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save much inconvenience and loss of time. The regular charge when you clear it is, per package, 7 sous (34d.), if under 10lbs.; 14 sous, from 10 to 56lbs.; 1 franc above that weight; every packet being charged, so that the fewer you have the better. For carriage to the hotel you pay a porter 50 cents (5d.) for the first package, and 25 cents for each of the others. When leaving a French port for England, a permis d'embarquement may be had at the Douane one hour before the steamer starts, or between 1 and 3 p.m., when she leaves at night. Once on board you cannot go ashore again without special permission. You may bring back, free of duty, a pint of spirits, and half a pint of eau-de-Cologne. By a new arrangement, luggage direct to London, by some of the trains on the South Eastern, and London, Chatham, and Dover Railways, is not examined at Dover or Folkestone, but at the Charing Cross or Victoria stations. Luggage, also, in steamers from alroad, is examined by the officer on board, between Gravesend and London.

LIVING IN FRANCE-HOTELS-LODGINGS.

Hotels-Table d'Hote.-When you go to an inn choose your bed at once, au premier, au second, au troisième, &c., on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd story; the higher stories being the cheapest. The average for la chambre is 1 to 1 franc. In your bed room, if you desire it, there is no objection to your taking tea and seeing your friends, if you have not a private sitting room. It is not necessary that you should take your meals in the hotel, though it may be advisable to do so as often as convenience permits. To make the most of your time for sight-seeing, two meals a day may suffice, a good breakfast (déjeuner), to start with, and a dinner at the end of it. Frenchmen seldom make more than two regular meals. Breakfast costs 1 to 2 francs. If you come back to the table d'hôte (ordinary), kept at every hotel at a fixed hour, at a charge of from 3 to 5 francs, you may safely trust yourself to the landlord who presides to look after you. The courses are something in this order :-Soup (potage); boulli, or the meat from which the soup is made; veal, or some made dish; fish (poisson); poultry (volaille); cutlets; vegetables, separately; roast meat (rôti); pastry (pâtisserie); then fruit, biscuits and cheese. Coffee and liqueurs are charged separately. The drink is vin ordinaire (com mon wine), a bottle of which is usually included in the charge for dinner. Few dishes in France require a knife. Servants are paid in the bill, 1 to 14 franc a day for each person. If you order a dinner at an hotel or restaurant, order it at so much a head, as "diner à deux francs et demi" (21⁄2 francs), "diner à trois or "à quatre francs " 3 or 4 francs, &c.; or call for the bill of fare (carte) and choose for yourself, out of a list of 100 or 200 various dishes, filling a respectable volume. Coffee houses, &c., where you may smoke, in the large towns, are called estimanets; common wine and eau de vie (brandy) are sold at the cabarets. Lodgings-Servants.-When you make a stay at any place, the cheapest plan of living is to take furnished rooms at a private house or hotel (hôtel garni, or maison meublée). You may get them at all prices; the furniture is much more simple than in England. Have a written agreement, signed by both parties, with an inventory of every article, however trifling, and, if advisable from the time of year, a stipulation that the landlord pays the furniture tax (levied in November). Rent is payable in advance.

Servants are engaged by the month; they may be sent away, or they may leave, at any time, by paying up to the day. It is most economical to hire one to come a little while every day to your lodgings, and to bring meals from the shop of the nearest traiteur (cook), who will regularly send his bill of fare to choose from, and supply hot dishes at any hour you

please. This convenient arrangement is very common in France. If you want to examine any town, &c., in a hurry, the best thing is to hire a laquais de place, at 5 or 6 franes a day (finding himself), to act as a guide and servant.

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When travelling, a pair of leather sheets may be p'aced beneath the seat cushions, as a precaution against damp beds, which, however, are seldom met with in France or Italy. Essence of ginger is a useful stimulant; and a tea-spoonful in a cup of tea, on arriving after a day's journey, is very refreshing. Those who are in werk health, and travellers in general, should eat very sparingly of animal food on a journey, as it tends to produce heat and flushing. Black tea is one of the most useful articles travellers can be provided with, as it is seldom good in small towns or at inns on the road." (Edwin Lee, Companion to the Continent— a most useful Hand Book for the invalid).

