Sunday, 20 October 1878

I ordered the carriage for nine o'clock and, accompanied by my lady-in-waiting Mlle Oelsnitz, went to visit Saint-Philippe, Saint-Thomas d'Aquin and Notre-Dame. I climbed all the way to the top and visited the bells, like an Englishwoman. Well — there is a Paris that is utterly adorable: old Paris. One can be happy there, but only on the condition of avoiding the boulevards and the Champs-Élysées, all that is new, the fashionable quarters I detest, which get on my nerves. But over there, in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, one feels quite differently.
Oh! Just look at the École des Beaux-Arts — it makes one want to cry out.
Why can I not go and study there. Where else can one receive so complete an education as there! I went to see the Prix de Rome exhibition; second place was won by a student from Julian's. Julian is very pleased.
If I am ever rich, I shall found a school for women.
Monsieur and Madame Coubé came to lunch and we took them to the Bois.