Get the full ebook with Bonus Features for a Better Reading Experience on ebookgate.

com

Pocket Rough Guide Paris Rough Guide Pocket Guides

Ruth Blackmore

https://ebookgate.com/product/pocket-rough-guide-paris-
rough-guide-pocket-guides-ruth-blackmore/

OR CLICK HERE

DOWLOAD NOW

Download more ebook instantly today at https://ebookgate.com

Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) available
Download now and explore formats that suit you...

Rough Guide Phrasebook Japanese Rough Guides

https://ebookgate.com/product/rough-guide-phrasebook-japanese-rough-
guides/

ebookgate.com

The Rough Guide to France 10 Rough Guide Travel Guides

10th Edition Rough Guides

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-rough-guide-to-france-10-rough-
guide-travel-guides-10th-edition-rough-guides/

ebookgate.com

Rough Guide to the Energy Crisis Rough Guide Reference

Series Rough Guides

https://ebookgate.com/product/rough-guide-to-the-energy-crisis-rough-
guide-reference-series-rough-guides/

ebookgate.com

Rough Guide Phrasebook Swahili 4th Edition Rough Guides

https://ebookgate.com/product/rough-guide-phrasebook-swahili-4th-
edition-rough-guides/

ebookgate.com
The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget 1 Rough Guide
Travel Guides 1st Edition Rough Guides

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-rough-guide-to-south-america-on-a-
budget-1-rough-guide-travel-guides-1st-edition-rough-guides/

ebookgate.com

Rough Guide Mandarin Chinese Phrasebook with Audio Rough

Guides

https://ebookgate.com/product/rough-guide-mandarin-chinese-phrasebook-
with-audio-rough-guides/

ebookgate.com

The Rough Guide to South India 3rd Edition Rough Guides

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-rough-guide-to-south-india-3rd-
edition-rough-guides/

ebookgate.com

The Rough Guide to Laos 2011 4th Edition Rough Guides

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-rough-guide-to-laos-2011-4th-
edition-rough-guides/

ebookgate.com

The Rough Guide to Andalucia 6th Edition Rough Guide

Travel Guides Geoff Garvey

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-rough-guide-to-andalucia-6th-
edition-rough-guide-travel-guides-geoff-garvey/

ebookgate.com
 POCKET ROUGH GUIDE

PARIS
• PARIS’S BEST RESTAURANTS, BARS, SHOPS AND HOTELS
• EXPERT ITINERARIES
Pocket Rough Guide

PARIS

written and researched by

RUTH BLACKMORE AND

JAMES McCONNACHIE
with additional contributions by

SAM COOK
 Contents
INTRODUCTION 4
Paris at a glance ........................ 7 Itineraries ................................. 8

BEST OF PARIS 12
Big Sights................................ 14 Bars and nightlife .................... 24
Cultural Paris .......................... 16 Paris calendar ......................... 26
Dining ..................................... 18 Paris for kids ........................... 28
Romantic Paris ........................ 20 Green Paris.............................. 30
Paris shopping ......................... 22 Parisian’s Paris ........................ 32

PLAC
PL ACES
ES 34
1 The Islands ........................ 36 9 The Quartier Latin .............112
2 The Louvre ......................... 42 10 St-Germain .......................122
3 The Champs-Elysées and 11 Montparnasse and southern
Tuileries ............................ 46 Paris ................................132
4 The Eiffel Tower area .......... 54 12 Montmartre and
5 The Grands Boulevards and northern Paris...................142
passages ........................... 66 13 The Bois de Boulogne and
6 Beaubourg and Les Halles... 78 western Paris ...................152
7 The Marais......................... 84 14 Excursions ........................158
8 Bastille and eastern Paris ... 98

ACCOMMODATION
A 164
Hotels ....................................166 Hostels ..................................174

ESSENTIALS 176
Arrival ....................................178 Chronology .............................189
Getting around ........................180 French....................................192
Directory A–Z..........................184 Index......................................198
Festivals and events................188

<< CAFÉ DE L A MAIRIE, ST-GERMAIN

< T H E LO U V R E A N D P Y R A M I D S
3
 INTRODUCTION TO

PARIS
INTRODUCTION TO PARIS

A trip to Paris, famous as the most romantic of

destinations, is one of those lifetime musts. Long
the beating heart of European civilization, it remains
one of the world’s most refined yet passionate cities.
The very fabric of the place is exquisite, with its
magnificent avenues and atmospheric little back
streets, its grand formal gardens and intimate
neighbourhood squares. And for all the famed pride
and hauteur of its citizens, Paris has a warmth about
it these days: its cafés, restaurants and nightlife
venues hum with cosmopolitan chatter, while new
schemes to reclaim the city for bikes and pedestrians
have brought the streets to life.
B R A S S E R I E D E L’ I L E S T - LO U I S

4
THE JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG

INTRODUCTION TO PARIS
Best places for a Parisian picnic
icnicking on the grass is rarely allowed in central Paris – except on

P the elegant place des Vosges. But public benches make civilized
alternatives: try the pedestrian bridge, the Pont des Arts; the lime-tree-
shaded Square Jean XXIII, behind Notre-Dame; the intimate Jardin du Palais
Royal; or the splendid Jardin du Luxembourg. Further out, the parks of Buttes
Chaumont, Monceau, Montsouris and André-Citroën offer idyllic spots for
lounging on the grass.

The city is divided into Yet there is a host of

twenty arrondissements in a smaller museums, many
spiral, centred on the Louvre. devoted to just one artist,
The inner hub comprises and alongside the great
arrondissements 1er to 6e, and civic monuments lie
it’s here that most of the major distinct quartiers that
sights and museums are to make Paris feel more a
be found. Through the heart collection of sophisticated
of the city flows the Seine, villages than a modern-day
skirting the pair of islands metropolis. Traditional
where Paris was founded. The communities still revolve
historic pillars of the city, the around long-established
church of Notre-Dame and and well-loved cafés and
the royal palace of the Louvre, restaurants, and the student,
stand on the riverbank, along gay and immigrant quarters
with one of the world’s most are, by and large, lively and
distinctive landmarks – the well-defined. So too are the
Eiffel Tower. At times, the wealthier districts, with their
fabric of the city can feel exclusive boutiques and
inhuman, the magnificence of restaurants. Neighbourhoods
its monuments encompassing such as the elegant Marais,
the bombastic grandeur of the chichi St-Germain and
Panthéon, the industrial chic romantic Montmartre are
of the Eiffel Tower and the ideal for shopping, sitting
almost spiritual glasswork of in cafés and aimless
the Louvre pyramid. The city’s wandering, while throughout
art galleries can be equally the city you can find peaceful
intimidating: the enormous green spaces, ranging
collections at the Louvre, from formal gardens and
Musée d’Orsay and Pompidou avant-garde municipal parks
Centre are unrivalled. to ancient cemeteries.
5
 Above all, Paris is a city
defined by its food. Few When to visit
cities can compete with pring is the classic time to
the thousand-and-one
cafés, brasseries, bistrots,
S visit Paris; the weather is
mild (average daily 6–20°C),
INTRODUCTION TO PARIS

restaurants, bakeries, food

shops and markets that and plentiful bright sunny days
line the boulevards and are balanced by occasional
back alleys alike. You’ll find freshening rain showers. Autumn,
anything from ultra-modern similarly mild, and winter (1–7°C)
fashion temples to traditional can be very rewarding, but on
mirrored palaces, and from overcast days the city can feel
tiny neighbourhood bistrots to melancholic, and cold winds can
crowded Vietnamese diners. really cut down the boulevards;
Parisian nightlife is scarcely winter sun, however, is the city’s
less renowned: its theatres and
most flattering light, and hotels
concert halls pull in artists
of the highest calibre, while and restaurants are relatively
the tiny venues hosting jazz uncrowded in this season. Paris
gigs, art events and Parisian in high summer (15–25°C) is not
chanson nights offer a taste the best time to go: large numbers
of a more local, avant-garde of Parisians desert the capital
scene. The café-bars and clubs between July 15 and the end of
of the Champs-Elysées, Bastille August for the beach or mountains,
and the Left Bank fill with the and many restaurants and shops
young and style-conscious close down for much of this period.
from all over.
V I E W O V E R PA R I S AT D U S K

6
PARIS AT A GLANCE
>>EATING >>SHOPPING

PARIS AT A GLANCE
There’s a real buzz about the One of the most appealing
current Paris dining scene, shopping areas is St-Germain,
as talented young chefs open with its wide variety of
up new bistrots – the Marais clothes shops and gourmet
and eastern districts are food stores. Designer wear
good areas to try. For more and haute couture are
traditional French cuisine, concentrated around the
you don’t have to look far: Champs-Elysées and on rue
every quartier has its own du Faubourg-St-Honoré,
local bistrot, serving staples while more alternative fashion
such as steak au poivre. For a boutiques can be found in the
really authentic experience, Marais, especially around rue
go for a classic brasserie such Charlot, and in Montmartre,
as Gallopin (see p.75) off the in particular on rue des
Grands Boulevards, where Martyrs. If you’re short on
you can dine amid splendid time, make for one of the
original decor. You can almost department stores, such as
always eat more cheaply at Printemps or Galeries Lafayette
lunchtime, when most places on the Right Bank, or Bon
offer set menus from around Marché on the Left Bank. For
€14. Even some of the haute quirky one-off buys and curios,
cuisine restaurants become just head for the atmospheric
about affordable at lunch. passages (nineteenth-century
shopping arcades), just off the
>>DRINKING Grands Boulevards.
It’s easy to go drinking in Paris:
most cafés stay open late and
>>NIGHTLIFE
serve alcoholic drinks as well The best clubs in Paris
as coffee, and old-fashioned double up as live venues,
wine bars and English-style but dancefloors rarely
“pubs” can be found warm up before 1am. Good
everywhere. That said, certain eclectic venues include the
areas specialize in late-night boats moored beside the
drinking. The Marais offers Bibliothèque Nationale, and
trendy but relaxed café-bars; Oberkampf classics such as
further east, the Bastille and Le Bataclan and Le Nouveau
Oberkampf areas have lots Casino. Serious clubbers
of youthful venues, many should chase down the latest
doubling as clubs. On the Left soirée, though the clubs Rex,
Bank, the Quartier Latin has Showcase and Social Club are
lots of postage-stamp-sized generally good bets. Rue des
studenty dives, while Lombards has some classic
St-Germain is the place for venues, notably the jazz club
cheery posh partying. Le Sunside.

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WHERE TO EAT, DRINK AND

SHOP ARE LISTED AT THE END OF EACH PLACES CHAPTER
7
 Day One in Paris
1 Ile de la Cité > p.36. Paris was
founded on this tiny island, which
ITINERARIES

rises out of the River Seine.

2 Notre-Dame > p.38. The
magnificent Gothic cathedral of
Notre-Dame is the uplifting, historic
heart of the city.
3 Sainte-Chapelle > p.37. This
chapel is an exquisite jewel box,
walled in medieval stained glass.
4 Pont Neuf > p.36. The riverbank
quays lead west to the Pont Neuf, the
oldest bridge in the city, and beyond to
the Square du Vert Galant, where you
can sit and watch the Seine flow by.

 Lunch > p.120. Step south

into the Latin Quarter for
lunch at a classic brasserie, such as
Brasserie Balzar.

5 Jardin du Luxembourg > p.127.

These gardens are filled with people
playing tennis or chess and couples
strolling round the elegant lawns.
6 Pont des Arts > p.122. This
handsome pedestrian bridge runs from
St-Germain to the Louvre; you can
pick up the Batobus beside it and head
downriver.
7 Musée d’Orsay > p.123. This
grand old railway station houses some
of the most beguiling Impressionist
works ever painted.
8 Eiffel Tower > p.54. Continue
on the Batobus to this ever-thrilling
structure, at its best at night or
around sunset.

 Dinner > p.130. Head back

to St-Germain to an elegant
bistrot, such as Au 35.

8
Day Two in Paris
1 Pompidou centre > p.78. Begin
the day with a crash course in modern

ITINERARIES
art – the Musée National d’Art
Moderne has an unbeatable collection
of Matisses, Picassos, and more.
2 Rue Montorgueil > p.81. Stroll
down this picturesque market street,
where grocers, horse butchers and
fishmongers ply their trade alongside
traditional restaurants and trendy cafés.

 Lunch > p.74. Stop off at

Aux Lyonnais, an attractive
old bistrot serving refined Lyonnais
cuisine.

3 Galerie Vivienne > p.70. One

of a number of nineteenth-century
shopping arcades dotted around the
area, this is probably the finest, with
its lofty glass ceiling, floor mosaics
and Grecian motifs.
4 Palais Royal > p.69. The
handsome arcaded buildings of
the Palais Royal enclose peaceful
gardens and shelter quirky antique
shops selling pipes, Légion d’Honneur
medals and lead soldiers.
5 Jardin des Tuileries > p.50.
Saunter along the chestnut-tree-lined
alleys of the Jardin des Tuileries,
admiring the grand vistas, formal
flower beds and fountains.
6 Place de la Concorde > p.50.
An impressive piece of town planning,
with a gold-tipped obelisk at its
centre, broad avenues radiating off it,
and grand monuments, such as the Arc
de Triomphe, in every direction.

 Dinner > p.52. Treat yourself

to a gourmet meal at La
Table du Lancaster, perfect for an
intimate dinner.

