A REMARKABLE STREET.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 348, 19 December 1879, Page 19

A REMARKABLE STREET.

Few streets in Paris have a history more interesting than the Rue *i Bac on account of the celebrities of all kinds who have lived there. In 1714, a woody ard occupied a cornel of the street where the Cafe d'Orsay now stands. Opposite, at No. 1, was the Hotel de Nesle-Mailly. This house had a private entrance in the Rue de Beaune, reserved exclusively for Louis XV., who came to visit the four sisters, his favourites, the last of whom was the Duchess de Chateauroux. At No. 4 lived Jean Goejou, who died in 1572. On the other side was the Hotel des Mousquetaires Gris, which was replaced in 1780 by a market called Boulainvilliers, suppressed in 1843. An eminent painter of the classical school, member of the Institute, Louis Hersent, who died in 1860, resided at No. 10. On the left, at the corner of the Rue de l'University, transferred in 1763 to the College Louis le-Grand. The draper's shop Petit-St. Thomas stands on what was the garden. No. 34 belonged under the First Empire to the Duke d'Otrante, Minister of Police under Napoleon and Louis XVIII. At No. 35, in the reign of Louis XVI., lived the Count d'Entraigues, whose marriage with Mdlle. Saint- Huberti, a singer at the opera, made a great noise. The house belonged to General Custine, who perished on the scaffold in 1793. No. 46 was the Hotel de Boulogne, to which is attached a large garden with some fine trees. M. de Boulogne was a wealty merchant at Guadeloupe, and brought back with him a son he had by a negress, the famous Chevalier de Saint Georges, author of operas, concertos, sonatas, etc., who died in 1799. Piron was a familiar friend of the family, and the celebrated themist Chaptel, member of the Institute, resided there for a time. M. Veron, formerly director of the Opera and Deputy, was born at No. 53. At the numbers 85, 87, and 89 was a monastery of Franciscans, suppressed in 1792. The chapel was converted into a theatre, where the well-known actor Potier made his debut in 1794. It was afterwards turned into a dancing room, called the Salle de Mars. Prince and Princess de Salm lived at No. 97, and No. 101 was the Hotel d'Aubusson de la Feuillade, the celebrated courtier of Louis XIV., who created the Place des Victoires. There were, besides, the former Hotel de Seyssac and the Hotel de Clermont Tonnerre, which, after 1830, was inhabited by Chateaubriand, and the Hotel de la Valliere, the grand-nephew of the Duchess of this name, a celebrated book-collector, whose library became the nucleus of the Bibliotheque de I' Arsenal after his death in 1780. The largest building now belongs to a convent of Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul. — Galignani,

During the recent thunderstorm, a number of aerolites fell at Wendover, Bucks. One of these is being exhibited at Aylesbury, being between three and four inches long, and about six inches in circumference, weighing twenty ounces. A correspondent writing from Switzerland says : " The peasants are getting in their hay. The peasant woman hereabout works afield in a velvet coiset and a straw hat plentifully adorned by ribbons. She looks like an operatic haymaker. It is impossible to imagine that she is real. These good people in the happy valley near Interlaken do not appear to feel that life is especially serious ; they work a little, then repose in the shade of the trees, watching the throngs of tourists ge by, without ever manifesting curiosity as to the comings and going of the strangers. They ask only to eat and drink well, to sleep well, to die well, and to know as little about the outside world at possible. Perhaps they are wise. 1 '