The South of France-East Half Part 46

above the sea, on the N.E. extremity of Lake Bourget, 2 hrs. distant by row-boat from Aix. In the castle, 13th cent., commanding a charming view of the lake, Pope Celestin was born.

Lake Bourget is 700 ft. above the sea, 10 m. long, from 2 to 3 m. wide, and from 200 to 300 ft. deep. The W. side is bounded by the steep ridge of Mont Chat. Opposite to Aix is a depression, the Col du Mont Chat, 2070 ft., and immediately to the S. a bold craggy peak, La Dent du Chat, 5302 ft., ascended from the little village of Bordeaux in about 4 hrs., after a very fatiguing climb. One of the best points for a view over the lake and the surrounding country is the Revard, 5112 ft., one of the summits of the ridge Mont d'Azy, which bounds the E. side of the plain of Aix (see page 285). It is ascended from the village of Mouxy in about 4 hrs.

The best of the fish caught in the lake is the ombre-chevalier. The lavaret is peculiar to it. There are also trout, perch, pike, shad, carp, gudgeon, tench, and barbel.

[Headnote: AIX-LES-BAINS. HOTELS. CABS.]

{362}{69} +AIX-LES-BAINS+, 850 ft. above the sea, 1 m. from Lake Bourget, pop.

6000. The Casino is a handsome building, with park of its own extending to the railway station. First-cla.s.s hotels--their pension is from 12 to 20 frs., but it is necessary to arrange the price at the commencement.

On each side of the Casino are the *H. Aix, with garden, and the Univers. Opposite are the H. de la Galerie and the Nord. Then follow the _Hotels:_ *Europe; *Venat, with large garden; and opposite, at the end of R. du Casino, the H. Geneve. Second-cla.s.s houses: in the parallel street, the R. Geneve, behind the R. du Casino, are the H. Durand; *Gaillard; in the Place Centrale the H. Poste. Opposite the H. Poste is the office whence the omnibuses start for the lake and the Lyons steamboats, and for Marlioz. Up by the side of the Bath-house is the H.

de l'Etabliss.e.m.e.nt. In front, the H. de l'Arc Romain. To the left, in the Rue des ecoles, is a small clean family house, the H. Germain.

A little beyond is the H. Chateaux-Durrieux. Below the last, the H. Folliet and Italie. The pension price in the above second-cla.s.s houses varies from 7 to 11 frs. On road to station, the H. des Bergues.

On an eminence overlooking the park is the *Splendide Hotel, a really splendid first-cla.s.s house. Below it is the H. Beau-Site, also a new but a smaller first-cla.s.s house.

The Port is nearly 2 m. from Aix by the R. de Geneve, and then to the left. At the pier is the inn Beau-Rivage, "Poissons frais."

Abundance of furnished lodgings. English chapel, Rue du Temple, behind the H. Venat. Presbyterian chapel in the park.

_Cabs or Fiacres._--One-horse cab--3 frs. for the first hour; every succeeding hour, 2 frs.; per day, 20 frs. Two-horse cab--for first hour, 4 frs.; every succeeding hour, 3 frs.; per day, 20 frs. Riding horses--two hours, 4 frs. Donkeys--one hour, 1 fr.; half-day, 4 frs.

[Headnote: SPRINGS.]

The bathing establishment is a very large edifice, especially fitted up for the external application of the water, very little being drunk.

Mineral water flows from the fountain in front of the building. Behind the establishment are the caverns whence the springs issue. To visit, fr. There are three different springs, their temperatures being 112, 114, and 115 Fahrenheit, and their contents carbonates of lime, magnesia, and iron, sulphate of soda, and some phosphates. Ordinary bath with linen, 1 fr. Opposite the establishment is a Roman arch, 3d cent., with the inscription "Lucius Pompeius, Campa.n.u.s, Vius fecit." Behind the arch is the chateau of the Marquis of Aix, now occupied by the Hotel de Ville and the post and telegraph offices. A handsome stone stair of fifty-eight steps, under a quadripart.i.te roof on round columns, leads up to the various offices. At the top is the museum. On the ground-floor, just beyond the foot of the stair, a door opens into what is called the Temple of Diana, a large rectangular hall of coa.r.s.e masonry, recently restored. Adjoining are the Hotel de l'Arc Romain, 9-12 frs., the parish church, and the park. The waters used for drinking are the cold sulphur springs, situated a little way out of town.

