A "get well soon" card posted to a patient in hospital in the Little France area of Edinburgh was sent to Paris and Lille before reaching its destination.

By the time card arrived at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after a 1,200-mile round trip, patient John Silver had checked out and returned home.

The envelope and card returned to Scotland marked "Retour au pays d'origine. Ne concerne pas la France".

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said the card would have been sent to France from Glasgow's international sorting office.

I think it's very funny - and I suppose it's to the postal service's credit that I finally got the card in the end

John Silver

Mr Silver, who lives in Edinburgh, said he found the whole paper chase extremely funny.

He said: "I can see how it happened. They saw France in the address and just decided to send it there.

"I think it's very funny - and I suppose it's to the postal service's credit that I finally got the card in the end."

The card was sent first class from Bathgate, West Lothian.

After being sent to France, it was redirected a number of times before finally being stamped "return to country of origin".

Sorting office

The far-travelled card ended up in a sorting office in London, where it was then forwarded to Edinburgh.

Postal workers finally realised the mistake and it was delivered to ward 102 at the new Royal Infirmary, from where it was redirected one final time to Mr Silver's house.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said the card may even have made its way to Lille during its trip across the Channel.

She said: "The card would have been sent from the Edinburgh sorting office to Glasgow, where there's an international sorting office.

The card was dispatched to Paris

"From there it would have gone to Paris.

"We don't know where it went in France before it was returned, but it is possible that the sorting machinery misread Little France for Lille, France, and it was sent there."

The spokeswoman said the Royal Mail deals with eight million items of mail in Scotland every day and only 0.1% are wrongly delivered.

"We are taking action to cut the amount of mail which is misdelivered for whatever reason," she added.

The area of Little France in Edinburgh was so named because it became home to large numbers of French troops.

They were brought over to the capital by Mary of Guise, the widow of James V of Scotland, in 1548 to protect her as Queen Regent.