Show GS STUD EXT IJFL Boulevards from the Church of the Madeleine to the Porte St Martin an ancient gate of the seventeenth century now in the center of the city and as it used to form part of the fortifications showing the great growth of the city Boulevards are numerous in Paris but here are les grands boulevards Although in reality only one long wide street every few blocks they take a different What name hence the plural Main street is to Logan or Broadway to New York that the grands boulevards are to Paris Here are the chief theatres the richest cafes the largest hotels and the most elegant shops All the year long the crowd flows up and down these boulevards and on the sunny afternoons preceding Christmas they are especially animated Let us start at the Madeleine and drift along for a few blocks “tlaner” in the local vernacular First the flower market by the church attracts our attention Here are numerous booths each presided over by a matronly woman who sits beside her fragrant wares her fingers busy knitting her eyes ever alert for a customer and her tongue ever ready to hail him with a “renez voir monsieur” And you can’t help going to take a look so alluring is the display so gracious the in- vitation Here besides the heaps of traditional holly and mistletoe are prettily grouped in the background vases of roses and carnations while white lilacs and mimosa make picturesque masses of white and gold at the sides and the front is filled in with bunches of violets and boxes of lily of the |