The most powerful and peculiar is the spring at Challes, 900 ft. above the sea, and 45 min. distant by omnibus from Chambery. _Hotels:_ Chateau de Challes; Terrason; Ferret. It, like the others, is used for indigestion and liver complaints, but especially for laryngeal affections.

Nearly a mile from Aix by the Chambery road is the Marlioz mineral water establishment, with hotel, furnished apartments, and villas, all within a large park. The water is cold, sulphurous, and alkaline, with bromine and iodine, and costs 10 c. the gla.s.s. About 20 min. walk from the town by the Geneva road, near the village of St. Simon, is the Raphy spring, frequently taken at meal-time and prescribed in certain gastric diseases, dyspepsia, and nervous disorders of the stomach.

[Headnote: EXCURSIONS.]

+Excursions from Aix-les-Bains.+--The steamer on certain days makes the tour of the lake, stopping at the princ.i.p.al places, of which the chief is the Abbey of Hautecombe; fare there and back, with small boat and two men, 9 frs. To Bordeaux and back, 5 frs.; Bonport, 4 frs.; Chatillon, 14 frs. Arrange price beforehand. No boat permitted to carry more than six pa.s.sengers. An hour on sh.o.r.e allowed. Drive round the lake--one horse, 11 frs.; two horses, 15 frs.

The Abbey of Hautecombe was founded in the 12th cent., but rebuilt in 1745. The church, containing 300 statues and many frescoes, is 215 ft.

long, the transept 85 ft., and the height of the roof 34 ft. The interior, as well as most of the mausoleums, is of a soft white fine-grained magnesian limestone, from the quarries of Seyssel, near Culoz. The best of the statues are those of Charles Felix, King of Sardinia (died 1821), and of Marie Christine, his spouse (died 1849), on the right and left hands of the nave at the entrance. They are of Carrara marble. In the chapel of Notre Dame de Compa.s.sion, in the right-hand transept, is another beautiful group in Carrara marble; in the left transept is a wood figure of St. Joseph, well executed.

About half a mile from the convent by a road following the sh.o.r.e of the lake is an intermittent fountain, very irregular in its action. To reach it continue the road till arriving at a clump of chestnut and horse-chestnut trees, some having stone seats round the trunks. The fountain is in the corner under the fourth tree. Near Hautecombe are the village and castle of Bordeaux, founded in the 9th cent., over which rises the Dent du Mont Chat (see p. 282).

_Other Excursions._--To the S.W. the Colline de Tresserve, 1109 ft., good views, chestnut trees, and the castle of Bonport. To the S.E. the Roche du Roi, with quarries, which were worked by the Romans. The Rocher de St. Victor, by the chestnut forest of Mouxy; there and back, 5 hours.

The mountains of the Grand-Revard and the Cluse, 5154 ft., by mule-path; there and back, 6 hours. To the N. the cascade of Gresy, 45 minutes, 3 m. Gresy, with its keep, 12th cent. 5 m., the defile of the Combes and the Prime rocks. To the N.N.W. the Montagne de Gigot, 2680 and 2762 ft.

[Headnote: GROTTO OF BANGES. LE CHaTELARD.]

+Aix to the Grotto of Banges+, _by Gresy and Cusy_.-- Seat in car there and back, 5 frs. About 3 m. from Aix is Gresy, with its pretty waterfall. Beyond the village the road ascends by the stream Sierroz to an undulating plain, on which is Cusy, 3 hours from Aix. To the N., on a rock rising from the Cheran, are the extensive ruins of a castle. On the opposite bank are seen the hamlet of Aiguebellette and the castle of St. Jacques, and, rising abruptly from the valley, three singular obelisks of rock. 2 hours from Cusy the Cheran is crossed by the Pont de Banges, and not far from this bridge, where the road is hemmed in between the rocks and the stream, is the entrance to the Grotte de Banges, containing a lake, 216 ft. below the level of the entrance, approached by a gallery 270 yards long, hung with stalact.i.tes.

