Wintering in the Riviera: With Notes of Travel in Italy and France, and Practical Hints to Travellers
John Stuart Mill · en
On leaving a town, the new address should be given to the post
office or to the _concierge_ of the hotel, and letters will then be
readdressed and forwarded free of charge. Occasionally, we have found
them forwarded to three or four successive addresses before receipt by
us, and that without any extra payment, which would not be the case
in England. Nay, I have discovered, though only after many postages
had unfortunately been paid on the readdress in England, that letters
arriving in England from a colony, say New Zealand, may be readdressed
to the address abroad without charge,—a fact, therefore, well worthy of
being noted. After a lapse of time, whether done by the post office at
request of the landlord or _concierge_ of the hotel or not, we could
not tell, letters have been opened and returned to the writers, from
whom we have received them reinclosed and restamped about a month after
we had left the place to which they were originally addressed.
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Tradesmen, on seeing arrivals announced in the lists, send in their
business cards; and a circular of this kind, posted to our hotel at
Cannes, stamped with 15 centimes district postage, was forwarded to
us at Mentone. On this, 25 centimes (2½d.) had to be paid, showing a
difference in the treatment of interior letters, which may be explained
in this way, that the letter was not originally insufficiently stamped,
and there was not, therefore, excuse for charging it double.
The French have a good system in regard to letter pillars which might
with advantage be adopted by ourselves. When the postman has made his
collection from the pillar box, he turns a dial, which indicates that
that particular collection has been made; _e.g._, suppose he has taken
the first collection upon a Wednesday, the dial bears: ‘Mercredi,
la première levée est faite.’ And this is particularly necessary in
France, because the postmen are by no means particular in adhering to
the time fixed for making the collection. Day after day have I seen
the notice up half an hour before the collection was due, obliging one
either to post early, or to go to the general post. The French letter
pillars are small wooden boxes stuck upon a wall, pretty well out of
reach of mischievous urchins; but their slits are very narrow, and will
not admit of an ordinary English newspaper.
* * * * *
French postmen, for protection and security, carry their letters for
delivery in a box suspended by a strap round the neck like a pedlar’s
tray, and registered letters are kept in a separate pocket or portion
of the box. The newspapers and book packets (often immense bundles) are
simply carried bound together by a strap.
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