Boulevard

Boulevard (Fr., also spelt boulevard; apparently a corruption of a Teutonic word = Ger. bollwerk; cf. Span. baluarte, Ital. baluardo, 'bulwark'), the name given in France to a broad street or promenade planted with rows of trees. Originally it was applied to the bulwark portion of a rampart, then to the promenade laid out on a demolished fortification. The boulevards of Paris are the most famous. The line from the Madeleine to the Bastille became a walk in the days of Louis XIV., and then a street. The so-called outer boulevards date from 1786, and were also old fortifications, levelled and planted. But many so-called recent boulevards in Paris and elsewhere are simply new and handsome streets, planted with trees, and have no relation to old fortifications at all. Some parts of them present a very dazzling spectacle; and, as a whole, they afford a striking exhibition of the life and character of the French capital in all the different classes of society. The Boulevards de la Madeleine, des Capucines, and Montmartre are the most notable. The Thames Embankment is a boulevard in the usual sense of the term.