Adams Family Correspondence, volume 3
1778-04-11
I Now Sit Down to inform You That I have Safely arrived at Paris which we Did on Wednesday evening when We went to 3 hotels Before we could Procure a Lodging which we Did for 2 days1 the next Morning we Went To a place Calld Passy where we found Dr franklin his Son and some other Gentlemen where we stayd about an hour when Mr. Deanes son2 and another Gentleman and I Went about the City which we found very fine for there are many very fine public Walks in the City fine Rows of trees in the Gardens which made it appear very fine. Yesterday my Pappa Dind out and in the afternoon we were sent for and went and had very fine musick and Singing after which we Came home and went to our
NB you must ask Mamma to read your Letter tell Brother Charles I will write to him the next oportunity
JA, JQA, and their party had entered the Gironde River in the Continental frigate Boston on 30 March, disembarked at Bordeaux on 1 April, were entertained there until the 4th, and then proceeded by chaise to Paris by way of Poitiers, Tours, and Orléans. They reached Paris in the evening of 8 April and after some difficulties put up at the Hôtel de Valois in the Rue de Richelieu. Next day the Adamses took lodgings in the already crowded household of Benjamin Franklin in the “petit hôtel” or “basse cour” of the Hôtel de Valentinois, Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont's villa in suburban Passy. This was at the corner of present Rue Reynouard and Rue Singer but was destroyed in the 19th century. See JA, Diary and Autobiography
, 2:291–297. An entry in the American Commissioners' Accounts under date of 10 April 1778 confirms the Adamses' immediate removal from Paris to Passy: “Bringing M. Adams Things from Paris £3 12s” (PHi: Franklin Papers).
Jesse, son of Silas Deane; he had come over under JA's care and was placed in Le Coeur's school in Passy with JQA (JA, Diary and Autobiography,
2:269, 272–274, and passim, 4:9–10 and passim).
Word torn away by seal.