2 1 6 Travels in France 



regular voiture? A gentleman at the table d'hote assured me 

 they asked him 3 louis for a place in a voiture to Antibes, and to 

 wait till some other person would give 3 more for another seat. 

 To a person accustomed to the infinity of machines that fly 

 about England in all directions, this must appear hardly credible. 

 Such great cities in France have not the hundredth part of con- 

 nection and communication with each other that much inferior 

 places enjoy with us: a sure proof of their deficiency in con- 

 sumption, activity, and animation. A gentleman who knew 

 everv oart of Provence well, and had been from Nice to Toulon 

 by sea, advised me to take the common barque, for one day, from 

 Toulon, that I might at least pass the isles of Hyeres : I told him 

 I had been at Hyeres and seen the coast. I had seen nothing, he 

 said, if I had not seen them, and the coast from the sea, which 

 was the finest object in all Provence; that it would be only one 

 day at sea, as I might land at Cavalero, and take mules for Frejus; 

 and that I should lose nothing as the common route was the sam.e 

 as what I had seen, mountains, vines, and olives. His opinion 

 prevailed, and I spoke to the captain of the barque for my 

 passage to Cavalero. 



\2ih. At six in the morning, on board the barque, captain 

 Jassoirs, of Antibes ; the weather was delicious ; and the passage 

 out of the harbour of Toulon and its great basin beautiful and 

 interesting. Apparently it is impossible to imagine a harbour 

 more completely secure and land-locked. The inner one, con- 

 tiguous to the quay, is large and seems formed by art, a range 

 of mole, which it is built on, separating it from the great basin. 

 Only one ship can enter at a time, but it could contain a fleet. 

 There are now lying, moored, in two ranges, one ship, the 

 Commerce of Marseilles, of 130 guns, the finest ship in the French 

 navy, and seventeen others of 90 guns each, with several smaller. 

 When in the great basin, which is two or three miles across, you 

 seem absolutely enclosed by high lands, and it is only on the 

 moment of quitting it that you can guess where the outlet is 

 by which you are connected with the sea. The town, the 

 shipping, the high mountain, which rises immediately above it, 

 the hills, covered with plantations, and spread everywhere with 

 bastides, unite to form a striking coup d'osil. But as to the Isles 

 of Hyeres and the fine views of the coast which I was to enjoy, 

 my informant could have no eyes, or absolutely without taste: 

 they are, as well as all the coast, miserably barren rocks and hills 

 with only pines to give any idea of vegetation. If it was not for 

 a few solitary houses, with here and there a square patch of 



