THE MOTOR ROUTES
OF FRANCE
·
TO THE CHÂTEAUX OF TOURAINE, BIARRITZ, THE
PYRENEES, THE RIVIERA, AND THE
RHONE VALLEY

ALREADY PUBLISHED IN THE
SAME SERIES
MOTOR ROUTES
OF ENGLAND
SOUTHERN SECTION
(South of the Thames)
With 24 Illustrations in Colour
Cloth, 5s. net (by post, 5s. 4d.)
Leather, 7s. 6d. net (by post, 7s. 10d.)

“The touring motorist ... will find Mr. Home exactly the sort of companion who will add sensibly to the pleasures of the day’s run. All along the main roads he gossips brightly of history, architecture, and archæology, and manages to convey a large amount of information without being unpleasantly didactic.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

TO BE PUBLISHED SHORTLY
MOTOR ROUTES
OF ENGLAND
WESTERN SECTION

A. AND C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON

AGENTS

CHARTRES.

The Cathedral towering above the old roofs of the city from near the Porte Guillaume.

THE
MOTOR ROUTES
OF FRANCE

TO THE CHÂTEAUX OF TOURAINE,
BIARRITZ, THE PYRENEES, THE
RIVIERA, & THE RHONE VALLEY

BY
G O R D O N H O M E
WITH
16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR, 16 IN
BLACK AND WHITE, AND 60 MAPS & PLANS

ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
SOHO SQUARE, LONDON · MCMX

‘O’er the Flaminian way he bade the axle glow—
For there, our young Antomedon first tried
His powers, there loved the rapid car to guide.’
Juvenal.

PREFACE

The fascination of a motor tour through France can scarcely be exaggerated. It is a country eminently suited to the new method of road travel, for with the spaces between the towns traversed by wide national ways going to their objectives as straight as the contours of the country will permit, no one feels that the presence of a rapid car is destroying the peace or beauty of the neighbourhood. And yet in the tour described in this book there is a huge diversity of scenery, from the wheat plains of the North to the mountains and sea of the South.

Great pains have been taken to embody in the small compass of a book that will easily slip into an overcoat pocket all that is essential for the motorist to know both before and during the tour. At the same time, the large clear type of the first volume of this series has been retained in order that there may be no difficulty in reading while the car is in motion.

Dr. Kirk’s practical notes are the result of much experience, and they need only be supplemented by a word as to hotel charges. In every case the wise tourist discusses prices with the manager or proprietor before he takes his car into the courtyard or garage. By doing so he knows exactly what his bill will amount to in the morning, and he is quite sure of no overcharge. If no arrangement is made on arrival, one must be prepared for any charge, notwithstanding the prices given in guides or the hotel books published by the Touring Club de France.

For those who either do not possess cars or do not wish to take their own abroad, the simplest method is to hire a car in England. The author’s experience of hiring from the Daimler Company has been so satisfactory that he is glad of this opportunity of recommending their cars. To Mr. A. H. Hallam Murray the author is greatly indebted for permission to reproduce four of his delightful pictures from ‘On the Old Road through France to Florence.’

As in the previous volume of this series, a list of dates of prominent events in French history and of the Kings of France is given in the Appendix.

The author would greatly appreciate any suggestions for improving the book, and would much like to hear of any inaccuracies which may have crept in.

GORDON HOME.

43, Gloucester Street,
London, S. W.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE
MOTOR ROUTES OF FRANCE

ERRATA

The amount of ‘£48 10s. 0d.’ on page 420 should read ‘£89 3s. 4d.’; and the grand total at the foot of the page should be ‘£102 16s. 4d.’

(OMITTING JUMIÈGES, 89 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

THE
MOTOR ROUTES OF FRANCE
TO THE CHÂTEAUX OF TOURAINE, BIARRITZ,
THE PYRENEES, THE RIVIERA, AND
THE RHONE VALLEY

SECTION I
HAVRE TO ROUEN, 58¼ MILES
(93½ KILOMETRES)
(OMITTING JUMIÈGES, 89 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

DIEPPE TO ROUEN, 36 MILES

(58 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

BOULOGNE TO ROUEN, 109½ MILES

(176 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

Harfleur.—On the way to St. Romain, a long ascent, with four turns.

St. Romain de Colbosc.—Steam tramway.

Lillebonne.—After leaving the town, a steep ascent, with sharp bends.

Caudebec-en-Caux.—A long, winding descent; 5 kilometres farther, a dangerous level crossing (passage à niveau).

Canteleu.—Steep, winding descent into Rouen for 3 kilometres.

In bad weather, when the roads are likely to be sticky and greasy, the route by the Seine described here is often troublesome to motorists, and those who wish to avoid such inconvenience, and have perhaps travelled through Caudebec before, are advised to go through Bolbec and Yvetot to Rouen.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

Havre.—Second port of France; founded in 1514 by order of François I. Church of Notre Dame, Early Renaissance.

Graville.—Suburb of Havre; eleventh century church of the Abbey of Ste. Honorine.

Harfleur.—Picturesque old town; flamboyant church, with fine spire and north porch; old houses.

Lillebonne.—Small town in a pretty valley; Roman theatre; castle, thirteenth century, with slight remains of the Norman predecessor, in which the Conqueror held his council for the invasion of England.

Caudebec-en-Caux.—Extremely picturesque old town on the Seine; streets full of old timber houses and a rich flavour of medievalism. Church commenced in 1426; exceedingly rich in sculpture; magnificent spire.

St. Wandrille.—Ruins of a Norman abbey in a beautiful valley.

Jumièges.—Stately ruins of the Norman abbey church; museum in the abbey grounds.

St. Martin Boscherville.—A picturesquely situated village on sloping ground, with a great church built in the eleventh century; it is considered the finest and most complete Norman church in France.

In spite of the fact that Havre is a port of such magnitude, and that its tonnage approximates to a quarter of that possessed by France, one is dependent on the state of the tide for disembarking a car when, after the night crossing, one finds the ship tied up to the Grand Quai.

Instead of the ranges of dock-sheds and the giant cranes of Southampton, the ship seems to be lying along the side of a second-rate French street, and one looks in vain for the great steel arm that should silently let down a hook to lift the car like a toy from the ship’s lower deck. So if the tide should be low, one must wait until the deck is level with the quay—a delay more often than otherwise a boon to a party adjusting itself and its luggage for a long tour.

Although Havre is an infant port when compared to Marseilles, with its founding by the Greeks, there are things worth remembering about the place. When Rollo with his Norsemen in their black-sailed ships hovered at the mouth of the Seine in preparation for their attack upon Rouen, there was no Havre, and it was not until six centuries had passed that François I. gave the order to Guillon le Roy, the Commandant of Harfleur, on the opposite shore of the estuary of the Seine, to construct a port for great ships, owing to the necessity for an ocean seaport after the discovery of America. In 1514 the making of the port began, and its growth has been continued up to the present day.

