Calais may, for various reasons, be looked upon as one of the dearest towns
in France. An excellent suite of furnished apartments may be had in one of
the most respectable _private_ houses in Calais, consisting of a
sitting-room, three bedrooms, and a kitchen, for twenty shillings a week,
and smaller ones in proportion, down to five shillings a week for a
bachelor's apartment. This, however, does not include _attendance_ of any
kind; and, with few exceptions, the apartments can only be taken by the
month. The price of meat is fixed by a _tarif_, at a maximum of sixpence
per pound for the very best. It varies, therefore, between that price and
fourpence; and this pound contains something more than ours. Poultry is
still cheaper, in proportion, or rather in fact. My dinner to-day consists,
in part, of an excellent fowl, which cost _8d._ and a pair of delicate
ducks, which cost _1s. 6d._ The price of bread is also fixed by law, and
amounts to about two-thirds of the _present_ price of ours in London.
Butter and eggs are excellent, and always fresh: the first costs from _9d._
to _10d._ the pound of 18 ounces; and the latter _10d._ the quarter of a
hundred. Vegetables and fruit, which are all of the finest quality, and
fresh from the gardens of the adjacent villages, are as follow:--asparagus,
at the rate of _8d._ or _9d._ the hundred, peas (the picked young ones,)
_3d._ per quart; new potatoes (better than any we can get in England,
except what they call the _framed_ ones,) three pounds far a penny;
cherries and currants (picked for the table,) _2d._ per pound; strawberries
(the high flavoured wood-strawberry, which is so fine with sugar and
cream,) _4d._ for a full quart, the stocks being picked off. (This latter
is a delicacy that can scarcely be procured in England for any price.) The
above may serve as an indication of all the rest, as all are in proportion.
The finest pure milk is _2d._ per quart; good black or green teas, _4s.
6d._ per pound; and the finest green gunpowder tea, _7s._; coffee, from
_1s. 3d._ to _2s._; good brandy, _1s. 3d._ per quart, and the very best,
_2s._ (I do not mean the very finest old Cogniac, which costs _3s. 6d._)
Wine is dearer in Calais than, perhaps, in any other town in France, that
could be named; but still you may have an excellent table wine for _1s._
per quart bottle; and they make a very palatable and wholesome beer, for
_1-1/2d._ and _2-1/2d._ per bottle--the latter of which has all the good
qualities of our porter, and none of its bad. Fish is not plentiful at
Calais, except the skate, which you may have for almost nothing, as indeed
you may at many of our own sea-port towns. But you may always have good
sized turbot (enough for six persons for _3s._ and a cod weighing from
twelve to fifteen pounds,) for half that sum. As to the wages of female
servants, they can scarcely be considered as much cheaper, nominally, than
they are with us. But then the habits of the servants, and the cost of what
they eat, make their _keep_ and wages together amount to not more than half
what they do with us.
It only remains to tell you of what is _dearer_ here than it is in England,
I have tried all I can to find out items belonging to this latter head, and
have succeeded in _two_ alone--namely, sugar and fuel. You cannot have
brown sugar under _8d._ and indifferent loaf sugar costs _1s. 3d._ And as
to firing, it is dearer, _nominally_ alone, and in point of fact, does not
cost, to a well regulated family, near so much, in the course of the year,
as coals do in our houses.--_Monthly Magazine._
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