The Innocents Abroad · Chapter
First Impressions of Paris and French Travel explained
The narrator describes his first evening in Paris, including dining at a restaurant, exploring the streets, and the disappointment of a barbershop that fails to meet his romanticized expectations.
What happens
The narrator describes his first evening in Paris, including dining at a restaurant, exploring the streets, and the disappointment of a barbershop that fails to meet his romanticized expectations. He then contrasts the comforts and inconveniences of French railway travel with American systems, praising French orderliness, politeness, and the luxury of a thirty-minute dinner stop.
Themes in this chapter
American vs. European Culture
The narrator contrasts French customs (polite waiters, regulated jewelry, orderly railways) with American counterparts, highlighting cultural differences.
Satire of Tourism
The narrator's romanticized expectations of a Parisian barbershop are humorously deflated by the reality of a shabby back room and a long, messy shave.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Describes his first evening in Paris and his experiences with French customs and travel.
- The Doctor
Also gets shaved at the wig-making establishment alongside the narrator.
- Dan
Mentioned as commenting on the 'discrepancies' of French railway travel.
Key passages
“It was like meeting an old friend when we read Rue de Rivoli on the street corner; we knew the genuine vast palace of the Louvre as well as we knew its picture; when we passed by the Column of July we needed no one to tell us what it was or to remind us that on its site once stood the grim Bastille, that grave of human hopes and happiness, that dismal prison house within whose dungeons so many young faces put on the wrinkles of age, so many proud spirits grew humble, so many brave hearts broke.”
Seeing familiar Parisian landmarks like Rue de Rivoli and the Louvre felt like reuniting with old friends, and the Column of July evoked the tragic history of the Bastille, a prison that crushed hopes and spirits.
The narrator expresses a sense of familiarity and historical awareness upon encountering iconic Paris sites.
“Occasionally, merely for the pleasure of being cruel, we put unoffending Frenchmen on the rack with questions framed in the incomprehensible jargon of their native language, and while they writhed we impaled them, we peppered them, we scarified them, with their own vile verbs and participles.”
For fun, the group tormented French locals by asking questions in broken French, causing them to struggle with their own language.
The narrator humorously describes their playful but cruel linguistic antics.
“From earliest infancy it had been a cherished ambition of mine to be shaved some day in a palatial barbershop in Paris. I wished to recline at full length in a cushioned invalid chair, with pictures about me and sumptuous furniture; with frescoed walls and gilded arches above me and vistas of Corinthian columns stretching far before me; with perfumes of Araby to intoxicate my senses and the slumbrous drone of distant noises to soothe me to sleep.”
The narrator had long dreamed of a luxurious Parisian barbershop experience, complete with ornate decor and a relaxing shave.
This sets up the humorous contrast with the disappointing reality.
“But the happiest regulation in French railway government is—thirty minutes to dinner! No five-minute boltings of flabby rolls, muddy coffee, questionable eggs, gutta-percha beef, and pies whose conception and execution are a dark and bloody mystery to all save the cook that created them!”
The best French railway rule is a thirty-minute dinner stop, avoiding the rushed, poor-quality meals typical of American trains.
The narrator praises French dining breaks as a civilized contrast to American train food.