“Paris, though always inferior to its fame, and much indebted to the lies of its own people, is undoubtedly a great city.  To be sure I never saw a dirtier place, except Avignon.  At the same time, its population contains the most learned of men, and it is like a great basket in which are collected the rarest fruits of every country.  From the time that its university was founded, as they say by Alcuin, the teacher of Charlemagne, there has not been, to my knowledge, a single Parisian of any fame.  The great luminaries of the university were all strangers; and, if the love of my country does not deceive me, they were chiefly Italians, such as Pietro Lombardo, Tomaso d’Aquino, Bonaventura, and many others.

“The character of the Parisians is very singular.  There was a time when, from the ferocity of their manners, the French were reckoned barbarians.  At present the case is wholly changed.  A gay disposition, love of society, ease, and playfulness in conversation now characterize them.  They seek every opportunity of distinguishing themselves; and make war against all cares with joking, laughing, singing, eating, and drinking.  Prone, however, as they are to pleasure, they are not heroic in adversity.  The French love their country and their countrymen; they censure with rigour the faults of other nations, but spread a proportionably thick veil over their own defects.”

From Paris, Petrarch proceeded to Ghent, of which only he makes mention to the Cardinal, without noticing any of the towns that lie between.  It is curious to find our poet out of humour with Flanders on account of the high price of wine, which was not an indigenous article.  In the latter part of his life, Petrarch was certainly one of the most abstemious of men; but, at this period, it would seem that he drank good liquor enough to be concerned about its price.

From Ghent he passed on to Liege.  “This city is distinguished,” he says, “by the riches and the number of its clergy.  As I had heard that excellent MSS. might be found there, I stopped in the place for some time.  But is it not singular that in so considerable a place I had difficulty to procure ink enough to copy two orations of Cicero’s, and the little that I could obtain was as yellow as saffron?”

Petrarch was received at most of the places he visited, and more particularly at Cologne, with marks of great respect; and he was agreeably surprised to find that his reputation had acquired him the partiality and acquaintance of several inhabitants.  He was conducted by his new friends to the banks of the Rhine, where the inhabitants were engaged in the performance of a superstitious annual ceremony, which, for its singularity, deserves to be recorded.