Town Plan No. 1—Havre.

Walker & Boutall sc.

Of the original town and its defences nothing is left, for even the old tower of the château in which Cardinal Mazarin imprisoned the Princes of Condé and of Conti, and the Duke of Longueville, has gone, and the only relic of the century that saw the birth of the city is the Church of Notre Dame. It stands in the Rue de Paris, near the Grand Quai, and is a mixture of the last flicker of Gothic and of Renaissance architecture. The building would appear to be the successor of the original Church of Notre Dame de Grâce, founded for the sailors of the port, which then bore the title of Le Havre-de-Grâce. In 1562 the Huguenots invited the English to enter the town, and the church tower was used as a gun platform, so that an effective fire on the royal camp could be maintained. But the townsmen paid for this by having the spire and walls of their church taken down. The rebuilding began in 1574, and the completion of the aisles and chapels took place in the following century.

Henri IV., Richelieu, and Colbert, who employed Vauban, not only improved the harbours, but added to the defences of the town, which in 1694 and 1759 resisted English bombardments. In 1856 the walls were removed, and the town now relies on three forts.

LEAVING HAVRE FOR ROUEN

The road to Rouen is through the Rue de Normandie, and this rapidly brings one to the suburb of Graville, where, on the left side of the road, on a hill above the Town Hall, stands the church of the Abbey of Ste. Honorine. It is an interesting building of the eleventh century, with curiously carved corbels outside, and within capitals as grotesque, and the sarcophagus which contained the remains of St. Honoria. Pilgrims, it is said, were just as numerous at Graville after the relics of the saint had been removed to Conflans for safety at the time of the Norman invasion!

The view over the Seine from the abbey church is exceedingly fine, and on sunny mornings the broad river shimmers in a silvery light.

HARFLEUR,

to which the tramway comes, is a quaint town, with narrow streets and a flamboyant church, whose highly enriched spire and curiously tall north porch, recessed in the wall and full of elaborate carving, give one a foretaste of that wealth of detail and medieval charm which a tour through Normandy offers to the stranger.

Either the walls of Harfleur must in 1415 have been exceedingly strong or their defenders of exceptional resource and courage, for in that year Henry V., with 30,000 English, besieged the town when the garrison numbered only 400, and yet for no less than forty days did they maintain the defence. It was 75 Englishmen to 1 Frenchman; but it generally took a few weeks to get through medieval walls, unless treachery or hunger came to the help of the attackers. Harfleur languished as a port owing to the shifting sand of the river-mouth, and the growth of Havre put an end to its commercial importance.

No. 1 HAVRE AND DIEPPE TO ROUEN

Bending to the left after passing the church, and going to the right almost immediately at a fork, Harfleur is soon left behind, as the road ascends the side of a green valley containing one or two large country houses.

The farms stand compactly inside a hedge of trees, which almost hides the buildings, and suggests the tun, or hedge, of the villages of our Saxon ancestors. A straight poplar-bordered road leads past pretty thatched farmyards, with timber-framed barns, to St. Romain de Colbosc. Besides the sixteenth-century cross in the cemetery there is a twelfth-century lepers’ chapel, with paintings inside, but it has for long been reduced to a mere farm-building.

In St. Romain one turns to the right for Lillebonne, and soon afterwards the road bears nearly due east, and runs straight for Lillebonne, descending into the picturesque wooded valley of the Bolbec River with several turns.

LILLEBONNE

If there was reason to complain of the juvenility of Havre, there is sufficient antiquity at Lillebonne to satisfy the most exacting, for the presence of a Roman theatre indicates the former existence of an important Roman city, and there is some reason for believing that this Julia Bona of the Romans was built where the chief town of the tribe of the Caletes stood. The heavy squared stones that formed the seats were to a great extent carried away to the other side of Caudebec to build the Abbey of St. Wandrille, and one can only get a small idea of the perfect building from the rough inner stonework of the two lowest tiers. Even these were only revealed through the excavations which took place between 1812 and 1840. Many of the discoveries made in the excavations are to be seen in the museum at Rouen.

Of exceptional interest to Englishmen is the castle of Lillebonne, for in the great Norman hall—now also demolished—William the Conqueror gathered together a great assemblage of his viscounts, his warrior bishops, and men of lesser potency, and before them all announced his intention of invading England. The reception of this portentous declaration was mixed, many of the barons being unwilling to consent to so hazardous an enterprise, in spite of the enthusiasm of the Duke’s particular friends. Notwithstanding this lukewarmness, William’s determination eventually carried away all opposition, and the invasion ‘scare’ became an accomplished fact. That the historic hall should have survived until a wealthy cotton-spinner, who had purchased the castle, destroyed it in cold blood is distressing to the visitor who longs to feast his eyes on the building that once held that stirring council. What he sees to-day is the ruins of the thirteenth-century castle built on the site of the Conqueror’s stronghold, and the great round donjon did not come into existence until long after William had been gathered to his fathers. The church has a beautiful crocketed spire of the fifteenth century, similar to the one seen at Harfleur.

As one climbs out of the valley the road winds in different directions, and gives charming views over the Seine, with its passing steamers, and the distant green country beyond.

Two pretty villages, La Frenaye and St. Arnoult, are passed, each with its mossy thatched roofs and quaint little church, its particularly attractive half-timbered houses, and here and there an outside wooded staircase; then follows a winding descent into that most romantic of towns—

CAUDEBEC-EN-CAUX

Although artists have painted the church, the river, and the old streets and waterway for years, there are still many of the most appealing aspects of the place that seem to remain outside the attainments of the painters and sketchers who reveal the results of their work there. There is one particular old street of houses, with romantic frontages on one side rising from the green water of a narrow canal, which is not easy to forget. Not only are the greens and greys and reds and ochres a delight to the eye, and the detail of the windows, overhanging eaves, and timber framing of the walls and gables particularly attractive, but one also gets peeps into interiors, where one can see old folk seated by windows with faces and curious black headgears such as Holbein and Rembrandt painted.

Even Lisieux cannot eclipse Caudebec in the completeness of its antique streets, for here there have been few attempts to hide the picturesque timber fronts with stucco, and there are half a dozen narrow streets by the church where the buildings, with the passage of the centuries, have let their time-worn gables nod towards one another until the strip of sky that the builders left has been appreciably narrowed. Then, in wandering through these ancient ways one is suddenly confronted with a wealth of the most delicately carved stone, and looking up, one sees the exquisitely graceful tower of the church, with its profusion of ornament and its crocketed and coroneted spire rising above. The western entrance is often open, so that the passer-by may see the lacelike ornament of the doorway thrown out against the velvet blackness

CAUDEBEC-EN-CAUX.

One of the most picturesque towns in Normandy.

of the interior, a darkness relieved by the brilliant fifteenth and sixteenth century stained glass of the Flamboyant windows.

