bleuâtre, cf. note on ii

169. boulevard, means literally a rampart or bulwark. The Boulevards of Paris were originally simply the line of fortifications round the city. Thèse were planted with trees and became a fashionable promenade, and thus the word came to mean any broad street planted with trees.

175. soit que . . . soit que, zvhether . . . or ; always followed by subjunctive.