As to personal demeanour, it is scarcely neccessary to add, that civility and kindness will procure a welcome anywhere. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin," says the poet. When the authorities (gendarmes, &c.) ask for explanation, be ready to give it, with temper and openness. The most insignificant official, abroad, participates in the cares of government, and assumes, in consequence, a very dignified air when dealing with a stranger; but do not mind this, touch your hat (this goes a great way, indeed, with every native you speak to) and answer him as politely as if he were the Préfect de Police. Above all things do not trouble your head about French politics.

Railways.-A full list of Railways is given in Bradshaw's Continental Guide, and they are so clearly indicated in this Hand Book, by printing the Stations uniformly in thick type, throughout the work, that it is useless to say much about them here. The map shows that all the important localities in France are now brought into daily communication with Paris and with each other. The only blank which remains to be filled up is the hilly district round Aurillac, between the Chemins de Fer du Centre and du Midi, for which, however, a cheme is projected, and portions of lines are in actual operation.

The great Railway Companies of France are six, corresponding to the number of sections in this Hard Book, and are as follows:

1. Du Nord, or Northern-Paris to Calais, Boulogne, Dunkirk, Brussels, Cologne, &c. Main line to Calais, 235 miles. Total, about 650 miles.

2. De l'Ouest, or West and North West-Paris to Rouen, Havre, Dieppe, Cherbourg, Rennes (towards Brest). Main line to Rennes, 232 miles. Total, about 740 miles.

3. De l'Orleans, or South West and Centre-Paris to Bordeaux, Nantes, Rochefort, Perigueux, Clermont-Ferrand, &c. Main line to Bordeaux, 363 miles. Total, about 860 miles. 4. Du Midi, or South-Bordeaux to Bayonne, Cette, &c. Main line to Cette, 297 miles. Total, about 600 miles.

5. De Lyons et à la Mediterranée, or South East-Paris to Lyons, Marseilles, Cette, Geneva, Grenoble, Salins, &c. Main line to Marseilles, 534 miles. Total, 1,210 miles. 6. De l'Est, or East-Paris to Strasbourg, Mulhouse, &c. Main line to Strasbourg, 312 miles. Total, about 890 miles.

The total length of lines in actual working is about 4,750 miles. Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide registers all the new openings from month to month.

The traffic is carefully parcelled out to each system of railways, and each line of the system, so that vehicles to places off a line, run from certain stations, and from those only.

In France, before a line is opened, not only the rail, but the carriages, engines, stations, and all other details are looked into by the authorities, with a paternal eye to the safety of the public, who on this side of the water are left to take care of themselves. French railways are cheaper and more comfortable than English; the first and second class seats are stuffed, they are heated, in winter, with metal cases of hot water, covered with sheep skins; and first class fare is 1d. per mile, on the average, while in England it is 3d. Children, however, pay full fare above six or eight years; in England, not till ten or eleven years. Trains do not run so often or so fast, but still they run much faster than in Belgium or Germany.

Diligences (stage

Full lists of coaches (omnibuses and diligences) running from the stations on the railways, and the towns along the roads, are given in this work; as well as of the steam boats (bateauxà-vapeur) from the ports. Nearly all the Malles-Postes (mail coaches) have been superseded by railways. They still run, however, from Rennes to Brest, from Toulouse to Bayonne, viâ Pau, from Clermont-Ferrand to Montpellier, and on some other roads. coaches) run six to ten miles an hour, at an average rate of 14d. per mile. Weights and Measures are reckoned according to the metrical system, so called from the mètre, the fundamental unit for long, square, and cubic measures. Other units, all derived from the mètre, are—the litre (or cubic decimètre) for liquids and dry goods, the stère (or cubic metre) for wood and solids, the are (or square of 100 square mètres) for land, and the gramme for weights; which last is the weight of a cubic decimètre of water at the temperature of 4° centig. All these follow the common numeration system; but to express tens, hundreds, &c., the French use the Greek prefixes of increase, deca, hecto, kilo, myria, i.e., tenfold, hundredfold, &c.; while for tenths, hundredths, thousandths, they use the Latin prefixes of decrease (all ending in i), deci, centi, milli, i.e., tenth part, hundredth part, thousandth part.