Henri IV., when he stayed at Caudebec, said that the town had la plus jolie chapelle que j’ai jamais vue, but added that the jewel was badly set. The building was commenced in 1426, and in 1484 Guillaume Le Tellier, the master mason, died, and was buried in the Lady-chapel of the glorious building he had created.

There existed in the sixteenth century an island in the Seine opposite Caudebec, and it is stated by Mrs. Macquoid that there were ‘three beautiful churches’ on it until the mascaret, a tidal bore, which at certain full moons in the spring and autumn equinoxes comes up the river with tremendous force, swept the whole island away. By 1641 the island had appeared again, but the mascaret again demolished it. The wall of water that rushes up the narrowing river-mouth varies from 6 to 12 feet in height, and its force is sufficient to dislodge and carry away great stones.

Caudebec began its existence as a fishing village under the control of the Abbey of St. Wandrille, and, with its convenient quay, soon grew prosperous. When Henry V. besieged the town, it held out for six months.

During the Franco-Prussian War the Germans occupied the old town, but fortunately did no damage to it.

It is with keen reluctance that one leaves the sunny quay of Caudebec, with its busy market scenes, its steam ferry-boat, and the lovely views up and down the curving river. However, the road follows the Seine, and one enjoys for mile after mile lovely views across the wide belt of silvery water, backed by sweeping green forests.

ST. WANDRILLE

About two kilometres from Caudebec a turning to the left leads up in a few minutes to St. Wandrille, where the ruins of the Norman abbey stand in a pretty valley. The conventual buildings are now the residence of M. Maurice Maeterlinck, the dramatist and author, who recently performed an historical play in the refectory and cloisters of the abbey, the audience moving from one part of the buildings to another for each successive scene.

The abbey was originally called Fontenelle, after the stream that flows through the valley. It was founded in the middle of the seventh century by a pupil of St. Columba, and the early buildings fell a prey to the harrying Norsemen, who left the place in ruins. In 1033, having been rebuilt, the abbey was dedicated to St. Wandrille, but a fire did much destruction in the thirteenth century, and in 1631 the tower and spire of the church fell, and smashed down the nave and aisles, the Lady-chapel, and the choir-stalls. What remains of the church is not so remarkable as the ornate cloisters of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the imposing Norman refectory, with its vaulted roof of the fifteenth century and its fine Flamboyant windows.

Returning to the main road, and continuing towards Rouen, one soon catches sight of the two towers of the abbey of Jumièges rising above trees beyond a bend of the winding river. At the small village of Yainville, with a Norman church, the road to Jumièges goes to the right, and the singular beauty of this stately ruin justifies the détour.

JUMIÈGES

The entrance to the abbey is at a lodge gate on the left side of the road in the pleasant village, and the concierge—a quite charming type of country-woman—accompanies one through the admirably-kept ruins, and afterwards to the museum adjoining, where is preserved, among other carved stones from the ruined buildings, the slab of black marble under which was buried the heart of Agnes Sorel, the beautiful mistress of Charles VII. She died near Jumièges in 1449, after the birth of her fourth daughter, and her body was buried at Loches, which is passed through on the way southwards from Tours (see [Section VI.]).

The impressiveness of the twin towers of the west end of the great church is due in part to the extreme simplicity of the Norman work—for the buildings were completed just before the Norman Conquest—and also to their great height of 328 feet. On entering it is hard to believe that until 1790 the abbey and its great church were in a perfect state of preservation, for the roofs have gone except in the aisles, where the stones of the vault have been in some places so disturbed by roots and frosts that collapses are imminent. There are traces of orange-coloured painting on the arches, and the stone is of a warm cream, which looks singularly beautiful when afternoon shadows are falling from arches and pillars. There are only the foundations of the semicircular apse, with its nine chapels, and the gaps in the east end of the church are beautified by the presence of tall larches that droop their graceful branches over the broken moss-grown walls. The fourteenth-century chapel on the south side, dedicated to St. Pierre, is also in a state of ruin.

St. Philibert founded Jumièges in 654, about the same time as St. Wandrille was begun, and it also suffered terribly at the hands of the Northmen, who tortured and massacred without mercy, and left the once prosperous abbey a shattered ruin.

The rebuilding was encouraged by William Longsword, the son of Rollo; but the builder of the Norman church which stands to-day was Abbot Robert of Jumièges, who was afterwards appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Edward the Confessor, who had been educated at Jumièges under his care. The buildings, completed and consecrated in 1067, remained in use until 1793, the date of the Suppression, so that, with an interval of about a century in its early history, Jumièges existed as a monastery for 1,139 years, and in that period was ruled by eighty-two abbots.

It is interesting to know that, although the Benedictines of Jumièges contributed a very large sum towards the ransom of Richard I. after his capture on the way home from the Holy Land, the monastery was twice plundered by English armies, and the first occasion was in Edward III.’s reign, when the generosity of the monks seems to have been quite forgotten!

A portion of the buildings belonging to William Longsword’s church is to be seen in the Chapel of St. Pierre already mentioned.

An interesting legend of the founder of the abbey explains the presence of a wolf at the feet of the saint on a carved stone boss. St. Philibert had given to a convent four leagues from Jumièges the laundry work of his abbey, and the Abbess and her nuns washed the linen which was sent to them. One day a wolf ate the ass that carried the washing, but the holy Abbess induced the wicked wolf to carry the baskets, which he did, we read, until the end of his life.

The greatness and power of the abbey declined very much after the Reformation, and at the time of the Revolution the religious who were dispersed were not numerous.

The short distance from Yainville has to be retraced, and then, going to the right through a belt of forest, one reaches the banks of the Seine once more, and passes through the little town of Duclair, with its sunny quay and its ferry-boat. There are beautiful views over the river, and as the car runs along the level road one may overtake a steamer that is sliding along with a little pile of water pushed up in front of its bow, and note the contrast of its stained red funnel with the soft green landscape beyond. On the left curious little chambers are cut out of the cliff of chalk, and several form complete cottages. So even and horizontal are the layers of chalk, with bands of flint at different heights, that the cliff has often an exceedingly artificial appearance.

Soon afterwards the road cuts across the neck of another peninsula formed by one of the deep windings of the Seine, and on reaching the foot of the rising ground a turning to the right leads to the hamlet of St. Martin Boscherville, whose noble Church of St. Georges rears its great bulk on the hillside. The hurried tourist might be inclined to pass this by, thinking that of ecclesiastic architecture he has seen enough in this neighbourhood; but throughout the whole of France he will not find another Norman church so perfect as that of St. Georges de Boscherville. The abbey was founded and built in the eleventh century by the Grand Chamberlain of William the Conqueror, Raoul de Tancarville, a fact proclaimed in an inscription above the chief portal; and the great church, built at the time when England was newly subjected to the Norman, stands to-day, with the exception of the western turrets, exactly as the original builders left it.

