The idea of the Belle Époque

The idea of the Belle Époque emerged in the last half of the nineteenth century; Paris was the center of the action. No city has ever been so well arranged to receive the world and, indeed, it did.

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The Bar at Maxim's ~ @Pierre-Victor Galland

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Czars, emperors, kings, maharajahs, and princes; the gratin and the nouveaux riches; heiresses and Middle European bankers; anarchists and Apaches; all the world rubbed shoulders and filed in and out of this splendid and glorious city.

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