The quays on its banks are extremely wide; but, except for a short space on each side the Quinconces, the houses which border them are no finer nor cleaner than in any other town in France; the pavement is very bad near them, and there are no _trottoirs_ in this part: incumbrances of all sorts cover the quays in every direction, so that free walking is impossible; and the irregularity of the pavement next the river is so great that it is constantly necessary to resume the rugged path on the stones, among the bullock-carts and market-people, who frequent this part in swarms at all times of the day.

The bridge is extraordinarily long, over the clay-coloured river, but appears too narrow for its great length, and the entrances to it struck me as poor and mean.

From the centre is the best view of the town; but, though very _singular_, from the strange shapes of its towers and spires, the mass of dark irregular buildings it presents cannot be called fine.

The hills on the opposite side relieve the extreme flatness; but there is no remarkable effect of the picturesque amongst them.
The boast of Bordeaux is its wide _allees_, which are avenues of trees, bordered with uniform houses of great size; its enormous square next the river surrounded with a grove of trees; its theatre, certainly magnificent, and its wide _spaces_, not to be called _squares_.

The new town is _all space_; and if in space consists grandeur, it cannot be denied that there is a great deal of it; but, to me, these wide, rambling places appeared ungraceful and slovenly, wet and exposed in winter, and glaring and dusty in summer.