9
 Art lover’s Paris
Paris was long the undisputed international capital of art.
The cafés of Montmartre and Montparnasse may now be
ITINERARIES

haunted only by the ghosts of the great Impressionists and

Modernists, but in the city’s galleries you can come face to
face with their living works.
1 Musée de l’Art Moderne de la
Ville de Paris > p.58. The museum
celebrates Paris’s modernists, and has
a stunning mural by Matisse and a
great view across the Seine.
2 Site de Création Contemporaine
> p.58. The gallery’s distressed-chic
interior is home to cutting-edge
contemporary art.

5 Louvre > p.42. If you’re going to

tackle the mighty Louvre, take on a
less well-known wing, such as French
sculpture or Objets d’Art.

 Dinner > p.82. Head a few

steps east to the Beaubourg
quartier for dinner at a brasserie,
such as the centuries-old Au Chien
Qui Fume.
3 Musée Rodin > p.62. Rodin’s
stirring sculptures are housed in the
most refined and elegant of Parisian
mansions.

 Lunch > p.64. Stop for a

hearty lunch at the relaxed
La Fontaine de Mars.

4 Musée Jacquemart-André
> p.48. An exceptional Italian
Renaissance collection set in a lavish
nineteenth-century palace.
10
Budget Paris
Despite Paris’s reputation as an expensive city, there are
many treats to be enjoyed for free, plus plenty of good-

ITINERARIES
value deals to be had at restaurants.
1 Hotel Bonséjour
Montmartre > p.173. Set on
a quiet street, this hotel is
a steal at €56 for a simple
double with sink, or €66 for
one with a shower.
2 Buses > p.182. Touring
by bus is enjoyable and
inexpensive; try the #29 from
Gare St-Lazare, which goes 6 Maison de Victor Hugo > p.90.
past the Opera Garnier, through the It’s free to visit the stately place des
Marais, and on to Bastille. Vosges mansion that Victor Hugo
lived in.
7 Petit Palais > p.48. The Petit
Palais hosts free lunchtime classical
concerts on Thursdays, and there's
no charge to visit the museum’s fine
collection of art.

 Dinner > p.109. The

French cuisine at charming
restaurant L'Encrier is excellent value,
3 Sacré-Coeur > p.146. There’s
no charge to visit this Parisian with set menus at €19 and €23.
landmark, but the real draw is the
view from the terrace.
4 Musée Carnavalet > p.88. One
of the city’s best free museums is
the Musée Carnavalet, devoted to the
history of Paris.

 Lunch > p.96. For a cheap

and filling lunch, get a
takeaway from L'As du Fallafel in the
Marais’ Jewish Quarter.

5 Place des Vosges > p.89. Lounge

on the grass beneath the elegant
facades of the place des Vosges, and
enjoy the entertainment from buskers
playing in the arcades.
11
 Big sights
BEST OF PARIS

1 Eiffel Tower It may seem familiar from afar, but close up the Eiffel Tower
is still an excitingly improbable structure. > p.54
14
 BEST OF PARIS
2 Pont Neuf The “new bridge” is actually the oldest in the city, and, with its
stone arches, arguably the loveliest. > p.36
4 Notre-Dame Islanded in the
Seine stands one of the world’s
greatest Gothic cathedrals,
Notre-Dame. > p.38

3 Sacré-Coeur steps From

the steps of Sacré-Coeur, atop
Montmartre’s hill, the silvery roofs of
Paris spread to the horizon. > p.146

5 The Panthéon The domed Panthéon shelters the remains of the French
Republic’s heroes – and offers a superb view. > p.116
15
 Cultural Paris
BEST OF PARIS

1 Musée Moreau Gustave Moreau’s eccentric canvases cover every inch of his
studio’s walls; below is the apartment he shared with his parents. > p.148
16
 3 Musée Guimet Visiting the
Buddhist statues and sculptures
at the beautifully designed Musée
Guimet is a distinctly spiritual
experience. > p.57

BEST OF PARIS
2 Musée Jacquemart-André The
Jacquemart-André couple’s sumptuous
Second Empire residence displays their
choice collection of Italian, Dutch and
French masters. > p.48

4 Musée Carnavalet This fascinating museum brings the history of Paris

to life through an extraordinary collection of paintings, artefacts and restored
interiors. > p.88
5 Musée
National du
Moyen Age Set in
a fine Renaissance
mansion, Paris’s
Museum of the
Middle Ages
houses all manner
of exquisite objets
d’art. > p.113
17
 Dining
BEST OF PARIS

1 Le Train Bleu The glamour of the belle époque lives on in the Gare de
Lyon’s restaurant, with its gilt decor and crystal chandeliers. > p.109
18
2 L’Os à Moëlle Even Right-
Bankers are making the trip out to
this chef-run bistrot at the edge of the
city. > p.140

BEST OF PARIS
3 Le Dôme du Marais The superb
French cuisine is reason enough to
visit, but the restaurant’s glass dome
setting makes it even more special.
> p.95

4 Aux Lyonnais This revamped

old bistrot, with beautiful tiled decor,
serves up refined Lyonnais cuisine.
> p.75

5 L’Arpège Alain Passard’s unique

menu includes exquisitely inventive
morsels of rare vegetables in elegant
sauces. > p.64
19
 Romantic Paris
BEST OF PARIS

1 Lapérouse The private dining rooms at gourmet restaurant, Lapérouse, are

full of faded elegance; close the door and summon your waiter with a buzzer.
> p.130
20
 BEST OF PARIS
2 Lady with the Unicorn Tapestry, Musée du Moyen Age These five
medieval tapestries, depicting the senses, comprise perhaps the most sensual
work of art ever made. > p.113
3 Mixed
steam session,
Les Bains
du Marais At
weekends, the
fashionable steam
rooms of Les
Bains du Marais
are opened to
male-female
couples. > p.89
4 Time out in the Tuileries Taking
time out in one of Paris’s elegant
gardens can be the most romantic
thing of all. > p.50

5 Seine-watching From various

points around the city, you can sit and
watch the Seine slide by.
21
 Paris shopping
BEST OF PARIS

1 Anne Willi Willi designs simple, flattering clothes in luxurious fabrics, as

well as cute children’s outfits. > p.107
22
2 Galeries Lafayette The queen
of Paris’s department stores, with
floor upon floor of clothes and
cosmetics. > p.72

BEST OF PARIS
3 Abbesses boutiques Shoppers
with a quirky eye should make for
the independent designers and
boutiques around place des Abbesses.
4 Haut Marais boutiques > p.149
Currently the city’s hottest fashion
spot, the Haut Marais is full of stylish
independent boutiques. > p.92

5 Isabel Marant Isabel Marant

is renowned for her exciting,
ready-to-wear collections, at prices
that won’t make your eyes water.
> p.107
23
 Bars and
nightlife
BEST OF PARIS

1 La Fourmi Cool young bohemians gather at this café-bar; perfect for

pre-club drinks and finding out where to go next. > p.151
24
 BEST OF PARIS
2 Au Limonaire At this tiny backstreet venue, you can dine while listening
to young chanson singers, poets and vaudevillean acts. > p.77

3 Point Ephémère An alternative-leaning arts collective uses this buzzingly

boho ex-canal boathouse for exhibitions and gigs. > p.111
5 Le Nouveau Casino Smallish
but superb venue with esoteric live
acts and varied DJ soirées later on.
> p.111

4 Batofar There’s not much space

for a club on an old lightship, but
Batofar is a classic, friendly venue.
> p.141
25
 Paris calendar
BEST OF PARIS

1 Paris in spring The Seine-side beach of summer, the café terraces of

winter and the autumn leaves all have their appeal, but spring remains the
loveliest time to visit Paris.
26
2 Nuit Blanche During Nuit Blanche
(the Sleepless Night) hundreds of
galleries, cafés and public buildings
stage events all night. > p.188

BEST OF PARIS
3 Paris Plage For four weeks in
summer, tonnes of sand are laid out
as a beach along a stretch of the
Seine. > p.188

4 Patinoire de l’Hôtel de Ville

From early December to the end of
February there is an ice-skating rink
in front of the town hall. > p.91

5 Bastille Day July 14 is the

country’s most important national
holiday, celebrated with dancing,
fireworks and a military parade down
the Champs-Elysées. > p.188
27
 Paris for kids
BEST OF PARIS

1 Disneyland Disney’s vast theme park may not be very French, but the
children will love it. > p.162
28
 BEST OF PARIS
2 Jardin du Luxembourg boats
One of the timeless pleasures of the
Luxembourg gardens is hiring a toy
boat and sailing it across the circular
pond. > p.127
3 Parc de la Villette The Géode
Omnimax cinema is just one of the
many attractions for kids in this
futuristic park. > p.102

4 Jardin d’Acclimatation No
child could fail to be enchanted by
this wonderland of mini-canal and
train rides, adventure parks and farm
animals. > p.153
5 Jardin des Plantes These
delightful gardens have plenty of
plants, but also a small zoo and
the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution.
> p.117

29
 Green Paris
BEST OF PARIS

1 Jardin des Tuileries The French formal garden par excellence: sweeping
vistas, symmetrical flower beds and straight avenues. > p.50
30
 3 Jardin du Palais Royal
Enclosed by a collection of arcaded
shops, the Jardin du Palais Royal
makes a wonderful retreat from the
city bustle. > p.69

BEST OF PARIS
2 Jardin du Luxembourg For
all its splendid Classical design, the
Luxembourg is still the most relaxed
and friendly of Paris’s parks. > p.127

4 Place des Vosges The place des Vosges’s ensemble of pink-brick buildings
form an elegant backdrop to the attractive garden at its centre. > p.89
5 Promenade Plantée This disused railway line, now an elevated walkway,
is a great way to see a little-known part of the city. > p.98

31
 Parisian’s Paris
BEST OF PARIS

1 The Café de la Mosquée The Paris mosque serves North African snacks
and mint tea at its café, and has a hammam (steam bath) next door. > p.117
32
2 Cinema The city’s historic
cinemas, such as The Rex, are the
ideal venues for a French classic.
> p.184
3 Raspail organic market On

BEST OF PARIS
Sunday mornings, Paris’s fashionable
foodies flock to the exquisite Marché
Bio, or organic market, which runs
down boulevard Raspail. > p.128

4 Vélib’ Against all expectations,

Parisians have enthusiastically taken
to the city’s wonderful pick-up and
drop-off bike scheme. > p.182
5 Les Trois Baudets The
up-and-coming stars of French
chanson – the classic, Parisian
singer-songwriter tradition – now
have a dedicated venue. > p.151
33
1. THE ISLANDS DSS > p.3 36
At the heart of Paris
riris lile two charmi
miing isisl
i ands.
2. THEE LOUVRE > p.4 42
Onee of th
the world’s greatest
stt ar
artt muse
usse
seum
ums
mss.
m
3. THE
THEE CH
C AMPS-ELYSÉES É S ANND
TUUILE
LER
ERIESES > p.4p 46
Swe
weepi
ping avvenuees and impressiv
s ve vist
istaas – this is
Paaris at its granddest.
Par
4. THE EIFF
4. TO WER AREA > p.5
FFEEL TO .5 54
T to
The towwer so
soars
o above this refinedd ddiist
strtriricct.
5. THE GRA AND
NDDS BOOUL
OUULEVA
UL VAARDS
RDSS AN A D
PA SSAGEESS > p.6
ASSA p.6
p.66
66
Thee cit
city’s main
inn sh
s oppping
in area,eaa wi
ea, with
ith
th gra
gr ndd
departmen
m t stor
men storress and
andd el
elega
lega
eggaanntt aarc
arrcades
ades.
6. B
BEAEAAUBOUR OU G A AND LES ES HALALLLES > p.7 p 78
“Be
“B
Beaub
eaub
ubour
bourg”,
g” or thhe Pomppidoidouu Cent
C tre,e,, sttill wows
vissitors
ito
tors
rrs,
s, wh
whilile neararb
r y Les Halles is thee city
c y’ss lar
l gest
shoppi
sho
h ppi ping cen
e tretre.
7. THE
HE MAR ARA
ARA AIS > p.8 p.84
.84
Arguuabblyly thee city’yss mos
Arg ost
st be
b gu
gui ling qquuar
uillin artititier, with its
hhan
a ds
dsome
dso mee Renaissan ance
ce bui
uildi
uild
ldinngs
ld ngss.
8.. BAS
BASTI
BA TILLE
L AND EASTERN P IS > p.98
RN PAR
The vibrant
v eastern districts boast some of the city’s
best nightlife.
9. THE QUARTIER LATI A N > p.112
The historic student quarter preserves a flavour of
both medieval and bohemian Paris.
10. STT-GE RM IN > p.1
-G RMA p.1222
The Left Ban
Th Ba k hosts myriad shops and cafés.
11. MONTPARNAS ASSESEE AND SOUTHER RN
P IS > p.132
PAR
Head south for recherch
ché sights and the
h ci
ciity’
ty’s mostt
authentically local café
f s and
a restauurants.
12 MON
12. ONTMAR
MA TRE AND NORTTHER HERN N PARIS
> p.1
p.142
42
F ed for itts artists
Fam ts, hilly Montmartre still clings to
its co
c unt
unter--cul
cultur
turaal identity.
133 THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE AND WE
113. W STER
T N
P IS > p.152
PAR
Lakes, gardens and an adventure playground.
14. EXCURSIONS > p.158
Versailles and Disneyland are both a sh
short
ortrtt train
train
inn ridde
de
from Pariris.
s
 The Islands
There’s no better place to start a tour of Paris than its two
river islands, Ile de la Cité, the city’s ancient core, and
THE ISLANDS

charming, village-like Ile St-Louis. The Ile de la Cité is where

Paris began. It was settled in around 300 BC by a Celtic tribe,
the Parisii, and in 52 BC was overrun by the Romans who built
a palace-fortress at the western end of the island. In the
tenth century the Frankish kings transformed this fortress
into a splendid palace, of which the Sainte-Chapelle and
the Conciergerie prison survive today. At the other end of
the island they erected the great cathedral of Notre-Dame.
The maze of medieval streets that grew up around these
monuments was largely erased in the nineteenth century by
Baron Haussmann, Napoleon III’s Préfet de la Seine (a post
equivalent to mayor of Paris), and much of the island is now
occupied by imposing Neoclassical edifices, including the
Palais de Justice, or law courts.
PONT NEUF with twelve arches, the bridge
M Pont Neuf. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP C16
links the western tip of the Ile
Despite its name, the Pont de la Cité with both banks of
Neuf is Paris’s oldest surviving the river. It was the first in Paris
bridge, built in 1607 by to be made of stone rather than
Henri IV, one of the city’s wood, hence the name. Henri
first great town planners. A is commemorated with a stately
handsome stone construction equestrian statue.
PONT NEUF

36
SQUARE DU VERT-GALANT
M Pont Neuf. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP C16
Enclosed within the triangular
“stern” of the island, the square
du Vert-Galant is a tranquil,

THE ISLANDS
tree-lined garden and a popular
lovers’ haunt. The square takes
its name (a “Vert-Galant” is a
“green” or “lusty” gentleman)
from the nickname given to
Henri IV, whose amorous
exploits were legendary.

