l'heure de l'absinthe : See note

61.7. Champs-Elysées: The very pleasant quarter lying on the right bank between the Place de la Concorde and the Rond-Point.

62.1. pont de la Concorde: Connects the Quai d'Orsay with the Place de la Concorde, which lies between the Champs-Elysées on the west and the Jardin des Tuileries on the east.

62.2. les despotes d'Asie : Asiatic tyrants, in the Arabian Nights, etc.

62.3. ébauchant : ' Sketching an outline of,' hence, ' suggesting roughly.'

62.4. de tons à ^ . . Véronèse : ' Shades that would hâve driven Paul Veronese to despair.' Paul was a i6th century artist born at Verona. His pictures are extraordinarily rich in colour and splendid in subject.

62.5. dont les plans ... le lointain : ' Le plan ' is used in description of landscape in nature or in art to describe the relative apparent proximity of the object viewed to the eye of the spectator. ' Le premier plan ' is the foreground ; ' le second plan ' is the middle distance ; * le fond ' is the background. The phrase means, therefore, ' There were clouds of vast proportions, appearing one behind the other until their forms were lost in the distance.'