The transepts are remarkable for their galleries, similar to those in Winchester Cathedral; and the chapter-house, which is later than the church, being Transitional in style, should also be seen. The sixteenth-century tomb of Le Roulx, the last Abbot, is in front of the altar.

On resuming the journey, the hill just mentioned is negotiated with some considerable winding, which enables one to get especially fine views over the wooded country to the west, with the big church in the middle distance, and the gleaming river showing its snaky windings on either side.

After passing through a belt of typical French forest, composed of thin trees without beauty or individuality, one begins the long curving descent to Rouen, the historic capital of Normandy. The city appeals so much to the student of history that this first view of the place as a whole, threaded by its broad river, and dominated by the fretted spire and beautiful towers of cathedral and churches, is one that stands out vividly in the memory when other impressions have faded.

DIEPPE TO ROUEN (36 miles—58 kilometres)

This is a direct road, with a few hills, the ascent from the river at Sanqueville and the winding descent at Malaunay being the only ones worth mentioning.

Town Plan No. 2—Dieppe.

Walker & Boutall sc.

BOULOGNE TO ROUEN (109½ miles—176 kilometres)

This road is through the little town of Samer, where there is an interesting fifteenth-century church and the ruins of the Abbey of St. Wulmer. Soon afterwards there is a steep hill.

Montreuil-sur-Mer has a Palais de Justice, which was formerly part of a Carmelite convent, and the college and École d’Infanterie occupy the buildings of the Abbey of Ste. Austreberthe. The chapel of the Gothic Hôtel Dieu has a curious altar-screen, and the very interesting Church of St. Saulve dates from the twelfth century. The view seawards down the Canche from the citadel, which is surrounded by towers and walls of the Middle Ages, is remarkably fine.

On the road to Abbeville there is a steep ascent at Nampont St. Martin, and a steep descent to Bernay-en-Ponthieu. The forest of Crécy lies to the left of the road, and on the farther side of it is the medieval battlefield, where the English army, under Edward III., crushingly defeated the French in 1346.

Abbeville is an interesting old town, still possessing some very good specimens of its domestic architecture of the thirteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The best are the Maison François I., with richly carved woodwork, at 29, Rue de la Tannerie; No. 2 in the same street (sixteenth century); 7, Rue du Pont de Boulogne; 3 and 5, Rue de l’Hôtel de Ville; 41, Rue de la Boucherie; and, besides these, several others will be noticed in a walk through the town. There are also some good town houses, or hôtels, in the Rue St. Gilles. The Church of St. Vulfran belongs to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and is remarkable for its fine restored façade, with beautifully sculptured doorways. The interior is not remarkable, except for two curved altar-screens.

The Hôtel de Ville has a bell-tower dating from the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the library in the Jardin Public d’Emonville contains a Gospel which belonged to Charlemagne.

Neufchâtel-en-Bray is famous for its cheeses, and is the chief town of the district, which has been called ‘the dairy of Paris.’ It was at one time called Driencourt, the name having been altered when a new castle was built by Henri Beauclerc. The Church of Notre Dame, of various periods from the twelfth century, has a sixteenth-century tower. A passage from the Grand Rue leads to the Maison des Templiers, a most picturesque timber-framed building, with much carved woodwork.

From Neufchâtel to above the River Arques the road climbs, dropping steeply down to that river at St. Martin Omonville. After leaving the valley the road is comparatively level to Rouen.

CALAIS TO BOULOGNE

The coast route is the most interesting, as it gives splendid views of the Straits of Dover and the white cliffs of England. Sangatte (7½ kilometres from Calais) is famous in connection with M. Blériot’s cross-Channel flight, and for the abandoned workings of the Channel tunnel.

Town Plan No. 3—Calais.

Walker & Boutall sc.

Four miles before passing over Cape Grisnez one passes the little town of Wissant, associated with the Roman Portus Itius, from which Julius Cæsar sailed when he made his first reconnaissance of the coast of Britain. Beyond the great headland is Ambleteuse, the landing-place of the fugitive James II. at 3 a.m. on Christmas Day, 1688. The King had left Rochester on the night of the 23rd, and had passed by a back-door on to the Medway, where he boarded the smack which brought him to the French coast.

Town Plan No. 4—Boulogne.

At the next river-mouth is Wimereux Harbour, the landing-place of Prince Louis Napoleon in August, 1840. Having received no support, the Prince and his followers were easily captured, and in Boulogne one can see the thirteenth-century château, now converted into barracks, where he was imprisoned.

No. 2. CALAIS TO BOULOGNE AND ROUEN.

Boulogne Cathedral was erected in 1869 on the site of the original Norman church, built in 1104 by Ida, the mother of Geoffrey de Bouillon.

SECTION II
ROUEN TO EVREUX, 32½ MILES (52 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

On leaving the Seine for Pont de l’Arche, there is a long, winding ascent.

After Pont de l’Arche comes a climb through the forest, and a switchback of small, sharp hills before reaching Louviers.

After crossing the Iton, the road is hilly until the valley of that river is dropped into again, about 6 kilometres from Evreux.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

Rouen.—Cathedral; churches of St. Ouen and St. Maclou, and crypt of St. Gervais (on hill above the Place Cauchoise); the Grosse-Horloge gateway and belfry; Palais de Justice; Tour de Jeanne d’Arc; the spot where Jeanne d’Arc was burnt in the Place du Vieux-Marché; Maison Bourgthéroulde, No. 15 in the Place de la Pucelle, dating from 1486; many old timber-framed houses near cathedral.

Pont de l’Arche.—Small town on the Seine; remains of ramparts; fifteenth- and sixteenth-century timber houses; beautiful fifteenth-century church, with coeval glass.

Louviers.—Old manufacturing town, with a few picturesque houses near the church and market-place; south aisle and porch of church covered with remarkable profusion of fifteenth-century carving.

Evreux.—An old city, famous for its cathedral (see next section).

ROUEN

On the sunlit slopes that went down to the swamps by the Seine, where stands the Rouen of to-day, there were Celtic inhabitants in remote times; and when the advancing sway of Rome brought civilization to the north of France, the light of history illuminates the spot, and reveals the presence of a town called Ratuma, the chief centre of the tribe of the Veliocassians. The Romans modified the name to Rotomagus, and in the second century it is believed to have received the first seeds of Christianity. From South Wales, the home of so much evangelizing enthusiasm, there arrived, about the year 260, a missionary called St. Mellon, who became in time the first Bishop of Rouen. This may, perhaps, sound a far-away piece of information, belonging too much to what is legendary to be of much service as a guide to the antiquities of Rouen; but it is not so, for beneath the Church of St. Gervais, a building in the modern Norman style, there can still be seen, in a crypt of the fourth or fifth century, the tomb in which was laid the body of that early missionary. The crypt was probably built soon after the year 404 by St. Victrice, the sixth to succeed St. Mellon, and the body must, therefore, have been placed there more than a century after his death. It remained there until 1562, when the Huguenots opened the tomb and removed the remains.

