-
| fr. | fr.
Not exceeding 3 kg. | 0.60 | 0.85
3-5kg. | 0.80 | 1.05
5-10 kg. | 1.25 | 1.50[429]
--------------------+------------------+------------------

Cumbersome parcels are charged rates 50 per cent. greater than the
ordinary rates.[430] Parcels redirected or returned to sender are
subject to an additional rate of postage, and to a tax (_droit de
timbre_) of 10 centimes.[431]

Parcels for despatch are accepted only at the railway stations or
offices of the companies or by their agents. They are delivered at the
stations of the companies or at their offices in towns or at the offices
of their agents, to be called for, or they are delivered at residence;
but the latter service is undertaken only when a delivery service
organized by the companies, or their agents, for their own purposes
already exists.

Parcels are accepted for localities not served directly by the
contracting companies, but such parcels are conveyed only to the point
served by railway nearest to the place of destination. It is left to the
public to provide for their further transmission. In the case of parcels
delivered only at the railway station, an advice of delivery is sent to
the addressee by the company or their agents within twenty-four hours of
the receipt of the parcel. This advice is sent by post, and the
postage, 5 centimes, is recovered from the addressee. If parcels are not
called for within eight days, the sender is asked to give instructions
regarding their disposal.

The control of the service in districts served by railway rests entirely
in the hands of the railway companies. The postal administration takes
no part directly in its management, but co-operates with the companies
by affording certain small facilities in regard to parcels. For example,
on payment of the usual delivery fee of 25 centimes a parcel may be
delivered from the railway station to the local post office, where it
will be retained in the poste restante. In districts not reached by the
railway or their agents, the management of the service falls on the
postal administration. The service in such districts is, however, far
from complete. There are in France some 36,000 communes, but the parcel
post service extends only to some 12,000 railway stations, and only at
about one-half of these can parcels be delivered at the residence of the