Fox Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Galignani’s Messenger, Paris.
2. Dover.
3. 81 miles north of Lyons; possibly the church of St Vincent, formerly the cathedral.
4. Situated in the heart of Paris, the Sainte-Chapelle was built (early – mid 13th century) for King Louis IX (1214–1270) in the French Court Gothic style.
5. A cheat.
6. George Goodwin (d. 1875), footman at Lacock Abbey.