PARIS EXPOSITION.

Patea Mail, Volume XII, Issue 54, 2 June 1899, Page 3

PARIS EXPOSITION.

The French Government has been more or less anxious lately as to its inability to provide fitting quarters for the royal guests that are expected to visit the Exposition of 1900. The Palais d’Orsay is occupied by Government offices, which cannot be dislodged. The Palais Royal is also in use. The Pavilion do Flore is inconvenient, never having been modernised. Saint Cloud no longer exists as a possible hahita tion. Compegne and Fontainebleau are too distant, and Versailles is not habitable. The authorities examined the live principal public hotels, and decided that they would not do. They finally thought of Bagatelle, beyond the Bois, with its park and chateau. It is there that the royal guests probably xvill bo lodged. Negotiations already have been begun, both by the State and by the city of Paris, to purchase the estate. Bagatelle is situated on the shore of the Seine, on the road to Lougchamps. Its location is such that it can easily he reached from the exposition grounds, Avhile from the chateau itself a bird’s-eye A’iew of Paris is obtained. The estate first attracted attention in the middle of the last century, when a paAulion Avas built there, which was used as a sort of half-way house on the road to Vorsaill s. Then the Comte d’Artois purchased it for Maiio Antoinette, built tho present cha'ean , and laid out the grounds. In 1779 the park and gardens were thrown open to .the Parisian public. Then came the revolution, and Bagatelle became a Aviue garden. Napoleon restored it, and used it as a summer house. After the revolution of 1830 the estate avus detached from tho Crown and sold. It was purchased by the Marquis of Hertford. In tho fifties Empress Eugenie Avished to possess it, hut Hertford Avould not sell. When ho died some years ago it enmo into tho possession of tho late Sir Eichard Wallace, from Avhoso heirs tho French officials are trying - to buy it.