Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
1782-05-12
This forenoon Mr. Peyron came to see us. Mr. D. went to Mr. Wolff's. Mr. Colombi came here. Dined at Mr. Rimbert's. After dinner we went and took a ride to Catharinen hoff.1 This is the same holiday here, as long-champs at Paris.2
Catarinenhoff or Katarinenhof, a palace, located south and west of St. Petersburg on the
Gulf of Finland, built in 1703 by Peter the Great and named after his wife the Empress
Catherine I (John Parkinson, A Tour of Russia, Siberia and the
Crimea, 1792–1794, ed. William Collier, London, 1971, p. 244; Storch, Picture of Petersburg
, p.
xv).
The annual procession of carriages through the Bois de Boulogne on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday before Easter, which allowed Parisians to show off their carriages, horses, and of course themselves; see entry for 25 March 1785 (below).