PLACE DAUPHINE
M Cité. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP C16
Red-brick seventeenth-century
houses flank the entrance to
place Dauphine, one of the
city’s most secluded and

INSIDE THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE

attractive squares, lined with
venerable townhouses. The
noise of traffic recedes here,
likely to be replaced by nothing
more intrusive than the gentle
tap of boules being played in
the shade of the chestnuts.
worshipped; very simply
THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE
decorated, it gives no clue as to
4 bd du Palais M Cité. Daily: March–Oct the splendour that lies ahead in
9.30am–6pm; Nov–Feb 9am–5pm. €8, the upper chapel. Here you’re
combined ticket with the Conciergerie €11. greeted by a truly dazzling
MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP D16 sight – a vast, almost
The slender spire of the uninterrupted expanse of
Sainte-Chapelle soars high magnificent stained glass,
above the Palais de Justice supported by deceptively
buildings. Though damaged fragile-looking stone columns.
in the Revolution, it was When the sun streams
sensitively restored in the through, the glowing blues and
mid-nineteenth century and reds of the stained glass dapple
remains one of the finest the interior and it feels as if
achievements of French you’re surrounded by myriad
High Gothic, renowned for brilliant butterflies. The
its exquisite stained-glass windows, two-thirds of which
windows. are original (the others are
The building was constructed from the nineteenth-century
by Louis IX between 1242 and restoration), tell virtually the
1248 to house a collection of entire story of the Bible,
holy relics, including Christ’s beginning on the north side
crown of thorns and a with Genesis and various other
fragment of the True Cross, books of the Old Testament,
bought from the bankrupt continuing with the Passion of
empire of Byzantium. First you Christ (east end) and ending
enter the lower chapel, where with the Apocalypse in the
servants would have rose window.
37
 THE CONCIERGERIE been reconstructed to show
what they might have been like
2 bd du Palais M Cité. Daily: March–Oct
at the time of the French
9.30am–6pm; Nov–Feb 9am–5pm. €7,
Revolution.
combined ticket with Sainte-Chapelle €11.
MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP D16 CATHÉDRALE DE NOTRE-DAME
THE ISLANDS

Located within the Palais de

Justice complex, the M Cité & M /RER St-Michel. Cathedral
Conciergerie is Paris’s oldest daily 8am–6.45pm; free. Towers daily:
prison, where Marie-Antoinette April–Sept 10am–6.30pm, till 11pm Sat &
and, in their turn, the leading Sun June–Aug; Oct–March 10am–5.30pm;
figures of the Revolution were €8, under-18s free. Guided tours in English
incarcerated before execution. Wed & Thurs 2pm, Sat 2.30pm; 1hr–1hr
It was turned into a prison – 30min; free; meet at welcome desk.
and put in the charge of a MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP E17
“concierge”, or steward – after One of the masterpieces of the
Etienne Marcel’s uprising in Gothic age, the Cathédrale de
1358 led Charles V to decamp Notre-Dame rears up from the
to the greater security of the Ile de la Cité like a ship moored
Louvre. One of its towers, on by huge flying buttresses. It was
the corner of the quai de among the first of the great
l’Horloge, bears Paris’s first Gothic cathedrals built in
public clock, built in 1370 and northern France and one of the
now fully restored. most ambitious, its nave
Inside the Conciergerie are reaching an unprecedented
several splendidly vaulted 33m. It was begun in 1160 and
Gothic halls, among the few completed around 1345. In the
surviving vestiges of the seventeenth and eighteenth
original Capetian palace. centuries it fell into decline,
Elsewhere a number of rooms suffering its worst depredations
and prisoners’ cells, including during the Revolution. It was
Marie-Antoinette’s cell, have only in the 1820s that the
Tour
RUE DE RIVOLI St-Jacques HÔTEL
R. DE LA TACHERIE
IS
NT NE UF

DE VILLE
R UE BE RT
R UE DE LA

RUE E. COL ONN E

MON NAIE

SQ. DE LA TOUR
NA
PO IR EE

R UE J . LA N T I ER ST-JACQUES Assistance PLACE DE

ON

St-Germain-
ORFEVR
R . D E S BOURD

L’HOTEL
R. DES ES

l’Auxerrois CHÂTELET VIC TO RIA Publique DE VILLE

R U E DU PO

AV EN UE
IN

RUE A.
ADAM

PONT R. ST-GERMA IN PLACE DU

NEUF L’AUXERR OIS CHATELET
N SS ER IE QUAI DE GESVRES
QU AI V DE LA MEPGI
D'ARCOLE
PON T A U

OMPIDOU
CHA NGE

NO TR E-

PONT

OIE GEORGES
PO NT
DA ME
PONT NEUF

Seine
River GE
QUAI DE LA CORSE
HORLO
D E L’
R UE D’ARCOLE

CITÉ
RUE DE L

I
QUA Hôtel
PA LAIS

Conciergerie PLACE
HA RLA Y

L . L EP I N E
Dieu
SQUARE DU
VERT-GALANT PL. DU PLACE
PONT Palais
NEUF DAUPHINE R UE DE LUTECE
de Justice
R .D E

Crypte
B LV D D U

A CITE

QU Archéologique
AI Ste-
QU AI DE Ile de la Cité Chapelle
Préfecture
CON D ES
de Police Kilomètre
RUE

Hôtel des TI FEV

OR Zéro
Monnaies GRA QUA RES P L . D U PA R VI S
NDS I D E Q UAI D U M A RCHE NE UF N O TR E- D A M E
PONT ST-

S
MICHEL

PONT AU
PET IT

ACCOMMODATION
DOUBLE
PON T

AU G
Hôtel Henri IV 1 Direction USTINS
Q U A I S T- M I C H E L PL. DU PETITQ
Hôtel de Lutèce 2 RATP
ST-MICHEL
PONT UAI DE
TTE ST-MICHEL RUE
PLACE R. DE LA HUCH E NOTRE-DAME DE
RESTAURANTS
R U E X.
P R I VAS

ST-MICHEL
St-Julien-
Brasserie de l’Ile St-Louis 2 SHOPS le-Pauvre
ERIN
Mon Vieil Ami 3 RUE ST-SE V R . GA R
Berthillon 3 LA NDE .
BARS L’Epicerie 2 LIVE MUSIC
E
NT

Taverne Henri IV 1 Librairie Ulysse 1 Sainte-Chapelle 1

DA
R.

38
 cathedral was at last given a
much-needed restoration, a
task entrusted to the great
architect-restorer Viollet-le-
Duc, who carried out a

THE ISLANDS
thorough – some would say too
thorough – renovation,
remaking much of the statuary
on the facade (the originals
can be seen in the Musée
National du Moyen Age) and
adding the steeple and
baleful-looking gargoyles,
which you can see close up if
you climb the towers.

NOTRE-DAME
The cathedral’s facade is one
of its most impressive exterior
features; the Romanesque
influence is still visible, not which admit all this light,
least in its solid H-shape, but being nearly two-thirds glass,
the overriding impression is including two magnificent rose
one of lightness and grace, windows coloured in imperial
created in part by the delicate purple. These, the vaulting and
filigree work of the central rose the soaring shafts reaching to
window and the gallery above. the springs of the vaults, are
Inside, you’re struck by the all definite Gothic elements,
dramatic contrast between the while there remains a strong
darkness of the nave and the sense of Romanesque in the
light falling on the first great stout round pillars of the nave
clustered pillars of the choir. It and the general sense of
is the end walls of the transepts four-squareness.
R. DU PONT LOUIS-PHILIPPE

MIR O N Maison
The Islands
RUE DE

OIS Européene de la
ANÇ
NI ER

FR Photographie
R . DE S BA RR ES

Hôtel
ST -P A UL IN S

UE
L
RUE DU FAUCONNIER

R
R UE

PA U
G. L’ AS

de Ville PLACE
RD

R UE CH
R. DES NONNAINS
R. D

SQUARE A. A R LE
ST-GERVAIS SV
R. DE S JA
LOBAU

D’HYERES
UF

R U E S T-

Mairie de SCHWEITZER
St-Gervais Mémorial de PONT
IG

Paris IE
U

St-Protais la Shoah MARIE R R. D ES

LI O N S
RUE DE L’H OTEL DE VIL L E R. DE L’A ST-PAU
QU AI DE L’H OT EL VE MAR
IA
L
PL. DU
BATAILLON DE VIL LE Q U A I D E S C E LE
POR T DE L’HO TEL
DE VILL E
FRANCAIS V O I
E GEORGES ST INS
PH IL IP PE

DE L’O.N.U.
LO UI S-

POMPIDOU
PO NT

Quai de l'Hôtel EN COREE

MAR IE

SQUARE DE
PON T

de Ville POR T DES CEL

QUA EST INS L’AVE MARIA SQUARE
I A H. GALLI
UX
RUE
FL QUAI DE BOURBON QUAI D’ANJOU
URS DES
DU BELLAY

RUE LE REGRATTIER

RUE DES DEUX PONTS

IN S
EU

R. J.

R UE P O U L L E T IE R

Hôtel de
LL DE
RS

RUE Lauzun
SU NT
Y

C HA RUE
NO S T- L O U I S
PO

IN NT IS E N L’ I L E
R UE BUDE

E
PO LOU
SS

ST
- Ile St-Louis
E

St-Louis-
DU CLOITRE-NOTRE-DAME QU
AI en-l’Ile
SQUARE SQUARE D ’ORLEANS QUAI DE BETHUNE SQUARE
JEAN XXIII DE L'ILE DE BARYE
PONT DE LA
TOUR NELL E

FRANCE
LL DE

Notre- Quai de
Mémorial de la
L'ARCHEVÉCHÉ

SU NT

Dame
Y

Montebello
Déportation
PONT DE

PO

O U R N E LLE P O RT S A I N T - B E R N
POR T DE MO
NTE BEL LO PO RT D E L A T AR D

MONTEBELLO
LA B
QUAI DE LA TOURNELLE Institut du
QUAI ST
- BER
Quai
Saint-Bernard
ERT

N
RUE DES BERNARDINS

ARD
R. DE PONTOISE

UCH
N
MAI
BI EV RE

ERIE R UE Monde Arabe

R. MAI TRE ALB

COCHIN
ERRUE
SA UTO N

- G 0 metres 150
R UE F.

S T DES
R UE DE

ARD
LA CHANTIERS
GR
AN LEV 0 yards 150
BOU
G E

39
 I L E S T - LO U I S
THE ISLANDS

KILOMÈTRE ZÉRO World War II – among them

Jews, Resistance fighters and
M Cité. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP D17
forced labourers. Stairs barely
On the pavement by the west shoulder-wide descend into a
door of Notre-Dame is a spot, space like a prison yard and
marked by a bronze star, then into a crypt, off which is a
known as Kilomètre Zéro, from long, narrow, stifling corridor,
which all main-road distances its walls covered in thousands
in France are calculated. of points of light representing
THE CRYPTE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE the dead. Above the exit are the
words “Pardonne, n’oublie pas”
Place du Parvis-Notre-Dame M Cité & (“Forgive; do not forget”).
M /RER St-Michel. Tues–Sun 10am–6pm. €4.
MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP D17 ILE ST-LOUIS
The atmospherically lit Crypte M Pont-Marie. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP E17–F18
Archéologique is a large The smaller of the two islands,
excavated area under the place Ile St-Louis, is prime strolling
du Parvis revealing the remains territory. Unlike its larger
of the original cathedral, as neighbour, it has no heavy-
well as vestiges of the streets weight sights; rather, the
and houses that once clustered island’s allure lies in its
around Notre-Dame: most are handsome ensemble of
medieval, but some date as far austerely beautiful seventeenth-
back as Gallo-Roman times. century houses, tree-lined quais
and narrow streets, crammed
LE MÉMORIAL DE LA
with restaurants, art galleries
DÉPORTATION
and gift shops. For centuries
M Cité. Daily 10am–noon & 2–7pm, closes the Ile St-Louis was nothing
5pm in winter. Free. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP E17 but swampy pastureland, a
Scarcely visible above ground, haunt of lovers, duellists and
the stark and moving Mémorial miscreants on the run, until in
de la Déportation is the the seventeenth-century the
symbolic tomb of the 200,000 real-estate developer,
French who died in Nazi Christophe Marie, filled it with
concentration camps during elegant mansions.
40
 ingredients, and a wine list
Shops including a selection of
Alsatian vintages. Three
BERTHILLON courses from around €40.
31 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile M Pont-Marie.

