In the French nomenclature, the names applied the different classes of thoroughfares, &c., run as follows:  1st., avenues; 2nd., boulevards; 3rd., rues; 4th., allees or ruelles, and 5th., passages (pron. pahsahjes).  In America, the corresponding terms are 1st., avenues; 2nd.,——­; 3rd., streets; 4th., alleys, and 5th., passages.  It will be observed, that we have here nothing to correspond with the boulevard.  In the classification here presented, the term avenue is to designate thoroughfares of great width and shaded with rows of trees on each side, as are the avenues in Washington, D.C.  In most American cities, the avenues are diagonal streets or openings connecting distant points of the cities, but this definition loses most of its force when applied to European cities, as they are not built square or rectangular.

Champs Elysees intersects a fine and extensive reservation, (having many of the characteristics of the pleasure garden), extending from the Jardin des Tuileries (Garden of the Tuileries) to the Arc de Triomphe (the Arch of Triumph).  Its length is a mile and a quarter, and the garden or park of which it is the grand thoroughfare, is, in one place, about a third of a mile in width.  The buildings are consequently a considerable distance off from this carriage-way; but in the boulevards, nothing except the pavement intervenes between the street and the houses.  The boulevards of Paris are its widest as well as its noblest streets.  The pavements on each side of them, are, in many instances from twenty-five to thirty feet in width.  Thick rows of large and elegant shade-trees border them on both sides, and under these are placed numerous wooden settees for the accommodation of the public.  Many of the 6,000 cafes which are strewn over Paris, grace these boulevards with their glass fronts.  During the summer season, most of the refreshments and meals are served in front of the cafes on the pavements, and grand is the sight of seeing ten thousand gay Parisians seated along these splendid streets, chattering away over their wine and coffee!  Paris is about five miles long by four miles wide, and few are the houses in the entire city that are less than five or six stories high.  A few only of the outer streets have as low as four and five story houses.  These houses are mostly built of stone, having stone floors, even.  Each room is arched over from the four walls; upon these arches are placed the flagstones constituting the next floor, and it is in consequence of this arching that each story is so very high.  The white sandstone of the Paris basin constitutes the principal building stone.  The city is divided into seven sections, and each section is required by law, to either scrape the fronts of their houses once every seven years, so that the walls look new again, or to paint them anew.  No proprietor can choose his time, but when the year is come for his section to repair their houses, it must be done.  In consequence of this regulation, the streets never