This road may be continued to +Le Chatelard+, 1 hour from the bridge, 2500 ft. above the sea; _Inns:_ Des Beauges; De la Poste; pop. 950. This is the capital of the "Pays des Beauges," occupying a plateau 13 m. long and 8 m. wide, traversed from S.E. to N.W. by the Cheran, and surrounded by steep rocks. Cheese-making, the rearing of cattle, and the manufacture of articles in wood form the industries of the inhabitants, of whom there are 10,000. Chatelard, in its social and geographical position, resembles Le Beage (p. 84).

The road from Aix to Chambery is through the broad valley which separates the mountains of the Grande Chartreuse from those of the Beauges. Belonging to the former are Mont Grelle, 4649 ft., to the S.W., and Mont Granier, 6348 ft, due S.; while to the N.E. is the Dent de Nivolet, 4597 ft, an advanced bastion of the Beauges.

At Aix-les-Bains, junction with branch to Annecy, 26 m. N., whence a diligence starts daily for Geneva, 27 m. farther N. by Brogny, Cruseilles, and St. Julien (see map, p. 27).

+Aix-les-Bains to Geneva by Annecy and Annema.s.se, by rail.+

21 m. by rail N. from Aix-les-Bains, and 3 m. from Annecy, is +Lovagny+, the station to alight at to visit the "Galeries des Gorges"

of the torrent Fier, about 10 minutes distant. From the station take the road to the left, cross a bridge, and walk on to the chalet, where refreshments are sold, and tickets, 1 fr. each, to visit the gorge, which is of the same nature, though much superior, to the galleries of Pfaffers. The gallery, or rather balcony, is 1162 ft. long, and on an average 72 ft. above the torrent. It rests on iron brackets driven into the face of vertical cliffs 310 ft. high, and on an average 8 ft.

apart.

3 m. farther by rail is

+Annecy+, pop. 11,000. _Hotels:_ Angleterre, opposite the post office; Verdun, at the head of the town, near the public gardens and the lake, and not far from the steamboat-pier; Aigle; Savoie.

The steamboat sails from the side of the public gardens opposite the Convent of St. Joseph. It makes the tour of the lake three times daily. Diligence daily to Bonneville, 23 m. N., pa.s.sing the villages of Plot and La Roche; also to Albertville, 28 m. N., on the road to Italy by the Little St. Bernard (see page 320).

This ancient town, with narrow arcaded streets, is situated on the north-west end of Lake Annecy. The two most prominent buildings in Annecy, as seen from the lake, are the Barracks, and the Castle of Tresun, in which St. Francois de Sales, the founder of the Order of the Visitation, was born August 21, 1567. Opposite the steamboat-pier is another prominent edifice, the Church and Convent of St. Joseph, both modern, but containing, in the garden behind, the first chapel erected by St. Francis, dating from 1610. The house Madame Chantale, his friend, inhabited adjoins this chapel.

The mortal remains of St. Francis are in a shrine above the high altar in the Church of the Visitation, at the western side of the Rue Royale. The house in which he resided is in No. 18 Rue St. Claire, entrance at the left-hand corner within the court. The house in which Madame de Warrens first received Rousseau stood in the parallel street, behind the Rue de l'eveche, on the site of that house next the Episcopal palace, with railings in front. The best promenade is the garden around the Hotel de Ville at the head of the lake. It contains a statue by Marochetti of the great French chemist, Claude Louis Berthollet, born at Talloires in 1748.

The Lake of Annecy is 9 m. long, 2 broad, and 1455 ft. above the sea-level. It is surrounded by vine-clad and wooded mountains, of which the highest is La Tournette, on the eastern sh.o.r.e, 6260 ft.

above the lake. To ascend it land at the village of Talloires, where there are a comfortable inn, the Hotel de l'Abbaye, and guides.

Near the sh.o.r.e of the lake, on the side of a hill about 2 m. east from Annecy, is the house in which Eugene Sue spent the last years of his life. It is one-storied, with garret-windows, and behind a small square tower. On the morning of August 1, 1857, he took his last walk on the hill, returning from which fatigued he went to bed, and died two days afterwards. The remains of Rousseau's house are seen a little farther south, above the village of Veyrier.

[Headnote: LESCHAUX.]

