The entrance into Avignon prepossesses a stranger in its favour: he
passes through a gate of modern construction into a square in which are
several well-grown trees; in front is the theatre, on each side a large
inn and other houses: this is called the _Place de la Comedie_. We were
set down at the Palais Royal, where we found good chambers and beds. Hot
baths, _a l'instar de Paris_, as the sign expressed it, were opposite
our inn, and the next morning some of the family took advantage of them.
I paid Louis, my coachman, the balance of his account, for I had
advanced him money on the road; and gave him such a generous bonne main,
that he was, I saw, ashamed of having once or twice made us fare ill on
the road. The sum of the expenses of my journey from Paris, not
including the bonne main, was a little more than sixteen hundred francs.
A banker, or dealer in money only, is not to be found, except in the
largest commercial towns of France, and provincial notes are unknown.
The Parisian banker had referred me to a _negociant_ and manufacturer
of silk, who, during my stay at Avignon, supplied the absence of a
regular priest of Plutus; loading me, at my pleasure, with heavy
five-franc pieces, for which he required only good bills on Paris, or on
London, where also he had a correspondence. I am obliged to call him a
_negociant_, as _marchand_ means a shop-keeper; nay, a dealer in the
pettiest wares is called a merchant: a seller of milk is a _marchand de
lait_. As for shops, they have disappeared: every shop is a _magasin_,
so that France is not a _nation boutiquiere_, whatever England may be. I
called on my banker this morning, and consulted him on my establishment.
We retired to rest early in the evening, but were soon after disturbed
by the noise of loud voices below: it ceased after a short hubbub. On
inquiring the cause next day, the waiter told us that the English prince
had descended at the Palais Royal, but that the authorities had
presented themselves, and had engaged him to pass to the Hotel d'Europe,
where they had prepared for his reception; and that the noise was caused
by the passage of the prince and his suite, attended by the authorities.
This was a very prudent, but rather an imperfect statement: it was the
truth, but not the whole truth. The fact was that the Duke of
Gloucester, in his tour through France, arrived at Avignon: he had sent
forward a courier, who had given orders for his reception at our inn,
where he was set down; but, while he was taking tea, the prefect of the
department and the mayor of the city waited on him to request that he
would accept of the hospitality of the town, and representing that
preparations had been made accordingly at the Hotel d'Europe. His Royal
Highness thought proper to accede to this polite invitation. Madame
Moulin, the mistress of our inn, enraged at the loss of the honour and
profit of the prince's company, and transported beyond the bounds of
discretion, broke out into violent invectives against M. le Prefet and
M. le Maire, who, to punish an insult offered to them in the presence of
the English prince, committed Madame Moulin to prison. Moulin told me
this story, adding, "Ma femme est tres sensible."[35] If her sensibility
provoked her to make all the clamour we heard at ten o'clock the evening
before, she certainly merited, and was probably benefited by, the
restraint imposed on her, which, by the intercession of the prince,
lasted only twenty hours.
Moulin has as much the appearance of a _bon vivant_ as if he were an
English landlord, but with a cast of French manners. A very pretty young
English lady (so she was described to me,) admired his great
Newfoundland dog, but said, "M. Moulin, I am afraid of him: will he bite
me?"--"Non, Mademoiselle; mon chien ne vous mordera pas: fut il un
tigre, il lecheroit une si belle main."[36]
I called on the Prefet, who received me with much politeness; and, when
I announced my intention of settling at Avignon, felicitated the city on
the acquisition it was about to make. It is regulated that no one shall
be prefect of a department of which he is a native, or to which his
family belongs. This rule proceeds on the principle, recognised amongst
us by the circuits of the twelve judges, which supposes that justice
will be more impartially administered by strangers than by those who may
be liable to the influence of local connexions. The prefect of Vaucluse
was of the department of the Rhone, and member of the chamber of
Deputies for that department.