THE ISLANDS
Wed–Sun 10am–8pm. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP F17
Long queues form for Bars
Berthillon’s exquisite ice creams
TAVERNE HENRI IV
and sorbets that come in all
sorts of unusual flavours, such 13 place du Pont-Neuf M Pont-Neuf.
as rhubarb and Earl Grey tea. Mon–Fri 11.30am–9.30pm, Sat noon–5pm;
closed Aug. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP C16
L’EPICERIE An old-style wine bar, buzziest
51 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile M Pont-Marie. at lunchtime when lawyers
Daily 10.30am–7pm. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP F17 from the Palais de Justice drop
Attractively packaged vinegars, in for generous meat and
oils, jams and mustards, with cheese platters (around €12)
some unusual flavourings, and toasted sandwiches.
such as orange and rosemary
white-wine vinegar from
Champagne. Live music
LIBRAIRIE ULYSSE SAINTE-CHAPELLE
26 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile M Pont-Marie. 4 bd du Palais M Cité T 01.42.77.65.65;
Tues–Fri 2–8pm. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP F17 bookings also at any FNAC (see p.107) or
A tiny bookshop, piled from Virgin Megastore, 60 av des Champs-Elysées.
MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP D16
floor to ceiling with new and
secondhand travel books. Classical music concerts are
held in the splendid surround-
ings of the chapel more or less
Restaurants daily. Tickets €27–33.
B R A S S E R I E D E L’ I L E S T - LO U I S

BRASSERIE DE L’ILE ST-LOUIS

55 quai de Bourbon M Pont-Marie
T 01.43.54.02.59. Daily except Wed noon–
midnight; closed Aug. MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP E17
A bustling place with a rustic,
dark-wood interior and flirty
waiters dishing out dollops of
sauerkraut with ham and
sausage and other brasserie
staples (mains around €19).

MON VIEIL AMI

69 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile M Pont-Marie
T 01.40.46.01.35. Wed–Sun 11.30–2.30pm &
7–10.30pm; closed 3 weeks in Jan & Aug.
MAP P.38–39, POCKET MAP E17
Overseen by Michelin-starred
Alsatian chef Antoine
Westermann, this charming
little bistrot offers bold, zesty
cuisine made with seasonal
41
 The Louvre
The Louvre is one of the world’s truly great museums. Opened
in 1793, during the Revolution, it soon acquired the largest
THE LOUVRE

art collection on earth, thanks to Napoleon’s conquests.

Today, it houses paintings, sculpture and precious art
objects, from Ancient Egyptian jewellery to the beginnings
of Impressionism. Separate from the Louvre proper, but
within the palace, are three design museums under the aegis
of Les Arts Décoratifs, dedicated to fashion and textiles,
decorative arts and advertising.
THE PALACE the initially controversial glass
Pyramide in the cour
MAP P.44, POCKET MAP B15–C15
Napoléon – an extraordinary
For centuries the site of the
leap of imagination conceived
French court, the palace was
by architect I. M. Pei – the
originally little more than a
overall effect of the Louvre is
feudal fortress, begun by
of a quintessentially French
Philippe-Auguste in 1200. It
grandeur and symmetry.
wasn’t until the reign of
François I that the foundations PAINTING
of the present-day building
were laid, and from then on The largest of the museum’s
almost every sovereign added collections is its paintings.
to the Louvre, leaving the The early Italians are perhaps
palace a surprisingly the most interesting, among
harmonious building. Even them Leonardo da Vinci’s
with the addition in 1989 of Mona Lisa. If you want to get
near her, go during one of the
T H E LO U V R E

evening openings, or first

thing in the day. Other
highlights of the Italian
collection include two
Botticelli frescoes and Fra
Angelico’s Coronation of
the Virgin. Fifteenth- to
seventeenth-century Italian
paintings line the Grande
Galerie, including Leonardo’s
Virgin and Child with St Anne
and Virgin of the Rocks.
Epic-scale nineteenth-century
French works are displayed in
the parallel suite of rooms,
among them the Coronation of
Napoleon I, by David, Ingres’
languorous nude, La Grande
Odalisque, and Géricault’s
harrowing Raft of the Medusa.
42
VISITING THE MONA LISA

THE LOUVRE
A good point to start a the later part of the collection,
circuit of French paintings is the chilly wind of Neoclassi-
with the master of French cism blows through the
Classicism, Poussin; his paintings of Gros, Gérard,
profound themes, taken from Prud’hon, David and Ingres,
antiquity, the Bible and contrasting with the more
mythology, were to influence sentimental style that begins
generations of artists. You’ll with Greuze and continues
need a healthy appetite for into the Romanticism of
Classicism in the next suite of Géricault and Delacroix. The
rooms, but there are some final rooms take in Corot and
arresting portraits. When you the Barbizon school, the
move into the less severe precursors of Impressionism.
eighteenth century, the more The Louvre’s collection of
intimate paintings of Watteau French painting stops at 1848,
come as a relief, as do a date picked up by the Musée
Chardin’s intense still lifes. In d’Orsay (see p.123).

Visiting the Louvre

M Louvre Rivoli/Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre T 08.92.68.36.22, W www.louvre.fr. Mon,
Thurs, Sat & Sun 9am–6pm, Wed & Fri 9am–10pm. €9.50; €6 after 6pm; free to under-18s &
under-26s from (or studying in) EU countries, and everyone on the first Sunday of each month.
Same-day readmission allowed.
You can buy tickets in advance by phone, online or from branches of FNAC
and Virgin Megastore. The main entrance is via the Pyramide, but you can
also try the entrance directly under the Arc du Carrousel, accessible from
99 rue de Rivoli and from the Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre métro stop.
Pre-booked ticket-holders can enter from the Passage Richelieu.
Owing to the sheer volume of exhibits, you won't have time to see
everything. The Denon wing, with the Mona Lisa, is a popular place to start;
relatively peaceful alternatives are the grand chronologies of French
painting and sculpture, the sensual collection of Objets d’Art, or the
dramatic Medieval Louvre section. Pick up a free floor plan at the start.
43
 RUE R.

The Louvre PYRAMIDES T H

VIL
LE
DO
R. D
E BE
A
N
ER UJO
L A IS

NNE
ES

D IE L A
E

CH
RE

AVE

S T E -A
RU
SO E DE

RO

S IE R
L IE U
ES
S T-

E D
UR
RU

NUE
RUE
RU

M ID
YRA H
LET

PEN
C
Jardin

’A R G E
RUE

IC H E
RO

RE
E
JUIL

ONT

OIS
IE
du

T
ES

DE R
OL
St-Roch

MPS
SP
U 29

DE
PG
Palais

DE M

VAL
THE LOUVRE

NT E U
SA

DE
Banque de

E
R. D

IN

RUE
RU
Royal

CHA
T- France

DE
L’ O P

RUE
I
HO

RUE
E

ELL
RU NO

S
CH
RE

ETIT
ERA
L'E
PLACE DES RUE DU
Comédie DU C E OI

E
PYRAMIDES

ES P
OL
PLACE Française Palais RU OUL

ED
ONE

S
L

FANT
RU Royal D R IA B
RU
A. MALRAUX NT

IX D
E

S EN
PLACE
Musée des
R

BON
COLETTE PALAIS ROYAL
NIE

CRO
Arts Décoratifs MUSÉE DU LOUVRE
GA
L

ES
ON

DO . VÉR U
PLACE DU EA

R. D
DA O-
EM

PALAIS ROYAL T SS
DE

RUE
Jardin du OU
LL

Louvre des . J .R
Musée de
RA

Carrousel RI UE
J
V OAntiquaires
NE

la Publicité Ric RUE R

heli
GE

S T-
eu LI HON
DU

Arc de PLACE DU ORE

CARROUSEL
UE

Triomphe du
EN

Carrousel
AV

Pyramide Pyramide
Inversée COUR Sully
N A P O L EO N LOUVRE
C O U R C A R R EE RIVOLI

NY L
A
Musée du

D E CE L’A M IR
Quai du Louvre

O L IG
Louvre POR
T QU Den
AI on
SEL

D
DU DU Jardin de Sully

RUE
ROU

LOU
C A RO N T

LOU
l'Infante
PO
QU RT VRE VRE St-Germain-
P

AI V DES
SA
R iv e
l’Auxerrois
O LT I N T S - r Se
DU

AI R PER
ES
in e 0 metres 150
E Quai
M A LQ U A I Malaquais
S
ART
DES ONT

RUE
DE AQU 0 yards 150
P

L IL
LE AIS

ANTIQUITIES collection’s most important

exhibits is the Code of
The Oriental Antiquities and
Hammurabi, a basalt stele from
Arts of Islam categories cover
around 1800 BC covered in
the Mesopotamian, Sumerian,
Akkadian script setting down
Babylonian, Assyrian and
King Hammurabi’s rules of
Phoenician civilizations, and
the art of ancient Persia, India conduct for his subjects.
and Spain. One of the The Egyptian Antiquities
collection starts with the
atmospheric crypt of the
T H E G A L E R I E D ’A P O L LO N

Sphinx. Everyday life is

illustrated through cooking
utensils, jewellery, the principles
of hieroglyphics, sarcophagi
and a host of mummified
cats. The collection continues
with the development of
Egyptian art.
The biggest crowd-pullers
after the Mona Lisa are found
in the Greek and Roman
Antiquities section: the Winged
Victory of Samothrace, and the
late-second-century BC Venus
de Milo, striking a classic
model’s pose.
44
OBJETS D’ART LES ARTS DÉCORATIFS
The vast Objets d’Art section 107 rue de Rivoli W www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr.
presents the finest tapestries, Tues, Wed & Fri 11am–6pm, Thurs 11am–9pm,
ceramics, jewellery and Sat & Sun 10am–6pm. €8.
furniture commissioned by Separate from the rest of the

THE LOUVRE
France’s wealthiest patrons. It Louvre, Les Arts Décoratifs
begins with the rather pious comprises three museums
Middle Ages section and devoted to design and the
continues through 81 applied arts.
relentlessly superb rooms to a The core of the collection
salon decorated in the style of is found in the Musée des
Louis-Philippe, the last king Arts Décoratifs, displaying
of France. Walking through superbly crafted furniture
the complete chronology gives and objets. The medieval and
a powerful sense of the Renaissance rooms show off
evolution of aesthetic taste at curiously shaped and beauti-
its most refined and opulent. fully carved pieces, religious
The circuit also passes paintings and Venetian glass.
through the breathtaking The Art Nouveau and Art
apartments of Napoleon III’s Deco rooms include a 1903
minister of state. bedroom by Hector Guimard
– the Art Nouveau designer
SCULPTURE behind the original Paris métro
The sculpture section covers stations. Individual designers
the development of the art in of the 1980s and 90s, such
France from the Romanesque as Philippe Starck, are also
to Rodin in the Richelieu represented.
wing, and Italian and northern The Musée de la Mode et
European sculpture in the du Textile holds high-quality
Denon wing, including temporary exhibitions demon-
Michelangelo’s Slaves, designed strating cutting-edge Paris
for the tomb of Pope Julius II. fashions from all eras, such
The huge glass-covered court- as Jackie Kennedy’s famous
yards of the Richelieu wing – dresses of the 1960s.
the cour Marly with the Marly On the top floor, the
Horses, which once graced Musée de la Publicité
place de la Concorde, and the shows off its collection of
cour Puget with Puget’s Milon advertising posters through
de Crotone as the centrepiece – cleverly themed, temporary
are very impressive. exhibitions.

