Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808Pinkney, lieutenant-colonel (Ninian)
History
Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808
Pinkney, lieutenant-colonel (Ninian)
France -- Description and travel
I did not omit to make my usual enquiries, as to the prices of land,
provisions, and the state of society, for a foreigner who should select
it as a place of residence. The following was the result: Land within a
few miles of Aix, is very reasonable; in a large purchase it will not
exceed five or six pounds (English money) per acre. In rating French and
English purchases, there is one considerable point of difference:
English estates are usually mentioned as being worth so many years
purchase, in which the purchase is rated according to the rent, and the
rent is considered as being the annual value of the land. In France,
where there is scarcely such a thing as an annual pecuniary rent equal
to the annual value of the land, the price must be estimated by the
acre. In large purchases, therefore, as I have said before, land is very
cheap: in small purchases it is very dear. The difference indeed is
surprising, but must be imputed to the strong repugnance of the small
proprietors to part with their paternal lands.
In the town there are some very handsome houses: a palace almost, with a
garden of some acres, an orchard, and land enough for four horses and
three cows, may be hired for about thirty pounds per annum.
Provisions of all kinds are in the greatest possible plenty: fish is to
be had in great abundance, and the best quality; meat is likewise very
reasonable, and tolerably good; bread is about a penny English by the
pound; and vegetables, as in other provincial towns, so cheap as
scarcely to be worth selling.
The baths of Aix are very celebrated, and the town is much visited by
valetudinarians: they are chiefly recommended in scorbutic humours,
colds, rheumatisms, palsies, and consumptions. The waters are warm, and
have in fact no taste but that of warm water.
Upon the whole, Aix is most delightfully situated, and the environs are
beyond conception rural and beautiful. They are a succession of
vineyards relieved by groves, meadows and fields. I did not leave them
without regret. The carriage drove slowly, but even under these
circumstances we repeatedly stopt it.
We reached Marseilles without further occurrence; and as a ship was
ready there, after two or three days spent in the company of my friends,
who very kindly refused to leave me, I took my departure, and left a
kingdom which I have since never ceased to think.
THE END.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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