The Cathedral.—Building Dates

c. 400 A.D. First church on present site, built by St. Victrice.

638. Archbishop St. Romain, who died in this year, enlarged the church.

c. 841. Destroyed by Northmen.

930. By this year a new cathedral had been built, and Rollo was buried in it.

c. 1063. The cathedral having been again practically rebuilt, it was consecrated in this year. The only portions standing to-day are the lower part of the Tour St. Romain, and a few traces here and there; the rest of the Norman building was burnt in 1200.

1202-1255. Early French nave, choir, transepts, and central tower built.

1278-1478. Portail aux Libraires and Portail de la Calende built.

1477. Flamboyant. Tour St. Romain finished.

1485-1507. Flamboyant. Tour de Beurre built.

1508-1527. Flamboyant. West portal built.

1827. Iron spire begun.

St. Victrice was the first to put up any church on the site of the present cathedral, and the numerous Bishops who succeeded him rebuilt and enlarged the Early Christian structure until it must have been something far removed from the simple rudeness of the first building. Rouen, however, was destined to frequent disaster. A fire in 556 was followed by a plague, and the city suffered much in the disorder which followed the death of Charles the Great. Therefore, in the year 841, when the Northmen began their raids upon the north of France, they found only a lean city to plunder; and when Rollo became first Duke of Normandy, and was converted to Christianity, he had almost to refound the capital of his new dominion. It is therefore in no way surprising that the crypt of St. Gervais is the sole survival yet discovered of the buildings of the earlier city.

After the paralysis of fear which gripped Christendom at the approach of the year 1000 had passed off, with the unchanged procession of normal days and nights brought in by the new century, there came so great an enthusiasm for church building that the cathedral of Rouen was reconstructed on a larger and finer scale. The new structure was consecrated on October 1, 1063, by Archbishop Maurilius, in the presence of William the Norman.

It is quite possible that this church was of greater magnificence than those of Jumièges or St. Georges de Boscherville, and perhaps even more perfect than St. Étienne at Caen; but whatever theories one may care to form must be built upon the style of the lower portion of the north-west tower—the Tour St. Romain—for in the year 1200 a disastrous fire destroyed the great building, and all that now exists of the Norman church is this portion of a tower and some indications of Romanesque work that can be discovered in a few other places. The havoc a fire can work in a Norman church even at the present time, in spite of modern fire extinguishing appliances, has been very forcibly illustrated by the recent burning of the abbey church of Selby, in Yorkshire, in which the terrific heat burnt halfway through stone piers of enormous thickness.

The reconstruction of the cathedral appears to have been undertaken soon after the disaster, and was commenced at the east end, where one finds that the chapels of the apse and transepts were built first and the choir soon afterwards, for it was finished in the Early French style. Between 1202 and 1220 the nave, choir, transepts, and central tower would appear to have been built, and before St. Louis (IX.) visited the cathedral in 1255, the magnificent church, as it is to be seen to-day, had assumed an appearance of completeness.

The embellishment of the great pile continued right through the centuries that followed, until the influence of the Renaissance shows itself in the central porch of the west front. In the fourteenth century the Lady-chapel was built, and in the fifteenth the Tour de Beurre climbed upwards, while the money provided by the indulgences sold, giving permission to eat butter in Lent, was helping to provide the funds. This tower, therefore, together with the uppermost portion of the Tour St. Romain, the western rose-window, and a good deal of decoration on each of the porches, belong to the Flamboyant period, corresponding to the Perpendicular of English architecture.

At the base of the Tour St. Romain there still stands the lodge of the porter, whose duties from very early times right up to 1700 included the care of the fierce watch-dogs who were at night let loose in the cathedral to guard its many precious treasures from robbers. How much would we give for a glimpse of one of those porters walking through the cavernous gloom of the echoing aisles, with his lamp throwing strange shadows from the great slouching dogs!

The misereres of the choir-stalls were carved between 1457 and 1469, and should be seen for the vivid details they reveal of nearly every trade and employment, as well as the costumes of the period when the Flamboyant style was in vogue.

The tombs in the cathedral bring one into close touch with the Dukes of Normandy and their successors on the throne of England. In the easternmost chapels on either side of the nave are the tombs of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, and his son, William Longsword, who was murdered in 943. The statues were made in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and have been restored. The inscription on Rollo’s tomb says:

‘Here lies Rollo, the first Duke, founder and father of Normandy, of which he was at first the terror and the scourge, but afterwards the restorer. Baptized in 912 by Françon, Archbishop of Rouen; died in 917. His remains were at first deposited in the ancient sanctuary, at present the upper end of the nave. The altar having been removed, the remains of the Prince were placed here by the blessed Maurille, Archbishop of Rouen, in the year 1063.’

A thirteenth-century effigy of Richard Cœur de Lion, discovered in 1838, lies outside the southern railing of the choir. The heart was found in a triple casket of lead, wood, and silver. Some of the dust can be seen in the Museum of Antiquities, whither the original effigy of Henry II.’s eldest son, Henry Plantagenet, has also been taken, the one in the cathedral being modern. On the left side of the high altar is the tomb of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent under Henry VI., and on the north side of the choir is the mutilated effigy of Archbishop Maurice, who died in 1235.

The two grandest monuments are facing one another in the Lady-chapel. The finer is that of Louis de Brézé, who was Grand Seneschal of Normandy. It is an extremely good example of early Renaissance work, carried out in black marble and alabaster. The splendid equestrian figure in the upper part gives the monument a most imposing character. At the head of the recumbent effigy is the figure of Diane de Poitiers, who raised the memorial to her husband after his death in 1531. She subsequently left her name written prominently on the page of history by becoming the mistress of the Dauphin, afterwards Henri II. At the castle of Chenonceaux and at Fontainebleau we shall see the homes of this famous widow (see [Section V.]).

On the west side of the great monument is the beautiful canopied recess of the Flamboyant period, where the effigies of Pierre de Brézé and his wife lay until they were removed in 1769. Pierre was the first Grand Seneschal of Normandy when the province was restored to France, as a result of the work of Jeanne d’Arc. He was the favourite of Charles VII., and was prominent in the reconquest of Normandy, finally losing his life in the Battle of Montlhéry in 1465.

