Manners & Customs of all Nations.

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No. XV.


LIVING AT CALAIS.


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,)