About the book: 2014 / Paris of the first half of the 19th century was both similar and not similar to the modern capital of France. On the one hand, it was a city of luxurious shops and shiny storefronts, with busy city traffic and even traffic jams on the streets. On the other hand, here streams of mud flowed along the pavement, and cows, pigs and poultry were kept in the courtyards. The book by the historian of Russian-French cultural relations Vera Milchina is a detailed and fascinating description of the most diverse aspects of Parisian life in the century before last. How did the day and year of the inhabitants of Paris turn out in 1814–1848? How did Parisians trade and go shopping? How did you eat in cafes and restaurants? How did you take a bath and how did you play cards? How did you have fun and, in the words of a Russian memoirist, “yawn in the streets”? How did you read the newspapers and what did you drive around the city? what did you see in theaters and museums? where did you study and where did you pray? The answers to these and many other questions are contained in the book, which includes lengthy fragments from the notes of Russian travelers and essays by French everyday writers of the first half of the 19th century..