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XXX

E.-To compare Thermometers, remember that at the Continent. To convert degrees of Reaumur into

Boiling point,
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or

CENTIGRADE REAUM.

106° = 80°

Fahrenheit, multiply by

FAIR.
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80°

24° Fahrenheit.
1° Fahrenheit.

F. For the Barometer, it will be sufficient to remember that the two extremes, 704 and 779 millimètres Fr., correspond to the two extremes, 277 and 30.7 inches English.

Reaumur's thermometer is generally used on the Forwarding Luggage.—Passengers are recommended to apply to Mr. GEORGE CATCHPOOL, Custom House and Forwarding Agent, 63, Great Tower Street, London. to have Luggage, Furniture, and Effects carefully, expeditiously, and cheaply forwarded to its destination.

11.

SKETCH OF FRANCE.

FRANCE lies between latitude 42° 20′ and 51° 6' north, and longitude 8° 15' east, and 4° 40′ west. The greatest length, north and south, of Dunkirk to Perpignan, is 787 kil.; the greatest width, east and west, or Strasbourg to Brest, 802 kil.; the least width being 735 kiï. (Rochelle to Pont de Beauvoisin). Area, including Corsica, about 54,452,600 hectares, or 136,131,500 acres, or 212,700 square miles (the British Islands are 120,560 square miles). The back-bone of the country, or line of "water shed," is along the Jura and Vosges mountains, then to the west by Monts. Faucilles, then south by the plateau de Langres, the Côte d'Or, and the Cevennes, whence it strikes west, to the Pyrenees. Its greatest off-shoot, the Dauphiné Alps, rise 14,108 feet at Mont Pelvoux, the highest peak in France; Mont Perdu, in the Pyrenees, is 10,994 feet; Mont Dore, in Auvergne, about 6,198 feet; Reculet, in the Juras, 5,683 feet. St. Véran, in dept. of Basses Alpes, Dauphiné, is the highest village in France, viz. 6,698 feet above sea level.

Six principal Rivers water the surface:-The Rhine, Meuse, Seine, Loire, Garonne, and Rhône. The smaller ones are the Escaut, Aa, Canche, Authie, Somme, Touques, Orne, Vire, Selune, Rance, Aulne, Blavet, Vilaine, Lay, Sèvre-Niortaise, Charente, Leyre, Adour, Tet, Agly, Aude, Orb, Hérault, and Var. Besides these, and ninety-four streams of the second class, there are 3,664 kil. of canals, making a total of 2,900 leagues of Inland Naviga tion. The principal Canals are the following:-Du Midi, along the Garonne; du Centre, joining the Loire and Saône; de Bourgogne, from the Yonne to the Saône; de Monsieur, from the Saône to the Rhine; de Briare, uniting the Yonne and Loire with those of Loire and d'Orleans; de St.Quentin, from the Oise to the Escaut; de Bretagne, from Nantes to Brest. The Roads are in three classes; 1st,―routes impériales (or "king's highway"), kept up by the state; 2nd,―routes départementales, kept up by the departments; and 3rd,-routes viciniake or cross roads, which are left to the communes. Some of the best are thirteen to twenty mètres broad, paved, and lined with trees; but the cross roads are dreadful. 36,855 communes of France, there are alcut 2,240,000 kil. of public ways, exclusive of rail. ays,which amount to about 7,610 kil.

In the

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