A New Portrait of Paris: Painted from Life

In Chapter XI, the author expands a bit more upon his first day in Paris and compares the city to London and discusses the feelings that both cities evoke. The author describes how he felt at home upon awaking in Paris on his second day there, and discusses the early morning scenes he witnesses as the city awakes and he goes to get his breakfast. The author also discusses his desire not to appear to be a foreigner in Paris and the American ability to assimilate to other cultures. He compares the American ability to blend in to the English tendency to stand out and be readily identified as English in Paris. The author closes this chapter with a description of his first sighting of "that scoundrel of a Napoleon" while eating his breakfast and enjoying his first French coffee (1). Chapter XII opens with the author's discussion of his difficulty in forming an impression of the French character during his three year stay in Paris. The author then discusses the nature of a second day in a city when one's first impressions have already been formed. The author then discusses the Hotel Corneille and its landlord in further detail, including his own attitudes towards landlords in general and the occupations of the hotel's landlord.