CAFÉ RICHELIEU
Cafés First floor, Richelieu wing. Same hours as
CAFÉ MOLLIEN Café Mollien.
The most prim and elegant
First floor, Denon wing. Daily except Tues of the Louvre’s cafés, Café
10.15am–5pm, until 7pm Wed & Fri. Richelieu serves a range of
The busiest of the Louvre’s cafés full meals, as well as drinks
has a prime position near the and snacks. The spectacular
Grande Galerie, with huge outdoor terrace is open for
windows giving onto a terrace business in the summer
(open in summer only). months.
45
 The Champs-Elysées and
Tuileries
THE CHAMPS-ELYSÉES AND TUILERIES

The breathtakingly ambitious Champs-Elysées is part of a

grand, nine-kilometre axis, often referred to as the “Voie
Triomphale”, or Triumphal Way, that extends from the Louvre
at the heart of the city to the Défense business district in the
west. Combining imperial pomp and supreme elegance, it offers
impressive vistas along its entire length and incorporates
some of the city’s most famous landmarks – the place de la
Concorde, Tuileries gardens and the Arc de Triomphe. The whole
ensemble is so regular and geometrical it looks as though it
might have been laid out by a single town planner rather than
successive kings, emperors and presidents, all keen to add
their stamp and promote French power and prestige.
THE CHAMPS-ELYSÉES as the Renault show room at
no. 53 and the Publicis adver-
MAP P.48–49, POCKET MAP B5–E6
tising agency, near the Arc de
The celebrated avenue des
Triomphe, have had stylish
Champs-Elysées, a popular
makeovers. New, fashionable
rallying point at times of
restaurants and bars are
national crisis and the scene
constantly popping up in the
of big military parades on
streets that spar off the avenue.
Bastille Day, sweeps down
from the Arc de Triomphe
THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE

towards the place de la

Concorde. Its heyday was
during the Second Empire
when members of the haute
bourgeoisie built themselves
splendid mansions along its
length and fashionable society
frequented the avenue’s cafés
and theatres. Nowadays, this
broad, tree-lined avenue is still
an impressive sight, especially
when viewed from the place
de la Concorde, and although
fast-food outlets and chain
stores tend to predominate,
it has been steadily regaining
some of its former cachet as a
chic address: the Louis Vuitton
flagship store (see p.51) has
undergone a glitzy revamp,
while once-dowdy shops such
46
T H E G R A N D PA L A I S A N D T H E P O N T A L E X A N D R E I I I

THE CHAMPS-ELYSÉES AND TUILERIES

THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE THE GRAND PALAIS
M Charles-de-Gaulle. Daily: April–Sept M Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau W www
10am–11pm; Oct–March 10am–10.30pm. €9. .grandpalais.fr. Galeries nationales du Grand
MAP P.48–49, POCKET MAP B5 Palais: daily except Tues 10am–8pm, Wed
Crowning the Champs-Elysées, until 10pm. €11. MAP P.48–49, POCKET MAP D6
the Arc de Triomphe sits At the lower end of the
imposingly in the middle of Champs-Elysées is the Grand
place Charles de Gaulle, also Palais, a grandiose Neoclassical
known as l’Etoile (“star”) on building with a fine glass and
account of the twelve avenues ironwork cupola, created for
radiating from it. Modelled on the 1900 Exposition Univer-
the ancient Roman triumphal selle. The cupola forms the
arches, this imperial behemoth centrepiece of the nef (nave),
was built by Napoleon as a huge, impressive exhibition
a homage to the armies of space, used for large-scale
France and is engraved with installations, fashion shows and
the names of 660 generals and trade fairs. In the north wing
numerous French battles. The of the building is the Galeries
best of the exterior reliefs is nationales, Paris’s prime venue
François Rude’s Marseillaise, in for major art retrospectives,
which an Amazon-type figure such as the blockbuster Turner
personifying the Revolution exhibition in 2010.
charges forward with a sword, The Grand Palais’ eastern
her face contorted in a fierce wing houses the Palais de
rallying cry. A quiet reminder la Découverte (Tues–Sat
of the less glorious side of war 9.30am–6pm, Sun 10am–7pm;
is the tomb of the unknown €7), Paris’s original science
soldier placed beneath the arch museum dating from the late
and marked by an eternal flame 1930s, with interactive exhibits,
that is stoked up every evening an excellent planetarium and
by war veterans. The climb up engaging exhibitions, such as
to the top is well worth it for recent ones on dinosaurs and
the panoramic views. the history of clay.
47
 Musée

RU
AVE RCIER
The Champs-Elysées Jacquemart-André

PE

ED
NU
E
UM

EM
CO
NN UR RUE BA MIROMESNIL
& Tuileries

IR O
CE DE LA
MA

EA
LLE
DE

ME
S IE

MONC
SS RU
E
ET

SN
AU BO

IL
HI DE
RE
TERNES H LA

R . DE

AVE HERRIC

EV
VD

NT UE
R U E D U FA U B

T.

E
PLACE DES OU

PE R
BL

RU
R G S T-

MYR K
TERNES HON ORE
THE CHAMPS-ELYSÉES AND TUILERIES

ON
AC
AVE RECHT
AVE DE WAGRAM

PLACE R. DU FAUBOURG ST-HONORE

ALB

R. BALZ
CHASSAIGNE-

E
RUE

RUE JEAN MERMOZ

BERT
CH

EE
D ’A R GOYON
PLACE G. T O IS

LIS
HO

T I GNON
ST-PHILIPPE-

IE
N GUILLAUMIN

CO
UJO DU-ROULE

N
UE
LAM R.

FRA
BEA

DU
RY
DE

GTO
RUE ENN
EN

D
AIS

NKL
BAU
UE ND

RI

MA
AV

AVE . ROO
HIN

BER

IN D
IE
EN LA

E
R. P

ET

RU

NUE SEV
AV RIED

WAS

UE
AVE GABRIEL

BO
DE
RUE BALZAC RUE DE PONTHIEU

EN
CHARLES DE F

A
RUE

EL

AV
RUE

ELT
GAULLE ETOILE FRANKLIN D.

RU
PLACE ROOSEVELT
CHARLES DE
GAULLE ROND
ARC DE A V E N U E D E S C H A M P S - E LY S É E S POINT DES AVENUE
TRIOMPHE CHAMPS-
BA UC HA RT
Arc de GEORGE V

RUE
N

UF
ELYSÉES

RO
LI LE E

LINC OLN
AV

Triomphe RUE VERNET

R BE
SS AN O

AV D . R
RUE

AR

DE M
E

MA
G

E
H
AV
R. GA

UR

NE
EC
RU Palais de la
E DE PRESBO
RU E DE BA

A R IG
EN

R UE
GE

RR
Découverte
AV

AIG
UE B
OR

IE RUE
OM

N
R I S TON

OO
FRAN
N T IN

OL
EP
GE

AN
EN

C O IS

F R V E LT
C
M C. 1ER

NT
RU

SE
R.
RUE DUMONT D’URVILLE

E
QUE

KLÉBER A
UE

AN
O IL L

R.
RUE

MO
R. KE
V

CLEM RUE PLACE

R U E LA U

RU E DE LA P EROU SE

PPLE ENT
R

KL
RUE

R REM FRANCOIS FR
AVENUE KLEBER

BIE
C

R . JE MAR ANCO
AN G OT 1ER

IN
D’

IS 1
EA

AV
SE R

LA T

IR A U D

UE
ER

ON

B AY
O
EN

UX R UE

UJ
U
IE

DU B

AR
DE

EN
UE

GO
T

OCCA R
1E

D
AIL LO
EE
NA

AN
OR
R

Cathédrale RT
E 1E

AV
L IL

BE
JE
R. D

Américaine L
E S A
GA

R UE G.
R. DE CH

RU
Théâtre des UR
RR

BIZET CO
R.

GE

PLACE Champs-Elysées CE
IE

RUE DE BELLO Y EN
OR

AMIRAL DE ER
EP

PLACE DES GRASSE NF

GE

CO
AV

ETATS-UNIS LA OU
R.

ILL
V

Musée de la Mode et du DE
HA

CA
RT
OS AI
ME

Costume Palais ALMA PO

GR QU
LIN

MARCEAU PL. DE
Galliera L’ALMA Port de la DU
Musée SQUARE RT
0 metres 250 Conférence PO
American
PON LMA

