The Vermont Watchman

Housekeeping in Paris.

A niece of mine has been staying with me, just home from Europe. She has been a student in Paris for a year, and some ideas of life in that beautiful city may interest the WATCHMAN readers. She, with a lady friend, hired an apartment of three rooms and kept house in a very inexpensive way. A certain amount of service goes with the apartment, just what you choose to pay for. None of the servants live in the house, but at a certain hour one will come in, make up the fire in the small grate and place your hot rolls and coffee on the table, with fruit if you like. Another brings fresh butter and you salt it yourself, and that is the first meal. Having done just what you have agreed with her to do, she disappears and you see her no more till such time as is agreed upon.

The servant class is very distinct and self-respecting, as a rule, and never attempt to copy the dress or manners of the ladies they serve. At first my niece used to say "good morning" or attempt some little remarks to the servants, as at home; but a friend told her not to do so, for the girls would say among themselves, "Miss S. is not a lady, for she speaks to the servants," and would soon be inattentive or leave her, for they scorn to serve any one not "a lady."

Housekeeping is very easy there, for no one ever bakes bread or does much cooking of any kind. Bread is sold in immensely long loaves, often a yard long, and it is a funny sight to strangers to see servant girls on the street carrying a long loaf under each arm. Children often carry loaves as long as themselves; and if one end drags on the ground, no matter. They never do up anything there, or use paper bags, as we do. My niece learned to carry a basket to market, after buying a few potatoes and being obliged to carry them in her hands as best she could. The servants will do the marketing or go with one to carry things, and know what to buy better than a stranger does.

The girls, after being invited out to several gatherings, undertook to give a little fete in return. They went to the shops and bought some things for refreshments; among others, some thin flat cakes, which looked very white and nice. They noticed that nobody seemed to be fond of them, and the next day found out they were a food prepared for birds and not for table use. "Flowers are everywhere in the windows and in the shops, and often when you buy a few vegetables or a bit of anything at the green grocer's, a flower or two will be laid on top for you. Everybody wears them, if only one or two blossoms, and always with a dainty grace, peculiar to the people. Geraniums grow very large, and the fuchsia is trained on the outside of a house or on a wall and will cover a large space.

Business in the middle class is carried on largely by women, for every young man must serve two or three years in the army, just when he ought to be entering some trade or business. At twenty a man often has a wife and children: and if he goes as a soldier she may carry on his business or work at his trade, and when he returns he may perhaps do something else, and let her continue it. Housekeeping is so easy that it leaves a woman most of her time, and they have splendid health, being so much out of doors and engaged in muscular exercise. They are devoted to their children, always seem to have plenty of time for amusements and pleasure, and are contented and happy.

A. M. S.