South from Veyrier, also on the lake, is the village of Menthon, the birthplace of St. Bernard, the founder, in the 10th cent., of the hospices of the Great and the Little St. Bernard. He is buried on the right-hand side of the choir in the cathedral of Lausanne. At the south extremity of the lake is the village of Doussard, at the entrance into the dark gorge of the Combe Noire. Here a coach awaits pa.s.sengers for Faverges and Albertville, 18 miles south from Doussard.

In this neighbourhood the best mountain to ascend for the view is Semnoz, 4148 ft. above the lake. The ascent is made from the straggling village of Leschaux, 1590 ft. above the lake, 10 m. S. from Annecy, and 14 m. N.E. from Aix-les-Bains. Donkeys can be hired at the village. The ascent takes about 2 hrs. On the top is a comfortable inn. Duingt, at the S.W. end, is the most picturesquely situated village on the lake. (See map of Mt. Cenis, p. 291.)

3 m. N. from Annecy and 24 m. S. from Geneva is the village of Brogny, where, in 1342, Jean Allarmet the swineherd was born, who became successively Bishop of Geneva, Viviers, and Ostia, Archbishop of Arles, and then a Cardinal. From Brogny the road pa.s.ses the Pont de la Caille, 18 m. from Geneva, a small village near the suspension bridge, 212 yds. long, across Les Usses, and 665 ft. above the bed of the torrent. Higher up, in a ravine, are the baths of Caille.

[Headnote: CRUSEILLES.]

16 m. from Geneva is Cruseilles, pop. 2000, and 2576 ft. above the sea. The road from Cruseilles pa.s.ses over the top of Mont Zion, 2586 ft., and then descends to Chable. 10 m. farther is St. Julien, 1535 ft., pop. 2500. French custom-house station, 6 m. from Geneva.

[Headnote: CHAMBERY.]

miles from PARIS miles to MODANE

{370}{60} +CHAMBERY+, pop. 20,000, and 815 ft. above the sea. Pa.s.sengers arriving late should spend the night at Chambery, and next morning proceed to Turin. _Hotels._--Princes, in the Rue de Boigne, near the fountain.

France, on the Quai Nezin. In the Rue d'Italie, the Poste and Europe, near the theatre. In the Rue de la Banque is the Banque; and opposite it is the Temple Protestant.

+Chambery+ is situated in a plain surrounded by high mountains. The first object that strikes the stranger on arriving from the station is the monumental fountain to General Boigne in the Boulevard du Theatre, opposite the termination of the princ.i.p.al street, the Rue de Boigne. It consists of four bronze elephants supporting a column crowned with a statue of the General. At the other extremity of the Rue de Boigne is the +Chateau+, formerly the residence of the Dukes of Savoy, built in 1230. The entrance is either by the stair in front or by the road round from behind, which leads also to the Botanic Gardens. Within the precincts of the chateau is the Prefecture, having attached to it one of the old ma.s.sive round towers, ascended by a most handsome staircase of 160 low broad steps to within a short distance of the top, attained by 36 more steps in two short flights. In the stair is the entrance to the Museum, chiefly archaeological. The Natural History Museum is in the Botanic Garden. The view from the top of the tower is very pleasing, and overlooks the whole of the town. Fee, fr. Opposite the tower is the Chapel of the Dukes of Savoy, 14th cent. Fee, fr. The three tall windows are filled with beautiful old gla.s.s. The roof is covered with stone groining, with cleverly-executed arabesque painting between the nervures. The roof of the cathedral is similarly painted, but on a blue ground. It is situated near the Rue de Boigne, and was built in the 14th, 15th, and 16th cents.

[Headnote: CHURCH OF LEMENC.]

The Rue de Bourgogne, the second street to the right up the Rue de Boigne, leads past the Hotel de Ville and the post office to the Palais de Justice, with the Jardin Public behind. In front of the Palais is a bronze statue of the jurist, Antoine Favre, who died 1624. On a hill on the other or eastern side of the railway are the Convent de la Visitation and the Church of Lemenc. The upper church of Lemenc is of the 13th or 14th cent., but the under church or crypt is of the 7th cent. In the centre of the crypt is a curious baptistery, six feet in diameter, under a peristyle. Beside it is an Entombment. In the upper Church are the mausoleum of General Boigne and the relics of Saint Concors, an Irish archbishop from Armagh, who died here 600 years ago.