The diligence started at the appointed hour, namely, six o’clock in the evening.  Unaccustomed to travel all night, we were rather anxious about breakfast, as we had merely stopped to change horses, without resting for any refreshment since we quitted Paris.  Upon our arrival at Sens, at about seven o’clock in the morning, we were amused by the appearance of a party of persons running, gesticulating, and talking with all their might, who brought hot coffee, milk, bread, and fruit to the carriage-door.  At first we were disinclined to avail ourselves of the breakfast thus offered, but learning that we should not get any thing else before twelve o’clock in the day, we overcame our scruples, and partook of the despised fare, which we found very good of its kind.

The country we passed through was rich with vineyards, and, on account of the undulating nature of the land, and the frequency of towns and villages, exceedingly pleasing to the eye.  We were continually delighted with some splendid burst of scenery.  There was no want of foliage, the absence of the magnificent timber which we find in England being the less remarkable, in consequence of the number of trees which, if not of very luxuriant growth, greatly embellish the landscape, while we saw the vine everywhere, the rich clusters of its grapes reaching to the edge of the road.  Though robbed of its grace, and its lavish display of leaf and tendril, by the method of cultivating, each plant being reduced to the size of a small currant-bush, the foliage, clothing every hill with green, gave the country an aspect most grateful to those who are accustomed to English verdure.

We made our first halt at Auxerre, when a dejeuner a la fourchette was served up to the travellers in the diligence.  A bad English dinner is a very bad thing, but a bad French one is infinitely worse.  Hitherto, we had fed upon nothing but the most dainty fare of the best hotels and cafes, and I, at least, who wished to see as much as I could of France, was not displeased at the necessity of satisfying the cravings of appetite with bread and melon.  There were numerous dishes, all very untempting, swimming in grease, and brought in a slovenly manner to the table; a roast fowl formed no exception, for it was sodden, half-raw, and saturated with oil.  It was only at the very best hotels in France that we ever found fowls tolerably well roasted; generally speaking, they are never more than half-cooked, and are as unsightly as they are unsavoury.  Our fellow-passengers did ample justice to the meal, from which we gladly escaped, in order to devote the brief remainder of our time to a hasty toilet.

From what we could see of it, Auxerre appeared to be a very pretty place, it being at this time perfectly enwreathed with vines.  In fact, every step of our journey increased our regret that we should be obliged to hurry through a country which it would have delighted us to view at leisure, each town that we passed through offering some inducement to linger on the road.  Active preparations were making for the vintage, the carts which we met or overtook being laden with wine-casks, and much did we desire to witness a process associated in our minds with the gayest scenes of rural festivity.