In Southern France the lengths of boats, as at regattas, is stated in páns, taken at 1/4 metre.
Wine is sold wholesale by the queue, by the barrique, by the feuillette. A barrique or piece of Bordeaux wine is 228 litres, of Burgundy 212 litres. Trade-units are as common in France as in England.
The housewife continues to ask for a four-pound loaf, a _pain de quatre livres_, for a _livre_ of sugar, for a _demi-livre_ of coffee, for _un quart_ of chicory, for a _demi-quart_ or for _une once_ of pepper. In the market-place, in the streets fruit is openly cried at _quatre sous la livre!_ or _deux sous le quart!_ when no policeman is within hearing, and the police are discreetly deaf, even in Paris, except when ordered to be more vigilant; but then they kindly give a hint to the costermongers and street-traders and, after a few days of conformity to the law, the cries go on as before.
The grocer does not ticket his wares by the kilo, rarely even by the demi-kilo; he wisely tickets them with a simple 50, or 75, or 80, which means 5_d._, 7-1/2_d._, 8_d._, in coin, 10, 15, 16 sous, for a weight which is not mentioned but is understood to be _une livre_, and which can be halved and quartered down to an ounce. He finds that his customers are thus better pleased than if the ticket had ‘1/2 kilo’ marked on it, and he knows that they would be repelled if the price was by the kilo. About the only exception is when the price of goods cannot be expressed in centimes; thus if potatoes are less than, say, 2 sous a pound, the greengrocer has to ticket them ‘15 le kilo,’ 2 pounds for 3 sous. The practical non-existence of the centime, and the refusal of government to coin half-sous or farthings of 2-1/2 centimes, obliges him thus exceptionally to use the word ‘kilo.’
When a _quart_, a quarter-lb., say of coffee, is asked for, the grocer has to put into the scale three weights, of 100, 20 and 5 grammes, for a demi-livre two weights of 200 and 50 grammes, instead of being able to use a single half- or quarter-pound weight as under the Napoleonic compromise. For an ounce he gives 30 grammes.
In country towns goods are often openly ticketed in sous; I have even seen ‘six liards,’ six half-farthings, two for three-halfpence, as the marked price. In the South books and newspapers sometimes have the price boldly printed in sous, ‘20 sous,’ &c. In large shops, especially where there is a cash-desk, the salesmen have trained themselves to speak only of francs and centimes, but the smaller shopkeepers, even in Paris, usually say their prices in sous, at least for prices under two or three francs.