Memoranda on Tours and Touraine Part 15

Pa.s.sports.--The office for pa.s.sports in London is at N 6 Poland street, Oxford street, where an under-secretary of the emba.s.sy attends daily (generally from one till three.) Applications personal or written stating the name, profession and nation, is made one day and the pa.s.sport is granted (gratis) the following one, on personal applications only.

To expedite the procuring of a pa.s.sport, in a case of emergency, applications may be made to the French Consul, N 3, Copthal Buildings, where a fee of ten shillings is expected.

Members of the same family may have their names inserted in the same pa.s.sport, but persons travelling in company should provide themselves with separate pa.s.sports. Couriers and male servants should each have a pa.s.sport.

A traveller intending to visit any other territory should have the pa.s.sports _vise_ (backed) by the Amba.s.sador or Consul of each country traversed.

Consuls residing at the outports also give pa.s.sports, so likewise do British Consuls resident at foreign seaports.

The British Amba.s.sador's residence, in Paris, is N 39, rue du faubourg saint Honore.

If the traveller should omit to obtain a pa.s.sport till he reach Dover, or Brighton, or Southampton, he may procure one from the French Consul at any one of these places, on the first application, it will cost him ten shillings.

CASH.--The traveller will find English Bank-Notes, particularly of large amount the most profitable money he can take to France. The course of exchange has for several years been about six per cent in favor of England. Should he however object to carry a large sum with him, he may take _Circular_ or _transferable Exchange notes_. The object of these notes is to supply _travellers_ on the continent with money where they may require it, without there being any necessity for determining the route before hand; and to supply _other individuals_, who may have remittances to make abroad, with bills upon any particular place that they may desire. For this purpose a correspondence is established with all the princ.i.p.al places in Europe.

Notes on this plan may be obtained of Messrs. Coutts and C., Strand; Foreign Banking Company, (la banque Anglo-Etrangere), 82, Lombard Street, and of Messrs. Glynn and C., Lombard Street.

COIN.--The modern gold coins of France are pieces of 40 fr. and 20 fr.

The silver coins are 5 fr., 2 fr., 1 fr., 1/2 fr., 1/4 fr.. The coins of billon (a mixed metal) and copper are pieces of one decime, or 2 sous, pieces of 6 liards, or 1-1/2 sou, of 5 centimes, or one sou, and of one centime. There are also liards and double liards, which are 1/4 and 1/2 of a sou.

In the monetary system of France, the coins, if accurately minted, may serve also as weights. Thus 5 francs in copper, 50 in billon, 200 in standard silver, or 3,100 in standard gold, should weigh one kilogramme.

Hence the piece of one fr. weighs 5 grammes, and any other piece in the above proportion.

The gold coins of 20 fr. and 40 fr., struck under the government of Bonaparte, were called napoleons and double-napoleons, and such is the force of habit, that these, as well as pieces of the same value struck since 1814, continue to be so called.

They are also designated pieces de vingt francs and pieces de quarante francs. The silver coins of 5 francs each are frequently called pieces de cent sous; a piece of 2 francs is called piece de quarante sous, and so on.

The only notes issued by the Bank of France are of 500 fr. and 1,000 fr.

These are changeable into silver at the Bank, without discount, except the charge of 3 sous for the bag which contains the change; or, at a premium, into silver or gold, at the different money changers.

The French money, being divided into decimal parts, in reckoning, instead of 25 sous it is said 1 fr. 25 centimes, instead of 30 sous, 1 fr 50 cent., and so on. When the course of exchange is at par between France and England, 25 fr. are considered equal to the pound sterling.

The gold as well as silver coins of France contain 1--10th. alloy.

Since the English sovereign contains of pure gold 7.318444035 grammes, and the gold coin of 20 fr. contains of pure gold 5.806449 grammes, therefore the _intrinsic_ value of the sovereign, in French money, is 25.2079 fr., or 25 fr. 20 c. Hence the respective intrinsic value of the following coins will be:

Guinea 26 fr. 47 c.

Crown 5 fr. 80 c.

Shilling 1 fr. 16 c.

Napoleon 15 s. 10-1/4 d. .9 Franc 9 d. 05

The rate of exchange, at Paris and the princ.i.p.al towns of France, is commonly 25 fr. 50 c. for L. 1 sterling: but it varies, and especially in the smaller towns, from 25 fr. to 25 fr. 75 c. If we a.s.sume it to be 25 fr. to L. 1 sterling, we have an easy proportion, by which we may find the value of the money of either country in the money of the other.

Thus since 25 fr. are equal to 20 shillings, 5 francs are equal to 4 shillings, and therefore, any number of francs are equal to 4-5ths of the same number of shillings; and any number of shillings are equal to 5-4ths of the same number of francs. Thus 100 fr. will equal 80 shillings, or L. 4; and L. 5, or 100 shillings, will equal 125 fr.

