Around the World on a Bicycle

Champs Elysees

Visiting the headquarters of the Societe Velocipedique Metropolitaine on Friday evening, I obtain from the president the desired directions regarding the route, and am all prepared to continue eastward in the morning. Wheeling down the famous Champs Elysees at eleven at night, when the concert gardens are in full blast and everything in a blaze, of glory, with myriads of electric lights festooned and in long brilliant rows among the trees, is something to be remembered for a lifetime.

The Champs Elysees at 10 P.M.
From page 137 of "Around the World on a Bicycle ... From San Francisco to Teheran. With ... illustrations" by Thomas Stevens (1887) courtesy of the British Library