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 passenger 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; Mezières; Strasbourg, through Metz, and through Nancy; Belfort; Besançon; Lyons, through Châlons, and through Moulins; Toulouse, Bordeaux; Nantes, through le Mans, and through Vendôme, and Brest.
Also from Tours to Havre, from Lyon to Strasbourg, and to Marseilles; from Avignon to Toulouse; from Toulouse to Bayonne; from Bordeaux to Bayonne and to Toulouse; from Limoges to Bordeaux; from Châlons-sur-Marne to Metz, from Bonnières 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 passengers, 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.
Fifteen pounds of luggage are allowed, and twenty-one francs per cent is charged for the overplus. The usual charges for meals to the passengers in the diligence are, for dinner 4 fr.; for supper 3½ fr; for breakfast 3½ fr. The average expense of travelling by the diligence, including the pour-boire of the coachman and conductor, is about 75 centimes per league. They usually travel about two leagues an hour.
Offices in Paris from which the Tours diligences set out.—Rue du Bouloy, Nos 9 and 24—Rue N.-D. des Victoires, No 22.
On travellers arriving in Paris we would strongly recommend Lawson's Bedfort hotel N. 323 rue St-Honoré and N. 24 rue Rivoli where they will meet with every attention and English comforts at reasonable charges. It is situated in the most agreeable part of Paris adjacent to the palace and garden of the Tuileries. Apartments may be had by the day, week, or month; breakfasts are served in the coffee-room or in private apartments, and visitors may dine at the table-d'hôte or in their own rooms. The greatest regularity prevails in forwarding and delivering letters, parcels, and information of every kind is furnished.
Diligences start every day from Tours, to Paris, Bordeaux, la Rochelle, Poitiers, Nantes, le Mans, Caen, Chartres, Chinon, Orléans, Laval, and Mayenne.
The principal hotels in Tours are, the Boule d'Or; the Faisan; Hotel de Londres; Hotel d'Angleterre; and Saint-Julien.