Opposite is the tomb of the famous Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, whose lifelike figure is shown kneeling under a beautiful canopy. He was made Bishop of Montauban when he was only fourteen, and was elected Archbishop of Rouen at the early age of thirty-three. The story of his election is interesting. On the death of Archbishop Robert de Croixmare, Charles VIII. hinted that he would like the canons to choose the Duke of Orleans, and by so doing gave some annoyance. However, on August 21, 1493, when the crowds in Rouen were wondering what was going to happen, the canons retired to the chapter-house, as was their custom, and each took the oath to vote according to conscience. Then, all kneeling down, they sang the Veni Creator Spiritus, and prayed that they might make the right choice, after which all rose to their feet as one man, saying, ‘Georges d’Amboise shall be Archbishop.’ This remarkable unanimity was based on the wonderful promise the Cardinal showed even at that age, and to Rouen he became a benefactor, for whose wisdom and equity in administration and for the splendour of whose gifts the city has still reason for gratitude. If he had lived earlier in the century, it is conceivable that his influence would have prevented the tragedy of the death of Jeanne d’Arc. He was the builder of the splendid Tour de Beurre and the Flamboyant work of the west front of the cathedral, and he improved the city’s supply of water, as well as its sanitation. Further than that, he became, as Prime Minister under the easy-going Louis XII., the virtual ruler of France; for the King was always ready to let the wise Cardinal act for him, usually saying, ‘Leave it to George.’ He died in 1510.

The other figure on the tomb is that of the second Cardinal of the same name, who was a nephew of the statesman.

The great bell which was given by the Archbishop to be hung in the Tour de Beurre, and was named Georges d’Amboise, was in 1793 melted down to make cannon for the Republicans. The thirteenth-century glass in the sacristy and the two adjoining windows is a foretaste of the glories of Chartres.

The erection of the great spire of open ironwork on the central tower began in 1827, replacing the wooden spire finished in 1550, and destroyed by lightning in 1822. It is one of the tallest spires in the world, and is considered by many writers to be a hideous excrescence on the great Gothic pile; but although it cannot have the romance or charm of stone, its effect at a distance, in spite of its curious finial, is quite the reverse of unpleasing, and when one is near at hand it has a way of hiding itself, or, if it shows at all, it appears so vast and tremendous that its dimensions suppress the criticisms that would flow readily if the spire were half its height.

The Church of St. Ouen.—To the north-east of the cathedral (see plan) stands the great abbey church of St. Ouen, in the wide open space of the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville—as great a contrast to the narrow streets that crowd up to the cathedral as could be imagined. It is for this reason that St. Ouen from without does not call up with any vividness the romance of a medieval church packed into the small space which was all that the encircling defensive walls could afford. But the church of St. Ouen is the most perfect and the most beautiful of the abbey churches of France, and there might be legitimate cause for grumbling if it were impossible to get a clear view of it. There is only space to tell the story of the building in the following list of dates:

St. Ouen.—Building Dates

400. Legendary date of the founding of the earliest church.

686. St. Ouen, Archbishop of Rouen, buried in church that received his name.

c. 841. Destroyed by Northmen, but rebuilt by Rollo.

1045. Old church demolished by Abbot Nicholas, and new one founded, which was dedicated in 1126.

1136. Destroyed by fire, and then rebuilt, the Empress Matilda and Richard Cœur de Lion aiding the work.

1248. Again destroyed by fire.

1318-1339. Fifth church commenced, and eastern portion built by Abbot Jean Roussel, otherwise called Marc d’Argent. Building carried on all through fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, interrupted at intervals during the Hundred Years’ War with England.

1422-1441. Alexandre de Berneval, architect, designed rose-window for south transept; built chapel of SS. Peter and Paul.

1806. Monastic buildings entirely demolished; had served as residence of Kings of France when in Rouen—Henri II., Charles IX., Henri III., Henri IV., and Louis XIII.

1845. West front erected by order of the Government under Louis Philippe; architect, M. Grégoire.

The Church of St. Maclou stands back a few paces from the east side of the Rue de la République, and one comes upon its wondrous display of delicately carved stone all of a sudden. It is an exquisite example of the Flamboyant style, having been commenced in 1436 and completed about 1480. The present spire was only finished in 1868, the previous one, covered with lead, having suffered much through a storm, and later during the Revolution.

The wonderful doors, with their remarkable carving, and the splendid tympanum above the central one, date between the years 1527 and 1560. In that period it is possible that some of the carving was executed by Jean Goujon, who was afterwards killed in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. St. Maclou was a Scotsman who went to Brittany, was made Bishop of Aleth, and died in 561. The first church dedicated to him was built in the tenth century outside the walls of Rouen. A passage on the north side of the Rue Martainville (which runs from the north side of St. Maclou) leads into the Aître St. Maclou, a picturesque little cloister built in 1526, surrounding a paved courtyard, which was a burial-ground at the time of the plague of 1348—the Black Death that claimed 100,000 victims in the city.

Jeanne d’Arc.—The tragedy of the

THE TOWERS OF ST. OUEN AT ROUEN.

St. Ouen is, next to the Cathedral, the finest church of Rouen.

martyrdom,—or, more properly, the murder—of the Maid of Orleans, who saved her country from the English, cannot be forgotten by the visitor to Rouen. There are still houses standing near the cathedral which were there in her day, and were the lodgings of some of her heartless judges; there is still the great pile of Notre Dame, standing much as it stood in her day, although the later Flamboyant work, including the Tour de Beurre, had not then appeared; and there still remains one solitary tower of the castle of Rouen in which Jeanne was confined. The tower was never her prison, but in the ground floor she was intimidated by being shown instruments of torture. The visitor can enter this chamber, which was the scene of that callous brutality to a most innocent maiden, who, encouraged by her implicit belief in the vision of her saints, bore herself throughout with a fortitude and heroism which baffled and enraged her inquisitors.

It is a pity that the tower has been over-restored, and that the walls are hung with wreaths of artificial flowers. There is also a statue of the maid and many prints hung on the walls, but their interest is not commensurate with the subtraction from the grimness of the tower which they cause.

When Jeanne d’Arc was finally condemned to be burnt, the stake was set up in the Vieux-Marché, and the exact spot is now marked by a large stone, bearing the inscription, ‘Jeanne d’Arc, 30 Mai, 1431.’ The heroic girl was taken to the spot in a car with a confessor and others, and escorted by English soldiers. With the awful piles of faggots ready for kindling, the girl’s agony was dragged out with a sermon, and after her sentence was read there is no wonder that she wept bitterly. To Bishop Cauchon, whose heart must have been of flint, she said, while they set the wood on fire: ‘It is you who have brought me to this death.’ A Dominican priest who stood near gives the following account of her death:

‘As I was near her at the end, the poor woman besought and humbly begged me to go into the church near by and bring her the cross, to hold it upright on high before her eyes until the moment of death, so that the cross on which God was hanging might be in life continually before her eyes. Being in the flames, she ceased not to call in a loud voice the Holy Name of Jesus, imploring and invoking without ceasing the aid of the Saints in Paradise; again, what is more, in giving up the ghost and bending her head, she uttered the name of Jesus as a sign that she was fervent in the faith of God, just as we read of St. Ignatius and of many other Martyrs.’

