Gard Mobile folded letter from Paris office at Rue St. Lazare

September 22, 1870

St. Lazare on September 22, 1870, and was prepaid 20 centimes for the French internal letter rate to Macon. Presumably, this letter weighed more than the four-gram limit imposed on balloon mail, and despite the “Gard Mobile” endorsement was held within Paris until mid-October when the larger balloons, with their greater payloads, were used to carry all the heavy letters that had accumulated in the various offices. Based on the Macon arrival date of October 15, 1870, it seems likely that this letter was carried out of Paris aboard the Godefroy Cavaignac or the Jules Favre No. 1.