Interesting French manuscript guide for travelling from Alexandria to Cairo, written by a Norman nobleman. The guide instructs the traveller to travel overnight from Alexandria to Atfeh (Al 'Atf) by way of a cangia (a type of passenger boat) over the Mahmoudiyah Canal. In Atfeh the traveller is advised to buy a marmite (a French cooking vessel), a casserole and several clay jugs for storing Nile water, before boarding a dahabeah (a large cangia) to Cairo. Among the activities suggested for Cairo is a visit to the cavalry school in Giza, where its director, the French colonel Varin, will receive the traveller like "a good Norman innkeeper". When visiting the pyramids, the traveller will be assailed by Bedouins "in an instant". If you desire to climb a pyramid, "address yourself to the Sheikh el-Beled and tell him to give you three men and to send away the others. A Bedouin will take you by each hand, another will push you from behind and in an instant you will be up". Also of interest is the polytechnic school in Bulaq, headed by the Frenchman Lambert. There the traveller can take a cangia to Rosetta (and back to France).
It is unknown whether the writer based this guide on his own experiences or relied on information from others. However, the fact that he specifically mentions a Frenchman in Egyptian service and compares him to a Norman innkeeper suggests that the source of the information was, like the author, a Norman. The dating is likewise unknown, but an interesting piece of information is that the traveller is advised to have his boat thoroughly cleaned. In the 1847-edition of the Hand-book for travellers in Egypt, John Gardner Wilkinson wrote that "the first thing to be done, after taking a boat, is to have it sunk, to rid it of the rats, and other noxious inhabitants it may have". When the 1858-edition was published, the situation had improved so that "the boats are now for the most part very clean, so that it is no longer necessary to have them sunk before going on board".
Henri-Tobie-Marie, comte de Toustain-Richebourg (1818-1912) was a French antiquarian famous for his library on Normandy. He joined the French Navy and graduated from the training ship Orion in 1834. In 1838 he served aboard the Créole under the Prince de Joinville, taking part in in the Battle of Véracruz. After his marriage in 1844, he quit the navy and devoted himself to antiquarian studies, befriending Viollet-le-Duc and Arcisse de Caumont over the years.
With a later description and biographical information written on the front page. With a water stain at the foot and several stains at the end; in good condition. For the author: Frère, Manuel du bibliographe normand I, p. 572; Frondeville, Les conseillers du Parlement de Normandie au seizième siècle, p. 44.