two in the morning
The rue de la Paix is a wide street , a fine street , yet it wakens none of those gracefully noble thoughts which come to an impressible mind in the middle of the rue Royale , and it certainly lacks the majesty which reigns in the Place Vendome . If you walk the streets of the Ile Saint-Louis , do not seek the reason of the nervous sadness that lays hold upon you save in the solitude of the spot , the gloomy look of the houses , and the great deserted mansions . This island , the ghost of _ fermiers-generaux _ , is the Venice of Paris . The Place de la Bourse is voluble , busy , degraded ; it is never fine except by moonlight at two in the morning . By day it is Paris epitomized ; by night it is a dream of Greece . The rue Traversiere-Saint-Honore -- is not that a villainous street ? Look at the wretched little houses with two windows on a floor , where vice , crime , and misery abound .