The custom in Western culture and some westernized countries' cultures of a newlywed couple going on a holiday together originated in early-19th-century Britain. Upper-class couples would take a "bridal tour", sometimes accompanied by friends or family, to visit relatives who had not been able to attend the wedding. The practice soon spread to the European continent and was known in France as a voyage a la facon anglaise ('English-style voyage'), from the 1820s onwards. Honeymoons in the modern sense—a pure holiday voyage undertaken by the couple—became widespread during the Belle Epoque, in the late 1800s as one of the first instances of modern mass tourism. According to some sources, the honeymoon is a relic of marriage by capture, based on the practice of the husband going into hiding with his wife to avoid reprisals from her relatives, with the intention that the woman would be pregnant by the end of the month.