National des BRIGNOLE

L’A

Arts Asiatiques GALLIERA Musée d’Art Church in Paris

TD

Sewers E
E

0 yards 250 Guimet Moderne E D ITE

Palais de entrance RU VERS
PLACE NI
D’IENA Tokyo PONT DE L’ALMA L’ U

THE PETIT PALAIS and Courbet’s provocative

Young Ladies on the Bank of
Av Winston Churchill M Champs-Elysées-
the Seine. There’s also fantasy
Clemenceau T 01.53.43.40.00, W www
jewellery of the Art Nouveau
.petit-palais.paris.fr. Tues–Sun 10am–6pm.
period, a fine collection of
Free. MAP P.48–49, POCKET MAP D6–7
seventeenth-century Dutch
The Petit Palais houses the
landscape painting, Russian
Musée des Beaux Arts. Built
icons and effete eighteenth-
at the same time as its larger
century furniture and porcelain.
neighbour the Grand Palais,
the building is hardly “petit” A stylish café overlooks the
but certainly palatial, with interior garden, and popular
beautiful spiral wrought-iron free lunchtime concerts are
staircases and a grand gallery held most Thursdays at 12.30
on the lines of Versailles’ Hall by Radio France (turn up about
of Mirrors. The museum has an hour in advance to collect
an extensive collection of a ticket).
paintings, sculpture and decora- MUSÉE JACQUEMART-ANDRÉ
tive artworks, ranging from
the ancient Greek and Roman 158 bd Haussmann M Miromesnil/
period up to the early twentieth St-Philippe-du-Roule T 01.45.62.11.59,
century. At first sight it looks W www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com. Daily
like it’s mopped up the leftovers 10am–6pm. €10. MAP P.48–49, POCKET MAP D5
after the city’s other galleries The Musée Jacquemart-André
have taken their pick, but there is set in a magnificent
are some real gems here, such nineteenth-century hôtel
as Monet’s Sunset at Lavacourt particulier (mansion), hung
48
Other documents randomly have
different content
"Cut peäts i' August? Ye mud as weel mak hay at Kersmas: th' back-
end o' May, or th' for-end o' June—that's when Simeon Hey leärned
to cut an' dry an' stack 'em; nay, ye cannot get ower what is, an' is
to be."
"Can't I? Just go and hunt up a spade, Simeon; I saw one in the
lathe not long ago—back of the turnip-chopper, if I remember
rightly. We'll go this afternoon."
Mid-day dinner over, Simeon slouched along at his master's heels,
like a dog that is loth to accompany an indifferent sportsman. Griff
took the spade and set to work at the peat-bed. First, he removed a
few inches of the top layer of heather stumps and bilberry roots;
then he drove the blade straight down, prized out the sod, and so
moved along the whole line from left to right, the upturned
perpendicular edge and flat back of the spade shaping clean faces to
the peats.
"Ye may know nowt about th' time to cut, but ye frame weel at th'
cutting," muttered Simeon, with grudging praise, as he picked up the
falling peats and spread them out on the heather.
"And the sun will frame well at the drying, if the sweat of my body
just now is anything to go by. Why, man, you don't often get a dry
heat like this in June."
"Well, I'm noan saying th' peäts willun't dry. What I says is, it isn't
nat'ral; an', dry 'em or no, there'll no gooid come on't. They willun't
burn like good Chirstian peäts what's been led i' June."
But Griff only laughed, and shed his waistcoat, and went on with the
cutting. The crack-crack of guns came to their ears from over
Cranshaw way.
"Part shooiting about," dropped Simeon.
"Yes, that must be some of the Frender's Folly party. How far does
Captain Laverack's shooting come, Simeon?"
"Fair across to a mile this side o' Wynyates. He's by way o' heving us
know he's a tip-topper, is th' Captain; so he mun needs tak Gorsthet
Moor, an' a slice out o' Ling Crag Moor, too, as if his own waren't big
enow for fifty sich. Sport? Ay, he knows a sight about sport, does
yon. I seed him ower this way a two or three day back, an' I fair
laughed to see th' legs on him—as thin as a bog-reed, wi' a
smattering o' striped stocking ower 'em to keep th' wind fro' bending
'em double-ways."
Griff leaned on his spade, and laughed as he watched Simeon's
dispassioned face.
"But he doesn't shoot with his legs. Come now, he may be a decent
shot, for all that."
"What, driving th' birds an' sich? Nay, there's no mak o' sport i'
driving. He mud as weel sit i' his own back parlour, an' hev th'
grouse driven in at th' door. I reckon nowt o' your new-fangled,
snipper-legged sporting chaps."
Griff's trust in the weather seemed likely to be justified. In a very
few days the peats were dry enough to be set up on end, two and
two, one leaning against the other in the form of an upturned V;
and, as Simeon had to go to Saxilton to buy six head of cattle, the
master saw to the work in person. August was more than half
through, but there was no diminution of the heat. Griff had again
doffed coat and waistcoat alike; the sleeves of his coarse woollen
shirt were rolled up to the shoulder, and a broad leather strap held
up his corduroy trousers. He had his back to a man who was
approaching him, with a gun under his arm and a dog at his heels;
the first Griff heard of his approach was a thin, querulous shout.
"Here, I say, my man. Damn it all!" piped the voice.
Griff arranged his couple of peats to his satisfaction, and turned
slowly round.
"I beg your pardon?" he observed. Then he smiled, rather broadly,
as he saw the legs of the spokesman, and thought of Simeon's
version of the reed shaken with the wind.
"I said, damn it all!"
"Not a particularly original remark, but I don't see why you shouldn't
make it. Is that all, sir?" Griff knew, quite as well as his assailant,
what was amiss, but he had no intention of relinquishing his peats.
"All, all? No, it is not all. What are you doing on my moor? What do
you mean by digging here while the shooting season is on? No
wonder we've had poor sport this morning, with you here to frighten
every bird for a mile round. Didn't you hear our shots?"
Another figure appeared on the crest of the rise some two hundred
yards away, and moved towards them.
"I believe I did, but they seemed a good distance off, and I was too
busy to trouble. It is a serious matter, you see, to be short of peats
for the winter, and a poor man must make the most of the weather."
The little man in knickerbockers began to jerk himself up and down.
The stiff grey hair, close-cropped round the crown of his head,
seemed to stick up straighter than ever. For the stranger was not
only furious, but a little non-plussed; he could not reconcile Griff's
speech and bearing with his occupation and his clothes.
"Do you know who I am, my man?" he sputtered at length.
"Rather too well. Captain Laverack, if I am not mistaken?" Griff's
voice was quiet, but the smile had died from his lips, and his eyes
showed hard.
"Yes, I am Captain Laverack. Perhaps you know, then, that I have
rented the shooting over this moor?"
The little man was tempering wrath with an air of faint irony.
"I know that you played my father one of the lowest tricks I ever
heard of. I am pleased to meet you, Captain Laverack; it will do me
good to tell you what a rascally little cad I think you."
Laverack was speechless with amazement. Before he could find
words, the second stranger had come up. Griff looked hard at the
new-comer, and looked again; then he held out his hand.
"How do you do, Dereham?" he said nonchalantly.
Dereham hesitated a moment, then shook the proffered hand with
as near an approach to warmth as he ever exhibited.
"Lomax—Griff Lomax—by all that's wonderful! I didn't recognize you
at first—how could I, when I suddenly came upon you masquerading
as a son of toil? I always thought you were as mad as a hatter,
Lomax, and now I know it."
"Lomax? Was Joshua Lomax your father?" interrupted Laverack. His
self-assertiveness had crawled away out of sight.
Griff neither looked at him nor answered. The man was too much his
senior, he felt, to admit of his knocking him down, and the
temptation bore rather heavily on him just now. Dereham stared at
them both, and wondered. Laverack shuffled his feet noiselessly
among the peat-rubble; twice he made as if to speak, then thought
better of it; finally, he turned on his heel, whistled to his dog, and
set off across the moor. He turned after awhile.
"Are you coming, Dereham?" he asked.
"Directly. If we miss each other we shall meet at the lodge for
lunch?"
Again Laverack hesitated, glancing from Dereham to Lomax, and
making a rapid mental calculation as to the chances of Griff's
silence.
"All right, one o'clock, sharp," he said, and went forward.
"What the deuce are you playing at, you and Laverack?" asked
Dereham.
"Nothing; we don't like each other, that's all. If he asks you, when
you rejoin him, how much I have told you—he is sure to do that—
say to him from me that the Lomaxes carry their own burdens and
never gossip about other people's."
Dereham laughed easily.
"By Jove, it sounds intense; but you always had a twist for intensity,
Lomax, so I'm prepared for it.—Do you know, by the way, that Sybil
Ogilvie is staying at Laverack's place?" he added, with a swift glance
of inquiry.
Griff caught the glance full, but seemed untroubled. Then he looked
down at his corduroys, and tightened his leather belt with a pleased
chuckle.
"I hope we may meet; she would like me in this sort of rig. There's a
good deal of stable-manure on my boots, too, which would round off
the idyll. Bah! Dereham, you wasted me a lot of my time, you little
people in London."
Dereham lit a cigar before responding, and perched himself on a
heathery knoll.
"I always did like you, Lomax," he drawled at last. "You're such an
engaging original, and this last piece of foolery suits you better than
any you've tried yet. Still that air of the Almighty about you, only a
little more so. Where's the poor devil of a woman?"
Griff's face took an ugly shade.
"Whom do you mean?"
"Why, the cattle-dealer's wife—quarryman's—what was it? It would
have done your vanity good—or your love, was it? only a matter of
terms—to see the way Mrs. Ogilvie sickened when the affair became
common gossip in our set."
"Dereham!"
Dereham removed his eyes from their lazy contemplation of the
heat-waves dancing across the heather. Something in the other's
voice startled him—some odd mixture of trouble and resentment.
"Have I put my foot in it? I'm beastly sorry if I have; I always was
too lazy to think before I spoke. Was it—er—a bit serious?"
"Any man who speaks against my wife runs the risk of getting his
neck broken."
Dereham changed colour; but he held out his hand with unaffected
regret, and—
"Old fellow," said he, "I hadn't the least idea. You'd better kick me
and have done with it."
Griff took the proffered hand and tried to laugh.
"All right, Dereham; only, I wish you hadn't."
"Well, yes; I fancy we both do. Coming, Rover, boy!" This to the
pointer, who, after much uneasiness, had started off on his own
account with a very business-like air.
Dereham, glad of a break in the discomfort, followed hard after the
dog. Presently Rover put up a brace, and Dereham claimed one with
each barrel. He returned to his former seat, and Rover brought the
birds to him, eyeing him the while with encouraging approval.
"I've made my peace with Rover," said Dereham, nodding lazily at
the dog. "You never saw his equal for intelligence, Lomax. Before I
sighted you this morning, he put up three almost under my nose,
and I missed with both barrels. And that dog just turned his head
round and said to me, as plain as could be, 'What a fool of a shot
you are.' But I've retrieved my good name, haven't I, old boy?"
Rover implied an affirmative with his tail, and Dereham, for lack of
certainty as to how he should proceed with his friend, began to stuff
the grouse slowly into his game-bag.
"Well?" said Griff at length.
"Exactly. I was thinking that you've improved since I last saw you. By
Jove, I like the way you flashed out on me just now! You're like a
horse that has been out to grass for a month. Honestly, Lomax, I'm
confoundedly glad you have dropped the Ogilvie nonsense. You
didn't seem either excited or surprised when I told you how near she
is at this moment."
"What is it? There shall the eagles be gathered together—
something. You were always the alternate string to her bow."
"Ah, well, I find her excellent comedy, and that is the most you can
expect from any woman. That was what irritated me, you know,
when you took her in such screaming sincerity. You won't mind my
saying, will you, that you were an astonishing fool in that
particular?"
"I shan't mind in the least. I like it."
"Too much fetch and carry, too little compensation, unless you took
it funnily. The fair Sybil was altogether too fond of pets in the old
days."
"Has she changed particularly?"
Dereham grinned pleasantly at his friend.
"She treated you badly, in my opinion, and I'm hanged if I don't give
you your revenge now—even at the price of your modesty. When
you left town suddenly, after making an intolerable bear of yourself
for three months on end, we all prophesied—and Mrs. Ogilvie was
sure—that you would come back. But you didn't, and Sybil began to
feel it. The others said that she merely missed the most pronounced
of those delicate little flirtations of hers, which did no one the least
harm in the world—except the odd idiots who took her seriously. But
I fancied it was more than that, and I've proved it since. The woman
is wild for you; if I were to tell her you were here, she would forget
—the interim—would forget every mortal thing except that she
wanted you; she'd come——"
"Then for God's sake keep her away!" cried Griff, fervently.
"Her husband died in the spring, you know. Sybil is a changed
woman, but she hasn't the heart even to pretend that it is due to his
death. She just mopes, Lomax, and if revenge is any satisfaction to
you, you've got it—as much as a man could want."
Griff went back through those fevered months—recalled how the
touch of her hand had maddened him, how the curve of her baby
lips had seemed to be the end and aim of all things. Yet, for the life
of him, he could not make a substantial working memory of it now.
The thing he had called love showed merely as a spineless, filmy
ghost; the thing he knew to be love stood between him and the
woman who had seduced him in all but the letter.
"Dereham," he said abruptly, "will you come and see my wife?"
"I was going to ask if I might. It's generous of you to suggest it after
——"
"Never mind that. Will you come?"
"Yes; when?"
"To-morrow, if you can get off. Drop in for lunch—I call it dinner now
—and we'll give you mutton and apple-dumplings."
"I bar the dumplings, but otherwise you may depend on me. Is your
quarrel with Laverack serious, by the way?"
"Yes; it goes back to my father, and that means it is unforgivable.—It
will make matters awkward for you?"
"Then let it. Laverack is all very well, but he's not going to stand
between you and me. If he doesn't like it, I'll remove my traps to a
pub, and spend the rest of my time helping you to farm."
 CHAPTER XIX.
THE LINK THAT BINDETH MAN AND WIFE.