Another witness—Maître Jean Massieu, a priest—says:

‘With great devotion she asked to have a cross; and, hearing this, an Englishman who was there present made a little cross of wood with the ends of a stick, which he gave her, and devoutly she received and kissed it.... With her last word in dying, she cried with a loud voice “Jesus!”’

The Palais de Justice (small gratuity to the concierge) is in the Rue Jeanne d’Arc, with the main front facing the Rue aux Juifs. The central portion dates from 1499 to 1515, and was designed by Le Roux, who was also the brilliant architect of the western portal of the cathedral and the tomb of the Cardinals d’Amboise. The interior is rather disappointing. The great hall, formerly used for the Parliament or Échiquier of Normandy, is now a criminal court, and its panelled and gilded oak ceiling is flat and ineffective in spite of its pendent bosses. The fine Salle des Pas-Perdus in the west wing has a gallery at each end and the marble table of the tribunal.

The Rue de la Grosse Horloge contains a picturesque sixteenth-century archway, bearing a great blue and gold clock, and alongside it is the belfry, commenced in 1389. The visitor who cares for vivid impressions of the past should stroll through this street at 9 p.m., and hear the great bell La Rouvel ring the curfew, raising as it does so the same mellowed tones that have vibrated the air since the Middle Ages.

LEAVING ROUEN

The memory of those sounds is a precious one, and on the next morning, when the car carries one away, it remains among the many things in the mind that are not left behind.

Town Plan No. 5—Rouen.

Walker & Boutall sc.

Keeping to the north bank of the Seine, and going to the right at the fork which almost immediately presents itself, one shakes off the cobble-stones in a mile or so, and, after the modern river-side village of Amfreville, the open country is freed from the suburban growth of Rouen. Across the level green fields appear the cotton and cloth mills which are the chief industry of the neighbourhood, and in the distance on the right across the river’s windings can be seen the manufacturing town of Elbeuf. The freedom from smoke of this and the average French industrial town is most striking to the Englishman.

Two kilometres beyond the hamlet of St. Crespin one turns sharply to the left, and, climbing an easy gradient among low woods, comes to the village of Igoville, where one turns to the left again; and, a kilometre farther on, goes to the right, crossing the railway and a long modern bridge over the Seine, which brings one to the old town of

PONT DE L’ARCHE

It is picturesquely situated above the river, which is studded with islands in this portion of its course, and the remains of the ramparts are visible on the river-side, with the towerless Church of Notre Dame des Arts rising above old roofs. There are some old timber-fronted houses, and one of them has a thirteenth-century wooden-pillared porch.

Charles the Bald (died 877), a grandson of Charlemagne, had a palace at Pont de l’Arche, and the little town was one of the first to open its gates to Henry of Navarre when he became Henri IV. in 1589, after the murder of the Duke of Guise. Being one of the gates of Normandy, it suffered several sieges; the old bridge, however, survived up to 1850.

The church was chiefly built in the fifteenth century, and, though unfinished, justifies its unique dedication in the wealth of beautiful carving that adorns the exterior. The chapels ranged along the sides of the nave have curious little conical roofs, which, in the absence of any tower, form the main outline of the building. The interior is very light, in spite of the fifteenth and sixteenth century glass that fills several of the windows. One of them in the north aisle is noticeable for the curious little portraits inserted at a later date. Henri IV., it is said, gave the church its organ, and Jean Gougon is associated with the carving of the font. The choir-stalls come from the neighbouring abbey of Bon-port.

At a fork on leaving the town the road to Louviers goes to the left, and rises straight uphill through the forest of Pont de l’Arche. Succeeding this comes a curious stretch of switchback road, with a blue horizon beyond, and soon afterwards one is bumping on the cobble-stones of

LOUVIERS

Standing at a fork in the middle of the town is the Church of Notre Dame, whose outline is marred by an uncompleted tower, but whose profusion of the most elaborate fifteenth-century carving leaves the wondering spectator almost breathless. The writer once, several years ago, commenced a drawing of the south aisle and porch, but it remains to-day as unfinished as the tower just mentioned! All the lacework carving is on the most obvious side of the church, and is an addition of the Flamboyant period. Its extraordinary wealth of detail repays the closest scrutiny, for among canopied niches and flame-patterned parapets are the grotesque heads of gargoyles and representations of such creatures as the monkey and the bat. The north side of the church shows the greatest contrast imaginable to all this delicate beauty. It is plain and bare thirteenth-century work, with the fortified tower built about the year 1366, a few years after the town had been half destroyed by the English, when the citizens set to work to fortify their town, which hitherto had relied for protection solely on the fact that Louviers was a possession of the Archbishop of Rouen. The thirteenth-century interior, with its double aisles, giving wonderful perspectives of pillars, is one of the most remarkable in Normandy. Gisors (see [Section XXVII.]) also has double aisles, but their loftiness gives an entirely different effect to those at Louviers. The dark brown pulpit has its sounding-board supported by a couple of carved wooden palm-trees. Some picturesque old houses remain in the old part of the town near the church, and although the town is given up to a considerable extent to woolen factories, it is still a pleasant place, surrounded by the beautiful pastoral scenery of the River Eure.

A terrible incident of the Hundred Years’ War took place in 1418, when Louviers fell into the hands of the English, in spite of its newly built wall, and 120 of its most wealthy merchants were condemned to death. In 1431, in spite of an heroic defence, the English again entered the town, and burnt and destroyed so heartlessly that it is a wonder that the town ever recovered, and yet in the last years of the same century the amazing mass of ornament was added to the south side of the church.

THE ROAD TO EVREUX

Continuing through the main street of Louviers in a straight line past the church, the road runs by the side of the River Eure, with wooded hills on the right. A picturesque half-timbered château, with pepper-box turrets, is passed on the left, and

THE ROAD NEAR ROUEN.

A typical corner on the road between Rouen and Pont de l’Arche.

old church lying a little way from the road on the same side.

No. 3. ROUEN TO EVREUX.

The Iton, a tributary of the Eure, is then crossed, and with a beautiful view of steep hills dropping down to the strip of water-meadows by the Eure, the road to Evreux climbs up steadily, making a big bend as it passes through a strip of woodland. The road swings to the right to make a zigzag down into the valley of the Iton, where in descending one has beautiful views of the curving, delicately tinted hills, and a distant glimpse of Evreux, which is entered through a fine avenue.

SECTION III
EVREUX TO CHARTRES, 47¾ MILES
(77 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

This portion of the route goes across the great flat plain of St. André and the two little hills, one on leaving Dreux, and another halfway to Chartres, are not worth mentioning. Squalls of wind and rain sometimes assail one with tremendous force.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

Evreux.—Old and historic town, with barracks; cathedral includes several periods, from 1125 to 1630; town belfry, built in 1490, contains bell of 1406; museum, with Roman discoveries from Vieil-Evreux; Church of St. Taurin, Norman and fifteenth century, contains in the sacristy a thirteenth-century silver-gilt reliquary.

