My impatience, however, impels me to sketch for you briefly a general idea of this so celebrated city, and of the character of its inhabitants.
"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.