3-038-986 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Bois de Boulogne, Paris, (sketch by balloon post), 1871. Franco-Prussian War. 'There is very little wood left in store to burn, and its high price confines the domestic use of it to the richer classes. Many of the trees in the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes have been cut down, as well as those on the Boulevards, for this necessary purpose. The Bois de Boulogne, which was such a gay and fashionable promenade in the prosperous days of the Second Empire, is now a thing of the past. It had already served as pasture ground for thousands of sheep and cattle, collected together by the Government for provisioning Paris during the siege. The defensive works required also that much of the wood should be sacrificed; and now the severe weather renders it necessary that further extensive cuttings should be made in order to provide fuel for the shivering Parisians'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.