I found this reference, with a description from July, 1851 of a first-hand account of travel from Geneva to Dijon by diligence, and from Dijon to Paris by rail. This is a similar route that the Treuthardts, emigrants from Switzerland, would have taken on their way to LeHavre, France, from where they left by ship for New York. This is copied from a Kindle edition of a book from Project Gutenberg. Credit for the quotation is given at the end.
"Tomorrow we are off for Paris and go by diligence to Dijon; thence by railroad.
"We started from Geneva in the diligence for Dijon, a long drag of one hundred and twenty miles. The weather was oppressively hot, and certainly the roads could not well be more dusty... We entered France about four miles on our way, and came to Ferney... We passed Gex, and ascended the Jura; then to La Vattay. The view from the mountain of the lake [of Geneva] and Mont Blanc, together with the Alpine range, is never to be forgotten by one who has the good fortune to see it. I feel that I am acquiring new emotions and gathering up new sources of thought in this journey, and that I cannot be a trifler and waster away of life in such a world... I now feel as if life itself would not be long enough to do all I should like to effect.
"The scenery of this journey has set me thinking; and so I have written rather sentimentally, but truly.
"At St. Laurent we came to the French custom-house, and a pretty thorough overhauling [of our possessions] they made. I believe the fellow took some of our engravings, which they carried out of the room.
"Still up, till we reached Morez, the Jura's greatest elevation. The last half was travelled in the night; so I cannot give you the line of march. We got to Dijon about eight in the morning, and only had time to get a hasty breakfast at the railroad station; but we had quite a look at the city before entering the cars for Paris.
"Dijon is the capital town of the old Burgundy, and is a fine old place, with nearly thirty thousand inhabitants. Here is a great show of churches, and they seem built for all ages. The Cathedral is a noble-looking edifice. We had no time to see the old ducal palace.. We saw some beautiful promenades, but only glanced at them. St. Bernard was born only a mile outside the walls, in a castle yet standing.
"The new railroad had just been opened to Paris, and is one hundred and ninety-six miles and a half of most capital track. We went through Verrey, Montbard, Nuits, Tonnerre, La Roche, Joigny, Sens, Montereau, Fontainebleau, Melun, to Paris... Near Tonnerre is the château of Coligny d'Audelot, brother to the admiral massacred on St. Bartholomew's night. Sens is famous for its Cathedral, which is apparently very splendid, and here are the vestments of Thomas à Becket, and the very altar at which he knelt... Fontainebleau is beautifully placed in the midst of a forest. Here is a palace, and at this place Napoleon bade farewell to the Old Guard, in 1814. This place is celebrated for its grapes, raised in the vicinity. Melun was known in Cæsar's time, and in 1520 was taken by Henry V., of England, and held ten years. We reached Paris on the evening of Saturday, and...occupied our old quarters at the Hotel Windsor. I went off to my favorite bathing-house at the Seine [River], and felt wondrously refreshed after the heat and dust of more than three hundred miles and two days' journeying."
Quotation from Choules, J.O. [Editor], 1851, Young Americans Abroad Vacation in Europe: Travels in England, France, Holland, Belgium, Prussia and Switzerland.
from Project Gutenburg,
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20625
Author: Choules J.O. [Editor]
Language: English
Call number: gutenberg etext# 20625
Book contributor: Project Gutenberg
Identifier: youngamericansab20625gut
Licenseurl: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
Rights: Public domain in the USA
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20625
Creator-alias: Verschillende
Filesxml: Tue Jul 3 19:18:50 UTC 2012
Identifier-access: http://archive.org/details/youngamericansab20625gut
Identifier-ark: ark:/13960/t59c83z9x
Kindle edition:
Young Americans Abroad; or Vacation in Europe: Travels in England, France, Holland, Belgium, Prussia and Switzerland. Publisher Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 89 Washington Street, 1852. Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1851, by Gould and Lincoln,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Distict of Massachusetts
Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry
"To George Sumner, Esq., as a slight tribute of gratitude for his kind attentions in Paris, and in admiration of talents devoted to the interests of freedom, these letters are respectfully dedicated, by his obliged friends, the authors."
Kindle Location 2876
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