Nonancourt.—Small town, with remains of castle, built by Henry I. of England.

Dreux.—Hôtel de Ville, in middle of street, built 1512-1537, has fine interior; Chapelle Royale, on hill above town (where are also the ruins of the castle), a burial-place of the Bourbons; Church of St. Pierre, twelfth and fifteenth centuries, with holy-water stoup of twelfth century.

Evreux is a cathedral town, with comparatively wide, but very unassuming, streets of old houses, having their original charm generally hidden under a covering of plaster. Cavalrymen, with horsehair falling from their helmets, and the numerous clergy seem to make up a considerable proportion of the population. In walking through the town one frequently comes to little canals, which take the water of the River Iton in several directions, in a similar fashion to the Stour at Canterbury.

The spacious square in front of the Hôtel de Ville is overlooked by public buildings, whose new appearance might give one a wrong impression of the antiquity of the town, if it were not for the beautiful belfry tower, with a pinnacled spire, standing in one corner. It was built in the latter part of the fifteenth century, and the bell, whose notes are frequently heard, was cast in 1406, and is nearly a century older than the tower, which was built in place of an earlier one. The Museum, in the same square, is interesting, on account of the Roman remains it contains, found at the village of Vieil-Evreux, a Roman site about four and a half miles to the west.

Town Plan No. 6.—Evreux.

From the museum a short street, the Rue de l’Horloge, leads to the Cathedral, whose lately restored spire appears above the roofs from nearly every point of view. From the eleventh right down to the nineteenth century rebuilding or alterations have been taking place on the great church, and now, to the architect, as well as those who are interested in the history of France, there are the records in stone of the changes which those eight centuries have witnessed.

The first Norman cathedral was burnt, in 1119, by Henry I. of England, who rebuilt the nave about twenty-six years later. During the fighting in Normandy in the time of Philippe Auguste the church again suffered, and the triforium of the nave was rebuilt about the middle of the thirteenth century. The present choir followed at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The following summary covers the chief periods of the cathedral:

1076. Consecration of the Norman church.

1119. Burnt by Henry I.

c. 1125. Nave rebuilt by Henry I.

c. 1240. Nave triforium rebuilt.

1298-1310. Choir built.

1352-1417. North-west tower built; rebuilt in classic style 1608-1630.

1400. The west window.

1461-1483. The spire built when Cardinal de la Balue was Bishop.

c. 1465. The Lady-chapel (partly thirteenth century).

c. 1515. North transept built by Bishop Ambroise le Veneur.

c. 1545. The Renaissance west front begun by Bishop Gabriel le Veneur.

1545-1630. South-west tower reconstructed in the classic style.

The west front is unique in being the only completely classic façade among all the cathedrals of France. It almost gives the feeling of the François I. châteaux by the Loire. The interior is a most inspiring example of pure French Gothic. In the chapels are several windows containing beautiful stained glass of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; that in the south transept is sixteenth century.

The Bishop’s Palace, on the south side of the cathedral, can only be seen from the Boulevard Chambaudouin, where its fortified exterior is washed by one of the canals of the Iton. It is an interesting building of the fifteenth century, and in 1603 was, for a time, the residence of Henri IV., whose famous victory at Ivry, a few miles south of Evreux, is described at the end of this chapter.

At the end of the Rue Joséphine is the Church of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Taurin. The life-story of that otherwise obscure worthy of the Church is told in the windows of the choir, and one of them shows his successful attack on the devil, who had entered the temple of Diana in Evreux. The sacristan will show the casket containing relics of the saint (small gratuity) to those who ask permission. It is worth while to do so, as this silver-gilt reliquary is one of the most sumptuous examples in existence of goldsmiths’ work of the thirteenth century.

The choir, the tower, and part of the nave of St. Taurin belong to the fifteenth century, and the other portions are Romanesque work of the eleventh century. Evreux suffered the most terrible buffets in the unsettled period when Normandy was the battle-ground of England and France. Henry I. burnt the town and John sold it to Philippe Auguste, regaining it treacherously after the release of Richard I. Philippe, however, having captured it, massacred a large proportion of the miserable townsfolk.

It is generally believed that the Devereux family obtained their name from this Norman town.

The road to Chartres goes southwards from Evreux over the hedgeless plain of St. André in a perfectly straight line. The hamlet of Thomer, with its little church with a spiky spire on the left, is passed through, and here and there another village is seen across the fields; but otherwise, for some eighteen miles the great plain stretches away to a flat horizon, with so few features that one marvels how a peasant can find his way to the particular field he was working in on the previous day. There are no hedges, no roadside cottages, and scarcely a tree to serve as a guide to any particular square of the great patchwork of green and brown!

NONANCOURT

On reaching this old town one goes over a level-crossing, and, turning to the left, goes through the street, getting a passing glimpse of the market-house standing on wooden posts. Henry I. chose this place to build a castle for the defence of Normandy, and in it an agreement was signed between Richard I. and Philippe Auguste, by which those two kingly warriors promised not to molest one another’s dominions while absent on the Crusades. Here also they arranged their respective shares in the Third Crusade.

On leaving Nonancourt the River Avre is

ROUEN CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH.

The Tour de Beurre is on the left, and the Portail de la Calende appears at the end of the street beneath the great central tower. (Page 32.)

crossed, and about nine miles farther one reaches the interesting town of

No. 4. EVREUX TO CHARTRES.

DREUX

The most conspicuous feature is the Hôtel de Ville, a large square tower-like building, with slightly projecting circular turrets at each corner. It was built between 1512 and 1537, and is a most interesting example of the transition from Flamboyant Gothic to Classic forms. The tall conical roof is broken with dormers, and ends in a bell-turret. Inside there is a beautiful staircase, a Renaissance fireplace, several fine rooms, a library, and old armour.

Built on the steep hill that dominates the town on the north side, where the ruins of the keep and towers of the Castle dismantled in 1593 still stand, is the Chapelle Royale, erected in 1816 by the Duchesse d’Orléans. After suffering imprisonment and banishment during the Revolution, she returned to France in 1814, and resided at Ivry, a few miles to the north of Dreux. The tombs of her father and the Princes of her family in the vaults of the old collegiate church at Dreux had been broken open during the Revolution, but certain pious folk having hidden the bones, the Duchess decided to build a chapel in which they could be preserved. It was completed in 1820, and her son Louis Philippe afterwards built a larger structure. Lenotre describes how Louis refused to have any assistance in the work of sorting up the confused heap of the bones of his ancestors. ‘These poor dead people,’ he said, ‘have already been sufficiently tormented. Leave me alone with them’; and, shut up by himself for a great part of a night, he laid out the bones on cloths, measuring, examining, and sorting them by the light of a lamp.