In April, 1837, Stendhal quitted Paris under exactly these conditions for his tour of France. He bought “une bonne calèche,” and left via Fontainebleau, Montargis, and Cosne. Two months after, however, he returned to the metropolis via Bourges, having refused to continue his journey en calèche, preferring the “malle-poste” and the diligence of his youth.
Public diligences, however, had but limited accommodation on grand occasions; Victor Hugo, who had been invited to the consecration of Charles X. at Reims, and his friend, Charles Nodier, the bibliophile,—also a friend of Dumas, it is recalled,—in company with two others, made the attempt amid much discomfort in a private carriage,—of a sort,—and Nodier wittily tells of how he and Hugo walked on foot up all the hills, each carrying his gripsack as well.
More than all others the “Coches d’Eau” are especially characteristic of Paris; those fly-boats, whose successors ply up and down the Seine, to the joy of Americans, the convenience of the Parisian public, and—it is surely allowable to say it—the disgust of Londoners, now that their aged and decrepit “Thames steamboats” are no more.
These early Parisian “Coches d’Eau” carried passengers up and down river for surprisingly low fares, and left the city at seven in the morning in summer, and eight in winter.
The following is a list of the most important routes:
| Paris—Nogent-sur-Seine | 2 days en route |
| Paris—Briare | 3""" |
| Paris—Montereau | 1 day "" |
| Paris—Sens | 2 days "" |
| Paris—Auxerre | 4""" |
All of these services catered for passengers and goods, and were, if not rapid, certainly a popular and comfortable means of communication.
An even more popular journey, and one which partook more particularly of a pleasure-trip, was that of the galiote, which left each day from below the Pont-Royal for St. Cloud, giving a day’s outing by river which to-day, even, is the most fascinating of the many petits voyages to be undertaken around Paris.
The other recognized public means of communication between the metropolis and the provincial towns and cities were the “Messageries Royales,” and two other similar companies, “La Compagne Lafitte et Caillard” and “Les Françaises.”
These companies put also before the Parisian public two other classes of vehicular accommodation, the “pataches suspendues,” small carriages with but one horse, which ran between Paris and Strasburg, Metz, Nancy, and Lyons at the price of ten sous per hour.