After Griff had done with his peats, and had eaten a dinner
proportionate to his labours, he set off for Marshcotes. Mrs. Lomax,
with a cross-country tramp in mind, was just coming out of the gate
when he arrived at the Manor.
"What, going for a walk? Absurd, little mother, under such a blazing
sun."
"It is, rather; but what would you have, Griff? I must fill up my time
somehow."
"That is another of your covert reproaches. I believe you are horribly
jealous of Kate, if the truth were known."
The mother looked him wistfully up and down.
"Yes, I am—as jealous as possible. I miss you so, dear."
Griff, in a man's way, had not been wont to give an over-careful
regard to the looks of those who were constantly about him.
Something in his mother's tone, however, a certain touch of
helplessness that was foreign to her character, set him scrutinizing
her face. She seemed older and more worn, he thought, than when
he first returned home, a year ago.
"You don't look quite yourself, old lady," he said tenderly. "Let's
spend the afternoon in the garden, under that ridiculous lilac-tree
which thinks it can grow at the edge of a moor."
"It is a very fine lilac, Griff," snapped Mrs. Lomax.
"Ah, I thought the fight wasn't all dead in you. Well, I won't abuse
the lilac, and I'll even drink your home-made wine without a
murmur, if only you will promise to amuse me this afternoon. I'm
lazy, mother; don't let us go for a walk."
"Which means that you think me feebler than I was. Oh, yes, you
do! I saw it in your face as you looked at me just now. I have a good
mind to show you what I can do when I choose."
By way of answer Griff threaded his arm through hers, led her into
the garden, and set her down by main force in the shady seat under
the lilac-bushes.
"I have good news for you, mother," he said, breaking a long pause.
"About Kate?" flashed the old lady, with a woman's perspective, and
a mother's half-resentful pride where a grandchild is in question.
But Griff missed her point utterly.
"No; what good news could I bring of her except that she is just as
much Kate as ever? It is about Laverack; you remember telling me
father's relations with him?"
"Yes, I remember well. Only—it is not a topic that pleases me, Griff."
"Not if I tell you that I met him this morning, and made myself
known to him, and called him a cad to his face?"
Her keen old eyes brightened.
"You did that, Griff? Yes, it is good news. It may be unchristian, but
I loathe that man. And if one is framed to love well, how can one
help hating with a will, too?"
"Mother, mother, I despair of you! You're a dreadful Pagan, like the
rest of us," laughed the son, anxious to glance off to other topics,
now that he had conveyed his piece of information.
"Well, your father was a Pagan, right through to the core of him. I
have had worse examples to follow, Griff."
"Did you object to his poaching, I wonder?" said Griff, teasingly.
"After he was married, I mean."
"That, rude boy, is a question I don't choose to answer. It is unwise,
though, they say, to deny a man his luxuries; but the pursuit is a
discreditable one at best."
"I've done with it, at any rate."
An impatient half-sigh accompanied the words.
"I am glad of it."
"But, mother, you have no idea of the glorious rough-and-tumbles
we used to have. Kate, though, has made me promise to keep a
whole skin, and there's an end of it. Heigho! I'm glad the Squire and
I made a decent finish to my career in that line."
A rattling of the garden gate came to them round the corner of the
house.
"Some one seems to be trying to get in," said Mrs. Lomax. "Just run
and open the gate, will you, Griff? You always bang it so hard, and
the latch, like myself, is getting worn out."
Again that helpless note in her voice. Griff did not like it at all.
"Worn out?" he echoed. "Not till you give better proof of it, foolish
mother."
"Boy, kindly flatter your wife, and leave tag-ends of sincerity for your
mother." She tried to laugh, but the effort was not very successful.
Griff did as he was bid, and went to open the gate. At the other side
stood Greta Rotherson.
"How do you do?" he observed, holding out his hand across the top
bar.
"I'm very hot, rather cross, and exceedingly anxious to get under
shelter. How would it be, Mr. Lomax, if you opened the gate?"
"Not just yet. I enjoy making you really angry; it brings such a
quaint little flush to your cheeks."
"I don't want compliments," protested Greta, blushing rosier with
pleasure all the same.
"You'll have to put up with them, I fear, if you won't change your
looks. Even a staid married man like myself——"
"Married you may be, sir, but staid you will never become," said
Greta, demurely. "I am going to knock at the back door, if you won't
let me in at the front."
He opened at that, after weighty argument with the latch, and Greta
tripped in, looking like a bit of fleecy, fair-weather cloud in her
muslin dress. Griff could never quite rid himself of the notion that
she was just a pretty child, and he treated her accordingly. He
wondered, in a way, at the preacher's infatuation; and, with his
mole-like outlook on women as a whole, he asked himself
sometimes if little Greta would be able to weather foul days as well
as fair.
Mrs. Lomax brightened as she saw the girl. She had a better notion
of these matters than her son, and never felt the least doubt but
that Greta, for all her butterfly prettiness, was just the sort of
woman to come out strong in a crisis.
"You are earlier than I expected you, my dear. I am glad," said the
old lady, simply.
"Yes, father had to go off to Saxilton on business, and I thought you
might like a chat—which means that I wanted one badly myself."
Then she and Griff began teasing each other, till Greta was likely to
have the worst of it, and Mrs. Lomax interfered. And after awhile
there came another rattling at the gate, followed by the scrunch of
heavy boots on the gravel. Greta talked faster, without waiting for
any one to answer her, and her cheeks were an honest crimson.
Gabriel Hirst, for once in a way, had come in a garb that was likely
to advance his cause; though the accident of his taking Marshcotes
Manor at the end of a long ride must not be set down to any
cunning forethought on the preacher's part. He bungled less than
usual as he came across the grass, and Griff smiled as he noted that
his horseback humour was on him.
Presently Mrs. Lomax snared Griff into the house, on the pretext of
talking over some business matters with him.
"Did you arrange this meeting, mother?" he asked, as he opened the
parlour door for her.
"Didn't I tell you," she smiled, "that I have to find things to do
nowadays?"
"I like the notion of your turning matchmaker. Pray, is this kind of
meeting a regular occurrence?"
"I have very few luxuries, Griff.—Not that it is the least good in the
world. Gabriel seems always to be falling between two stools. He
can't work properly, because he is in love with the girl, and he won't
speak out like a man, because he is not sure yet whether she is a
temptation of the flesh or not. You men—you men! If only you
understood what a true woman's love is worth."
"The lassie would have him—eh, mother?"
"The lassie, sir, will wait till she is asked," retorted the mother.
When Griff reached Gorsthwaite that evening, it struck him that
something was amiss with Kate. His late uneasiness about his
mother had sharpened his eyes, and he was awake to the
restlessness in Kate's movements. From time to time, too, she
looked wistfully at him, and seemed on the point of speaking. More
than all, he noted that she was disposed to be lavish of caresses, in
a way that fitted ill with her wonted undemonstrative strength.
"What ails you, wife?" he ventured once.
"Nothing—nothing at all, dear. Why do you ask?"
"You are so unlike yourself. Have I left you alone too much lately?
Say the word, Katey, and I'll give up the farming, and—and the
horse. They take me away a good deal between them."
"Nonsense, Griff. You are going to give up nothing at all, except your
foolish suspicions of me. I am the happiest woman in the world at
this moment."
Alas for his inexperience! In that curious, half-hysterical assertion of
happiness, he might have read all that she longed to tell him. But he
missed it, and went on to talk of Dereham's coming on the morrow.
"He is rather fastidious, you know," laughed Griff; "what can we give
him to eat? Luckily we have a brace of grouse ready for cooking.
How would an omelette be?"
"I can't make them," protested Kate, vaguely uneasy at the mention
of Dereham's fastidiousness.
"But I can—beauties! It is high time you learned; I'll give you a
lesson in the morning. Oh, yes, we shall manage famously! Tell the
cook, wifey, that she can have a morning off to-morrow, because I
mean to turn her kitchen upside down."
"Indeed, I shall tell her nothing of the kind. I don't trust you, Griff—
you talk too glibly about it."
Griff stroked her cheek playfully.
"You think that omelette will turn out like the women I used to paint
—half-cooked inside, and dried to a cinder outside? Well, we shall
see."
As a matter of fact, the omelette, as well as the rest of the dinner,
turned out remarkably well. Dereham had entered Gorsthwaite with
an uncomfortable feeling that he was here to be bored by a friend's
wife, to make the best of a foolish job; but as the meal went on, and
Kate, in her straightforward way, took up his tentative comments on
men and matters, emphasizing points of view which were too simple
ever to have occurred to him, he began to wonder. From wonder he
passed to interest; he clean forgot the passivity which was his
especial pride; he talked little, and listened much to the words he
enticed by strategy from his hostess. Finally, he felt regretful when
Kate left them to their smoke.
"I begin to understand," observed Dereham, after he had silently
worked his way through the half of a cigar.
"What do you understand, you oracle?"
"There you're off it, old fellow. Oracles never understand—they only
pretend to. That is by the way, though. What I meant was, that you
seem to be really established here."
"Why, yes. I should be sorry to desert Gorsthwaite in favour of any
place you could name."
"I thought it was just a pose, you see; we all thought so. You're a
different man altogether, Lomax, from the Ogilvie lap-dog I used to
know. Suits you better, I think."
"Dereham, will you let Mrs. Ogilvie alone? You have exacted penance
enough for that folly already."
"All right, my dear chap; I plead guilty. What I want to know,
though, is, when are we to have another picture? Are you sinking
into an animal pure and simple—a sort of superior hog, that eats
and drinks, and fills in the between-times with sleep?"
Griff, by way of answer, took Dereham up to the room he used as a
studio. A large canvas stood on an easel in the middle of the floor.
Dereham went close to the picture, to which the finishing touches
had been put early that morning, and stood regarding it attentively.
"Humph!" he dropped at length. "Same style as the two eccentric
daubs that the elderly critics profess to think so much of. Gad,
though, there's something in it! Why, bless my soul, the figure in the
foreground is your wife!"
Yes, Griff had struck a fine idea, undoubtedly. The background was a
rush-fringed tarn, with a sweep of rust-coloured bracken on the right
and a clump of heathery knolls on the left; in the foreground,
standing on a peat-bed of brownish-black, was the figure of a
woman, her eyes looking steadfastly out from the canvas, her body
set to a careless strength of pose. One corner of the tarn, and the
bracken to the right of it, were lit by the dying sun; the rest of the
moorscape lay in brooding darkness. On the face of the woman was
just that blending of light and sombre shade in which the moor-
features themselves had been picked out. It was impossible to say
which was the more alive, the woman or the lonely strip of heath;
each seemed able to stand alone, yet each helped the other's
strength.
"Anything else?" asked Dereham, after a pause, in his usual
nonchalant tone.
"Yes; the companion to this. One I call 'Moor Calm,' the other 'Moor
Storm.'"
Griff uncovered a second canvas lying against the wall. This time the
background was a swirling sea of heather-tips below; and above,
lightning and tempest and wind-driven, scudding night-clouds. The
naked figure of a man held the foreground—a man eye to eye with
the lightning, shoulder to shoulder with the storm; on his lips sat
determination, but grim laughter lay in his eyes. The whole smote
one with a sense of fearless, Fate-defying nudity.
Dereham shuddered a little as he looked—then shrugged his
shoulders when he saw that Griff was watching him.
"Very fine, my friend, for those who understand it. I don't, for my
part; it makes me feel cold and wet through."
"But I understand it!" interrupted Griff, giving a loose rein to his
enthusiasm. "I never see the moor without thanking God that I took
to painting instead of literature. The moor shifts her expression
every hour, every minute: you can't stir without getting a fine, strong
bit of canvas-work. Yet fools go wasting their time on waterfalls, and
buttercup meadows, and milkmaids going kine-wards. Does it never
occur to them that there is something worth painting, if they will
only take the trouble to climb a few hundred feet to get it?"
"Well, I dare say it will bring you kudos," said Dereham, with a yawn
that was intended as an apology for certain twinges of enthusiasm
discernible in his own person. "For my part, I find these moors of
yours devilish healthy, and devilish dull. I'm frankly in love with
houses, and warm fires, and theatres, and the rest of it. If I hadn't
met you, I think not even the shooting would have compensated me
for coming."
"Like it or not, old chap," laughed Griff, "you will hear of me again
when these pictures appear. Have another weed."
"I daren't, in this temple of the rough, the savage, and the naked.
You can't imagine primitive man sitting with a cigar-stump in his
mouth. No, it shall be a pipe.—Lomax," he went on, after he had lit
up, "how do you find time to paint? I thought you were farming all
day long."
"I only work when it suits me. My man is dependable enough, and
he keeps things going. But farming puts me into condition, and that
saves me from conceiving the flabby subjects which boomed me. I'm
in the thick of it up here, too—right in the middle of human nature
that isn't ashamed of its simpleness. Every day of my life I rub
against good, sharp angles, and every day I thank the Lord that I
am not planed down to a model human yet."
"Lomax," put in the other, with an air of grave profundity, "don't
begin thanking the Lord that you are a publican and sinner, or you
may be turned into a Pharisee."
"Away with your word-twists! I've done with them.—I say, Dereham,
let's have a round with the gloves," he broke off, as his eyes fell on a
couple of pairs that had been tossed into one corner.
Dereham looked Griff's lengthy muscularity up and down.
"Hit a man your own size," he observed, with a pleasant grin.
But he put on the gloves for all that, and they went at it hammer-
and-tongs, as of old. Griff was more than a match for his opponent
in height and driving power, but the slighter man had the advantage
in quickness; and at the end of the bout they were on pretty equal
terms with regard to blows given and received.
"That does one good," panted Griff. "I am not allowed to slip out at
nights now, Dereham; little moonlight picnics have been knocked on
the head. It's a big responsibility getting married."
"Of course it is. Preserve me from having a woman pin her heart to
my coat-tails; it must be no end of a drag."
"You are an ass, old fellow," retorted Griff, tranquilly; "it is the finest
spur a man can have."
"Lord, Lord! this life is dulling you; I knew it would. Let's talk of the
weather."
"It is odd to think of four of the old set coming together on one
narrow strip of moor," said Griff, breaking a lengthy silence.
"Four? Who's the fourth?" asked Dereham, sharply.
Griff, remembering Roddick's secret, bit his lips and answered
nothing.
"I think I can guess," said the other, presently. "The other night I
saw something up above the Folly that gave me a clue; it was lucky
for them that the stars and I had the sight to ourselves. Roddick
disappeared from town as suddenly as you did. Is that the secret?
Well, it is safe enough with me. Roddick may be a fool for his pains,
but he's a jolly good sort. As to the oddity, I don't quite see it. I
have been due to come to the Folly for a fortnight's shooting ever
since last winter; so has Sybil Ogilvie; Roddick follows for the best,
and the worst, of all possible reasons—and, hey presto! where has
your mystery gone?"
"Shall you go to see him?"
"Yes. Where does he live? I can't leave without saying how-d'ye-do
to him. Do you know his story, by the way?"
"From start to finish. Poor beggar, he's in a tight place."
"I sometimes think," said Dereham, with a carelessness that sat
oddly on his words, "I sometimes think that if I had lost all that
makes life worth living, I should go and strangle that beast-wife of
Roddick's. Not that I should, really; but it would be the truest service
one could do him."
"I have played with that notion, too; it would be a tough problem to
settle, if——," said Lomax, musingly.
When Dereham had gone, Kate came and stood by the mantelshelf,
and looked down at her husband, who was sprawling contentedly in
his big easy-chair. He was well satisfied with their little luncheon-
party. Truth to tell, he had been anxious as to the effect which Kate
would produce on this half-tender, half-cynical friend of his butterfly
days; it was not, he told himself, that he really cared a straw that his
own opinion should be endorsed, but he did shrink from the thought
that Dereham might go away and vaguely pity him—that smacked
too much of insult to his wife. Dereham, however, had left no doubt
of his admiration for Kate. As he shook Griff's hand at the door, he
had muttered, "You'll do, old fellow. Can I come to see your wife
again?" And this meant more than it seemed—it meant, in brief, that
he envied his friend his prize. And a man likes to feel this, be he
never so secure in his own judgment.
So, being content, it did not occur to Griff that there was any
underlying trouble in his wife's eyes—though the trouble was more
in evidence than it had been when he noticed it the night before.
She crept to his knee presently, and took his two big hands in hers.
"Griff!"
"Yes, little woman? How very solemn we sound."
"You won't be angry if I ask you a question? Did I—did I shame you,
Griff, before your friend? I know so little of the world, and——"
"Child, be quiet! How dare you hint at such a thing?"
Griff was frowning more than he knew of. He hated this resurrected
doubt, after it had been laid to rest once and for all; he had not
been proud of himself for feeling it, and Kate had no business to
allow it to come into her head.
She saw the frown. Her lip trembled. The next moment she had
buried her face, and was sobbing like a child.
"Wife, wife! what is it all about? Did I speak harshly? I didn't mean
to; only, it was so absurd that you could shame me in any one's
eyes, and—Kate, what is it? You have never given way like this
before."
She made no answer for a long while; when she did raise her head
at last, it was to whisper something that set strange new pulses
beating in the man. He understood now; and as he took her on his
knee and let her cry it out against his shoulder, all his wildness
seemed to have merged into one steady wave of tenderness.
And then Kate laughed, low and soft, with a note in her voice that
dated forward.
"He is to be a boy, Griff—he must be a boy—and—and—you will not
be ashamed of him when he comes, will you, dear?"
 CHAPTER XX.
THE FIGHT AT THE QUARRY EDGE.

