“Everywhere you see brilliant stores, ostentatious displays, gilded caf’s, permanent illumination: from rue Louis-le-Grand to rue Richelieu, the light flooding from the shops allows you to read your newspaper. . . . People stroll through the streets where commerce keeps a radiant illumination going all night and makes it as bright as day.”

—Julien Lemer, from Paris au gaz, 1861. As quoted in Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-Garde by G’nter Berghaus, 2005.