We are in the raucous and Georgian world of hand-coloured English satirical prints, but this is an original watercolour. Dating from the end the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, just after the battle of Waterloo, it was once again safe for an English milord to visit Paris. His Baronial coronet is on the door of the overladen carriage, his luggage and a lapdog perched on top. Everyone and everything in this rich and witty watercolour is joyously lampooned and stereotyped, from the skinny, swarthy French (Nick Frog) to the fat, florid 'rosbif' English (John Bull - gastronomic chauvinists in the UK cast the French as undernourished, and the British as well fed on beef). The martial sculpture of the 17C triumphal arch of Porte Saint-Denis (in the Bonne Nouvelle district) comes in for particular attention, a pair of geese emerging from a breastplate above a swooning maiden.
An uncomfortable looking groom behind the Baronial carriage stands in his stirrups wearing ludicrous boots, confronted by two young mothers with their infants, whilst a villainous outrider whips on the horses ahead. As the milord laughs at the groom's discomfiture out of the coach window, a thief leans in the other window and steals from him. Another coach bearing various grenouille is clattering through the arch, the driver shouting at the British coach, and a worried-looking fop or 'macaroni' scurries along between.
On the corner of the street there is a sign for 'Monsieur Montaudan', an 'Officier de Santé et Accoucheur' (a medical practitioner without the rank of Doctor, also a male midwife). In the foreground Madame 'Babiche' (means 'raw hide') shaves cats and dogs, to make cheap wigs, and behind them outside the Café de L'Aurore, a stall keeper beats a dancing bear who has stolen some bread with a tambourine, whilst its owner, with a cageful of marmots (for the table), tries to keep order. Dogs add to the confusion. In the background there is a Punch and Judy show.