I called on the Mayor, and was much surprised to find, invested with
that office, not a man resembling an English alderman or a good
bourgeois, but a meagre, old noble, adorned with the croix de St. Louis,
and with the manners of his caste. In the American war he had been
captain of a ship of the line; he had emigrated, and been despoiled of
his property during the revolution; had passed three years of his
emigration in London, where he had learned to admire tea and _tost_. On
his return, he had married a rich wife who had just left him a widower;
he showed me the weepers on his coat sleeves as an excuse for not
returning my visit. He had recovered some of the wrecks of his fortune,
and had repurchased his house; part of which had been pulled down by him
who had bought it as national property, that, when compelled to
restitution, as was expected, on the return of the king, he might secure
at least the price of the materials. M. le Maire had built a house for
himself on the ruins of the part pulled down: of the part left standing
he had already made a detached house, which he offered to me. I promised
to look at it.
And now began my search for a house, which I conducted according to my
English notions and prepossessions. In the south of France, or in Italy,
a man of twenty thousand francs a year lives in a larger house than a
man of an income of as many pounds sterling inhabits in London. In
England, a nine months winter, an enormous tax on windows, a duty on
bricks, timber, and glass, reduce us to content ourselves with small
houses; but in these countries, large rooms, lofty ceilings, wide
staircases, are required by the climate, and by no means astonish the
minds of those who are used to them. Things on this scale of vastness I
had frequently seen in England, particularly in country-houses, but had
not been, as yet, familiarized with them.
I visited an hotel in which Charles IV. of Spain had been lodged on his
journey from Paris to Rome, after his abdication at Bayonne. I was
desired, by the man of affairs, to determine what apartments I should
want, and then the rent might be fixed. The house was an agreeable one,
but appeared in too grand a style for me: I told the man of business it
might do very well for a prince, or, par occasion, for a king of Spain,
and declined all further treaty. I have no doubt, I might have been as
cheaply lodged here as I was in the house I afterwards rented. There
occurred besides another English prejudice: I was to have but a part of
the house: who might they be who should inhabit the other part? An
Englishman likes to have his house to himself; it is his castle: a
privilege, by the by, which the present chancellor of the exchequer has
restored to him, by taking off the tax on internal windows. Another
apartment I visited; but here the proprietor, who lived on the
rez-de-chaussee, or ground floor, had, as well as myself, a family of
young children: besides, he refused me the privilege of walking in his
garden. From this refusal, and from the intercourse of the children, I
anticipated future misunderstandings. The use of a garden in this
climate is, that, in the shade, or after sunset, it serves as an
additional room, loftier than any in the house. In winter, a town
garden, surrounded by high walls, or houses, is absolutely useless.
At length I took the house of M. le Maire. It consisted of a vestibule,
a small dining-room, servants hall, kitchen, and offices: on the first
floor was a salon, twenty-four feet square; on one side of this salon
was a space partitioned off, about six feet wide: at half the height of
this room, a floor had been laid, and thus two cabinets were procured:
there was a second salon twenty-one feet by fifteen; there were three
chambers with two cabinets, three servants rooms, and on the second
floor two chambers for my sons. I had besides a small stable, and
coach-house for a cabriolet, but no garden. The house was built on three
sides of a small court. My lease was for four years, at a thousand
francs a year, determinable by me at the end of each year on two months
notice, determinable also on payment of a quarter's rent in case of war,
or any event of a public nature that might affect my personal security.
This last clause I copied from a lease I had seen at Paris; a prudent,
and, at that time, no one could say, a superfluous caution. I paid no
taxes.
This house I furnished, as one furnishes a house which he is to quit in
three or four years. It was curious to observe how, from want of money
or of confidence, some of the tradesmen followed their goods to my
house, and required payment on delivery. I had even a sort of _run_ upon
me one morning, performed by some one who had not taken the
above-mentioned precaution. The run was probably caused by some silly
report. I have known a run on a country bank to originate with a
farmer's declaration that such run existed; the question then being only
who should run fastest. I dissipated the alarm by giving, with great
tranquillity, _bons_ on my banker: yet some tradesmen were careful to
give a receipt, not for the amount of the bill, but for the _bon_: this,
indeed, I suggested.
Seven years later, I have found the merchants of a provincial town, in
which I am utterly unknown, ready to give me credit for my orders
without the least symptom of suspicion or anxiety. In seven years I
believe the wealth of France to have increased by one half; in seven
years, the funds have risen from sixty-five to ninety-five: money might
have been invested in land, seven years ago, at four and a half per
cent; now, not more than three, or three and a half, can be obtained:
but I am going beyond the limits of my four years residence.