Griff Lomax, waking at half-past five of a morning towards the end

of August, lay on his back for awhile, and thought how fine the
moors would be looking at this time of day. Then he pictured that
wooded cleft below Ling Crag, where the water came down sweet
and cold from the uplands. He had not had a dip there since he
learned that the old mill was occupied again; the aloofness of what
he had once regarded as his own private bathing-place seemed to
be violated, and he had not cared to risk a meeting, while under
water, or during the process of towelling himself, with either of the
miller's women-folk. But he argued, as he lay on his back this
morning and watched the sun-chequers on the ceiling, that no one
would be abroad at this time of day, and that if he made shift to slip
into flannels forthwith, and run to the stream, he could enjoy his
bath in peace. So he jumped out of bed without more ado, leaving
Kate fast asleep, and crossed the moor at a gentle trot. He made his
way through the dew-weighted grass, and reached the pool where
Greta Rotherson had paddled on that long-ago Sunday when the
preacher came over the crest of the ridge above. The rains had been
heavy of late, and the water came dancing down at a rattling pace,
white with foam-flecks, and brown with moorland peat. The pool,
though neither deep nor wide enough for a swim, could give a
tolerable bath to one who knew it as Griff did. He slipped out of his
flannels, plunged in, grasped an outstanding branch of hazel that
leaned low to the water, and let the current carry the rest of him as
far as his six-feet-three would go; the stream broadened into
shallows an inch beyond his toes, and Griff had always flattered
himself with the belief that the pool had been made expressly for
him. He shouted with glee, and kicked up his heels, and buried his
head among the scattering minnows; and when he had had enough
of it, he sought the fallen pine-log on the bank. The log, too, was an
old friend; time and weather had stripped it of its bark, and the
surface, smooth and porous, was quick at catching the sun-rays and
keeping them. Griff filled a big pipe and lit it; then he lay along the
log, and mutely thanked Heaven for a good many things, and left all
drying operations to the sun and the log between them.
The sound of a door creaking on its hinges came to him round the
bend of the stream.
"By Jove, they get up early at the mill!" he cried. "I suppose I had
better tumble into my clothes."
He had slipped into his trousers and shirt, and was stooping for his
coat, when Greta Rotherson ran lightly down the path. She stopped
on seeing the intruder and half turned her head, as if meditating
flight.
"Good morning, Miss Rotherson," laughed Griff. "I've been having a
bathe. May I put on my coat in your presence?"
"I think you had better, Mr. Lomax."
The girl came forward a few steps, smiling at the absurdity of his
question.
"I have no right to be here, I'm afraid; but I used to bathe in this
pool a good deal, and I could not resist the thought of it this
morning."
"How did you find it out? I thought no one bathed here but myself."
"How did I find it out? Do you know how long I have lived on
Marshcotes Moor?"
"I couldn't guess," said Miss Rotherson, demurely, seating herself on
one end of the log.
"Thirty odd years. Is it likely, now, that I should miss a stream as
good as this one is?"
"You are like the rest of them, Mr. Lomax. You're awfully proud of
having lived here all your life, and you—not exactly look down on,
but you—pity us who come from the South."
"Do I?" smiled Griff. "How do you know that?"
"Oh, you do; you all do! I don't like your people up here; they're too
hard."
"Did you ever get to the heart of one of us? We're as soft as butter,
once you smash through the rind."
"But you never confess it when—when people want you to."
Greta Rotherson blushed, as she spoke, in a vexed kind of way, and
Griff knew, as well as could be, that she was thinking of the
preacher. But he daren't so much as hint that he knew the state of
affairs, though he was always jogging Gabriel's elbow, and striving
to push the silly fellow nearer to his goal.
"We are crossed in the grain, I fear. Don't be too hard on us, Miss
Rotherson," he laughed.
And so, what with one thing and another, they talked for half an
hour, these two, seated one on each end of the warm pine-log. They
laughed, and jested, and teased each other, from sheer vigour of
youth and good spirits, until Griff looked at the sun, which was a
reliable watch to him.
"It is getting late," he said, rising and stretching his long legs. "Have
I been keeping you from your bath all this time?"
"You have, but it doesn't matter. I daren't ever risk it again, though,
now that I know people intrude. Good-bye. When are you coming to
have a pipe with father?"
"As soon as I can, if you'll have me. Good-bye."
"They are hard in a way," mused Greta, when he had gone, "but
they're grit somehow. Why on earth hasn't Gabriel a little of Mr.
Lomax's easiness? It is so silly being in love with a man you have to
give a helping hand to. And Gabriel isn't a bit sure yet whether I am
a wile of the devil or merely an angel. Did I say I loved him? Well, I
don't. He's stupid. I am going for a run on the moors instead of
thinking about him."
Griff strolled gently homeward across the moor, with the tingle of
cold water on his skin and the morning wind fresh in his face. What
was left a man to desire, he wondered? He opened his shoulders, his
mouth, his nostrils, to the wind and the peat-reek, and watched the
sun-rays dance across the moor. Cobwebs were slung, like fairy
hammocks, from heather-bough to heather-bough; the peat was
springy to the tread; a lark was vowing that he'd never grow tired of
singing, and a moor-emperor moth, a dandy gallant in gorgeous
raiment, flitted across his path.
"What fools there are in the world!" said Griff to himself. "When I
think of people living in the valleys—as I did myself for a goodly
number of years—it makes me laugh."
But Gabriel Hirst, at that moment, felt no gratitude towards the sun,
nor did he realize how good it was to be alive. Five minutes after
Miss Rotherson had perched herself on the log, the preacher turned
out of the Ling Crag high-road and walked quickly towards the mill.
It was his wont nowadays to creep about the mill purlieus, in the
hope of catching a glimpse of Greta—or a glimpse of her casement,
if the greater boon were denied him. He could not live through the
twenty-four hours without this pilgrimage of his; sometimes he came
at noon, oftener at twilight, but he rarely had courage to step
forward and claim a word with the girl; it never occurred to him that
a passion so overmastering as his could meet with a like response,
and he feared to blurt out the sum-total of his folly if he spoke with
her overmuch. Greta, of course, knew a good deal about his stealthy
approaches to the mill, as women will get to know these things; and
she wondered how a man could be a man in all else, and yet be
such a sorry fool in matters of love.
This morning Gabriel Hirst had awakened at four, and could not get
to sleep again for thinking of Greta. He tried to drive the thought
away; for one of his old frenzies had been coming to a head lately,
and he was keenly alive to the wiles of the flesh. He ran over St.
Peter's words on the subject of plaitings of the hair, and cringed at
the thought that he had only yesterday feasted his eyes on the
brown glory coiled above Greta's shapely little head. He told himself,
as he turned into the wood-path through Hazel Dene, that this must
be the last of his tributes to carnal desire, that he must never——
But down below him sat Greta on her pine-log, with Lomax jesting at
her side. Like a man struck blind was the preacher; he stood quite
still at the gap in the bushes that had first shown him the scene, but
his eyes were too full of dancing lights to see more than the one
quick glance had shown him. Away went doubts of the spiritual
future in dread of the concrete present. This could be no chance
meeting; the hour was too early, the Dene too far out of Griff's way.
Were they laughing at himself, at his clumsy ways and honest love-
fears? He pressed his hand tight above his heart, as if he had
received a mortal hurt. Griff was false—that was the thought which
shaped itself in his mind, after long struggling with the numbness.
Vaguely he crept away from the spot—up the steep hillside, through
the pastureland above, on into the moor. No lust for vengeance had
yet crept in to goad his manhood; he followed the instinct of all
sorely stricken creatures and tottered to some unknown hiding-place
—anywhere, so long as he got out of reach of his fellows.
Slowly the need of vindication slid into his consciousness. He
quickened his pace a little. Righteous anger followed stealthily,
telling him that Griff had stooped to the meanest treachery that a
man can play his friend. His feet went forward more bravely. Finally,
he was all aglow with a rage that swept clean away every despairing
thought of loss. He ran like a wild thing through the purpling
heather, till Hazel Dene lay a good three miles behind him; he was
out of breath by this time, and he sat down in a clump of cranberries
to rest awhile. He had gone out that morning with a copy of
"Baxter's Call to the Unconverted" under his arm—a book, much in
vogue with an earlier generation, in which Gabriel was wont to find
strong stuff of a quality he loved. He opened the book at random,
hoping to chance upon some counsel fitted to the occasion; but he
drew blank, and shut the stained old pages with a snap. One solitary
quotation from the Scriptures assailed him with untiring pertinacity.
"Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord," he muttered.
He got up from the cranberry-bushes and strode off again across the
moor. It hurt him to feel that excuse for action rested, not with
himself, but with a Higher Power. A sense of futility weighed him
down.
The sun was dropping westward before hunger insisted on a
hearing. He had been fasting lately, and his body was weakened; old
stubbornness bade him fight the hunger, but he remembered that
there was no longer a reason for self-castigation—no longer a
reason, it seemed, for anything in earth or sky. The scepticism
which, years before, had preceded his conversion came and went,
alternating with the dulling consciousness that vengeance belonged
to the Lord, not to himself. Gabriel Hirst was rudderless in the
depths of a stormy sea.
Desire for food was the one straightforward agent. He looked across
the moor and saw a black-walled cottage standing up against the
sky; without conscious thought he took a bee-line, over bog-land
and dry, to the cottage. At another time he would have recognized
Sorrowstones Spring, but this afternoon the country showed only a
blurred, unknown waste. A surly admonition to enter greeted his
knock, and he went in. Old Mother Strangeways was taking down a
canister of tea from her cupboard; she turned and looked him up
and down.
"Oh, it's thee, Gabriel Hirst?" she croaked. "What dost 'a want?"
"Food. I'm like to drop with hunger."
She laughed mirthlessly.
"Then drop, tha praching crow. I know thee well; tha'rt friends wi'
young Lummax, if I'm noan mista'en."
The preacher winced.
"I'm no friend of his, nor he of mine."
"Art'n't 'a? Sin' when?"
"Since the morning. He's played me false, and it's a pity that
vengeance belongs to the Lord."
Rachel dropped into her chair and motioned Gabriel to take the
other.
"Tha looks too mich of a fooil to be a liar, Gabriel Hirst," she said
meditatively; "what's agate atween thee an' him?"
The preacher was tired and disposed to seek sympathy. The aptness
of Mother Strangeways' questions seemed to call for straightforward
answers. He told her what he had seen in Hazel Dene. The woman's
face ran into queer wrinkles as she listened; it seemed that her
prayers had brought to Sorrowstones Spring a man well fitted to
compass what was now her one aim in life.
"It's i' th' breed; it's a trick of his father's, yon. He'll hev his way wi'
th' lass, an' then he'll leave her i' th' mud, to fend for herseln an' th'
babby," she muttered eagerly.
The preacher rose, his face on fire.
"Woman!" he cried, "if you frame your unclean lips to such words
again, I'll——"
"Nay, nay, lad. It's noan me 'at wants to hurt thee. Tak a bit o' that
sperrit wi' thee when next tha wends to Griff Lummax.—Summat to
eat, sayst 'a? Ay, an' gladly, though I'd hev seen thee starve on th'
doorstun if tha'd been a friend o' Lummax's."
Gabriel's fire went out; there was no bodily fuel to keep it going. He
ate of the coarse stuff that was set before him, and drank of Mother
Strangeways' rum. She watched him from under her white
eyelashes.
"Vengeance is th' Lord's, tha says?" she muttered. "Happen it is, if
tha taks th' thing far enow back. But this I tell thee, Gabriel Hirst, th'
Lord 'ull damn thee for a fooil if tha waits for Him to help thee. Dost
think summat is bahn to shooit out on th' sky an' strike this Lummax
deäd? I thowt that myseln, lad, for a while; but now I know 'at just
as mich as a man fends for hisseln, so mich will th' Lord fend for
him. It's share an' share alike wi' wark o' yon kind, an' tha cannot
look to get all an' do nowt."
Gabriel muttered incoherently to himself, and Rachel Strangeways
thought that a new intensity of purpose was gripping him.
"If tha's getten a doubt i' thy heäd still, tha can mind what Griff
Lummax did to my Joe's wife. He telled thee he war innocent as a
sucking lamb, likely. Well, a man that 'ull do one kind o' dirty wark
'ull do another. What's a two or three lies when a Lummax hes owt
to gain by telling 'em? An' now he's tired o' th' wench, an' off he
goes speering after thy sweetheart. It's th' talk o' th' moorside; tha
mun be daft to sit so long wi' thy hands i' thy lap."
Gabriel Hirst, in the simplicity of his nature, was always apt to fall
into the delusion that, if any one prefaced a statement by a
generous exposure of some other person's falsity, then the
statement in question became at least doubled in value. It was easy
just now to attribute dishonesty to Griff, and Griff's accuser shone by
the contrast in the light of a rigid truth-teller. He pushed his empty
plate from him and leaned his head on his arms.
"Well, tha's etten enow, seemingly," croaked the witch; "put thy
mouth to th' bottle again, an' off tha wends to Griff Lummax, to
settle thy scores like a man."
The preacher would have taken well-nigh any counsel in his present
shiftlessness of mind. The withered hag, glowering across the peat-
smoke at him, seemed to be preaching a new, an inspired, gospel.
Her words smacked more of the Old Testament, which he loved,
than of the New, which in his wilder moods he only tolerated. Slowly
he got up from the table and went to the door.
"Lad, I've summat to ask of thee afore tha goes," said Mother
Strangeways, shifting her voice to a whine.
Gabriel turned and glared at her, but said no word.
"Tha knows how th' owd clock goes a-wobbling, wobbling, wobbling,
hour in an' hour out? Well, it's getten past all; it dithers fit to drive a
body dizzy-crazy, an' my lad Joe, th' gaumless wastrel, willun't bring
me a two or three screw-nails—nobbut a two or three screw-nails;
that's all I'm fashed for, an' he willun't bring 'em—an' me that hes
reared him fro' being a babby. Tha'll happen along wi' th' screw-
nails, willun't tha, lad, sooin as tha's done wi' Griff Lummax?"
But Gabriel, before she had finished her appeal, was out of the door
and off across the heather towards Gorsthwaite Hall. Now that he
had a purpose, he could see the moor as he had known it from
boyhood; he knew his way.
Kate was going in at the door of Gorsthwaite as he came up. She
turned and smiled a welcome on him.
"It's long since you've been here, Mr. Hirst," she said. "Will you come
in and wait for Griff? He has gone to the Manor for the afternoon."
The preacher stood dumbfounded. He had had the one simple plan
in his head, and this deviation from the settled order of things left
him witless. Kate decided that he had been wrestling with the devil
on an empty stomach, and pitied him.
"I—I'll not come in," he stammered at last. "I'll—walk back—to
Marshcotes. I may meet him on the way."
Welcome to Our Bookstore - The Ultimate Destination for Book Lovers
Are you passionate about books and eager to explore new worlds of
knowledge? At our website, we offer a vast collection of books that
cater to every interest and age group. From classic literature to
specialized publications, self-help books, and children’s stories, we
have it all! Each book is a gateway to new adventures, helping you
expand your knowledge and nourish your soul
Experience Convenient and Enjoyable Book Shopping Our website is more
than just an online bookstore—it’s a bridge connecting readers to the
timeless values of culture and wisdom. With a sleek and user-friendly
interface and a smart search system, you can find your favorite books
quickly and easily. Enjoy special promotions, fast home delivery, and
a seamless shopping experience that saves you time and enhances your
love for reading.
Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and
personal growth!

ebookgate.com