Lieue
Lieue :
The French league. A variety of lieue units were used for land measurement in France, but generally these units were around 2.4-2.5 statute miles in length. In the 18th century, the legal unit was the lieue de poste, defined to equal 2000 toises or 2 milles (2.4221 miles or 3898 meters). In metric France the lieue is now considered to equal exactly 4 kilometers (2.4855 miles). See league (above). At sea, the lieue was often taken to equal 1/25 degree [2] or 2.4 nautical miles (4445 meters or 2.7619 miles); this unit was gradually replaced by the internationally recognized 3 nautical miles (5556 meters or 3.452 miles). In the classic Jules Verne novel Vingt Mille Lieues sous les Mers(Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea) the unit in the title is the metric lieue of exactly 4000 meters