Hence.

Sovereign 25 fr.

Crown 6 fr. 25 c.

Shilling 1 fr. 25 c.

Penny 10 c. nearly.

Napoleon 16 s. 0 d.

Franc 9 d. 3/4 nearly Sou 1/2 nearly.

or 1/4 9.

This rule will be found very useful for all small sums and the common purposes of life.

TRAVELLING.

LONDON TO CALAIS.--Persons who leave London by the evening coaches abridge their journey by not sleeping at Dover, and are equally in time for the packet-boats, the coaches always arriving before the packets sail, early the next morning either to Calais or Boulogne, whence safety coaches set out twice a day for Paris; by which, according to the quickness of the pa.s.sage, the traveller pressed for time may go either that same evening or early the next morning, and will reach the French metropolis the day after.

Considerable saving will be experienced by booking throughout, and the best places secured in the coach. The coaches from the Golden Cross; 41, Regent Circus; and the Cross Keys, Wood-Street, are in connexion with the Messageries royales, rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, at Paris.

Those from the spread Eagle office; Webbs hotel, 220, Piccadilly; and the Spread Eagle, and Cross Keys, Grace-church-street, are in connexion with the Messageries generales, Lafitte's company, Nos 9 and 24, rue du Bouloy, at Paris. Those from the White Bear Piccadilly, are in connexion with l'Aigle; the Eagle an opposition company, N 23, rue du Bouloy, Paris. The office at Calais is in rue St.-Michel, that at Boulogne is at the Hotel du Nord.

Steam packets go from the Tower stairs to Calais three or four times a week during the summer months, and once or twice during the greater part of the winter. The pa.s.sage is generally performed within twelve hours.

Carriages and heavy baggage must be sent by twelve o'clock on the day previous to starting. The pa.s.sage from Dover to Calais, is performed in three hours or three hours and a half.

LONDON TO HAVRE.--The voyage is performed by companies, one French, one English. Havre is now greatly preferred to Dieppe.

SOUTHAMPTON has become a favourite place for embarkation, owing to the _Railway_, the London terminus of which is at nine Elms, near Vauxhall.

Steam-Packets go four times a week, during the summer months. They call off Portsmouth, for pa.s.sengers, and on their arrival at Havre meet the steam vessel which plies between that place and _Rouen_. Further particulars may be obtained either at N 25, Coventry street; at Portsmouth, or at Southampton. A sailing vessel also goes every week from Southampton to Havre; distance between the two ports, 139 miles.

POSTING. There are three modes of travelling in France: in private carriages (_voitures_), a hired carriage (_chaise de poste_), and the public diligence. As all English carriages have poles, it will be advisable, if the company do not exceed three in number, to have their poles replaced by shafts, by which means one-third of the expense of posting will be saved; for, instead of four horses and two postilions, they will only pay for three horses and one postilion. If more than three persons travel in the same cabriolet or limoniere, the postmaster will charge one franc per post extra for each person beyond that number.

The arrangements for posting are attended to with scrupulous exactness.

There is no compet.i.tion: and those who arrive first are uniformly first accommodated.

A book called the _livre de poste_ is published every year by the French government containing every information for the traveller which he may consult at any post-house, as the postmaster is compelled to keep a copy.

TRAVELLING BY THE MAIL IN FRANCE.

Persons who wish to proceed rapidly may travel by the mails. These light and commodious vehicles are made to carry four persons, and are supplied with horses at the post-houses. Each pa.s.senger may carry a sac de nuit or portmanteau, weighing fifteen kilograms. The price of each place is 1 franc, 50 centimes per post, and 75 centimes per post to the guard.

There are mails on the following roads:--From Paris to Caen; Calais; Lille; Valenciennes; Mezieres; Strasbourg, through Metz, and through Nancy; Belfort; Besancon; Lyons, through Chalons, and through Moulins; Toulouse, Bordeaux; Nantes, through le Mans, and through Vendome, and Brest.

Also from Tours to Havre, from Lyon to Strasbourg, and to Ma.r.s.eilles; from Avignon to Toulouse; from Toulouse to Bayonne; from Bordeaux to Bayonne and to Toulouse; from Limoges to Bordeaux; from Chalons-sur-Marne to Metz, from Bonnieres to Rouen; and from Troyes to Mulhausen.

DILIGENCE.--A conductor is attached to each machine: his proper business is to take care of the baggage, and this duty he discharges with the strictest integrity. When the traveller's portmanteau or parcels have once been consigned to him, every fear with regard to their safety may be dismissed. He usually presides at the dinner table of the pa.s.sengers, and does full justice to what is provided. He accompanies the diligence through the whole of the journey, and at the close of it expects a gratuity of four or five francs. The latter sum includes the driver.