The South of France-East Half Part 58

{138}{392} +POUILLY-SUR-LOIRE+, pop. 3500. _Inn:_ ecu. The surrounding vineyards produce a famous white wine, with a peculiar flavour. It is drinkable in the second year, and deteriorates after the 15th.

{141}{389} +LA CHARITe+, built on a hill sloping down from the railway to the Loire, crossed by both a stone and suspension bridge. _Inns:_ Poste et G. Monarque; Dauphin; omnibuses await pa.s.sengers. It has still part of its fortifications and towers of the 14th cent. Of the church St. Croix, consecrated in 1107 by Pope Pascal II., there remain a vast narthex, the choir, and a high and profusely ornamented tower. This church belonged to a Benedictine convent, whose deeds of charity gave to the town its name. The convent is now occupied by the order of the Visitandines (Visitation). In the treasury are the chasuble and mitre of St. Francois de Sales.

[Headnote: POUGUES LES EAUX.]

{150}{380} +POUGUES LES EAUX+, pop. 1400. _Hotels:_ Near the station, the H. du Chalet. At the entrance into the avenue, the H. de l'Etabliss.e.m.e.nt, and opposite the "Etabliss.e.m.e.nt," the Hotel Thermal. Pougues, being a quiet place, can be recommended only to those in search of repose, whose stomach or other internal organs have become weak or deranged. The establishment, which has every kind of apparatus for administering the water, is situated in a park extending to the Loire, where fair rod-fis.h.i.+ng may be had. The water, princ.i.p.ally used internally, is cold, has a pungent taste, and contains a large amount of carbonic acid gas, both free and in combination with lime, soda, potash, magnesia, and iron, and is serviceable in the cure of dyspepsia, enlargement of the liver, gall-stones, and diseases of the kidneys. Douche baths of carbonic acid gas are employed.

[Headnote: FOURCHAMBAULT.]

{154}{376} +FOURCHAMBAULT+, pop. 6500. _Inns:_ H. Bourges at station; in town, H. Berry. A town on the Loire full of large ironworks, employing above 5000 workmen. The Colonne de Juillet and the Pont du Carrousel were cast here. Omnibus at station.

[Headnote: NEVERS.]

{158}{372} +NEVERS+, pop. 20,400. _Hotels:_ at the station, H. de la Paix; H. du Chemin de Fer. In the town the France, Europe, and Nievre. A short distance N.W. from the station, or from the N.W. corner of the Park, is the nunnery of St. Giddard, containing the tomb of Bernadette Soubirous, to which establishment she was entrusted after her reported interviews with the "immaculately conceived one," and where she died, after a lingering illness, caused, it is said, by the knowledge that the present pope had not the same implicit faith in her story as his predecessor Pio IX. entertained (see under Lourdes, in Black's _South France_, West Half). In the garden of the convent, in a small chapel, is her grave, covered by a marble slab bearing the following inscription:-- "Ici repose, dans la paix du Seigneur, Bernadette Soubirous, honoree a Lourdes en 1858 de plusieurs apparitions de la Tres Sainte Vierge. En religion Sur Marie Bernard, decedee a Nevers, a la Maison-Mere des Surs de la Charite, le 16 Avril 1879 dans le 35e annee de son age et la 12me de sa profession religieuse. C'est ici le lieu. Psalm 131, v. 15."

[Headnote: FAENCE.]

Julius Caesar kept his military stores in Nevers; but after his defeat at Gergovia (p. 372) the inhabitants plundered his camp and ma.s.sacred the soldiers. Of the old fortifications there remain the tower of the Loire, of which the lower part is of the 11th cent.; the tower of St. Eloi, 16th cent.; the tower Goguin, 12th cent.; and the Porte du Croux, a square tower of the 12th cent., but rebuilt in 1393, now containing an antiquarian museum. At the entrance into the town by the Paris road is a triumphal arch, erected in 1746 to commemorate the victory of Fontenoy, 12th May 1745, when the French defeated the Anglo-German and Dutch forces under the Duke of c.u.mberland. Nevers stands on the slope of a hill rising from the Loire in the midst of a flat country abounding with iron, giving employment to important ironworks. In the most elevated part is the Grande Place, with the +Palais de Justice+, formerly the Palais Ducal, a stately edifice built in 1475 by Jean de Clamecy, Comte de Nevers, but altered and enlarged during the 16th cent. by his successors, belonging to the families of Cleves and Gonzaga. It is in the form of a parallelogram, flanked with four towers, each containing a staircase. In the centre turret is the "Escalier d'honneur," ornamented with sculpture representing scenes connected with the history of the house of Cleves. The market-place occupies the site of the old Palais de Justice, built in 1400 by Philippe de Bourgogne. Opposite the Palais de Justice is a fountain by Lequesne. In the Hotel de Ville are the Library, the Picture Gallery, and an interesting collection of faence, which has been manufactured at Nevers for eight centuries. Faence is the French term for all descriptions of glazed earthenware, and corresponds nearly to the English word "crockery." The manufacture of majolica or enamelled pottery was introduced into France by Catherine de Medicis and her kinsman Louis Gonzaga, who, by marriage with Henrietta of Cleves in 1565, became Duke of Nevers. There are still important pottery works in the town.

[Headnote: Ca.s.sINI.]

Opposite the Palais de Justice is the Cathedral of St. Cyr, reconstructed in the 13th cent., with parts belonging to other epochs.

The nave was rebuilt in 1188, the N. portal in 1240, the choir in the 14th cent., and the S. portal, which is flamboyant in style, adorned with complicated mouldings, in the 15th cent. In the interior we find a western and eastern apse; the former, 16th cent., covers a crypt of the 11 th cent. Statuettes like Caryatides sustain the columns of the triforium. On the floor of the western end is the meridian traced by the astronomer Ca.s.sini while engaged in the triangulation of France.

The church of St. Etienne, 1097, is in the Romanesque style. St. Pere was built in 1512, St. Genest, now in ruins, in the 12th cent., and the chapel of the Visitandines in 1639.

32 m. E. by rail is Cercy la Tour, where a coach awaits pa.s.sengers for the comfortable bathing establishment of St. Honore. The water is hot, and in chemical composition resembles very much the springs in the Pyrenees. Hotel at the establishment. (See map, p. 1.)

[Headnote: VARZY. CLAMECY.]

Junction with branch to La Roche, 108 m. N. on the direct line between Paris and Turin (see p. 14). On this branch line, 8 m. N. from Nevers, is Guerigny, pop. 3050, on the Nievre, with the important ironworks called the Forges de la Chaussade, employing upwards of 1300 men. 24 m.

farther by the same line is Varzy, pop. 2890; _Inn:_ H. de la Poste; with a very beautiful church, St. Pere, 13th and 14th cents., surmounted by two square towers. In the interior are an elegant triforium and a beautiful Flemish painting (1535) of the Martyrdom of St. Eugenie. 44 m.

S. from La Roche and 64 m. N. from Nevers is Clamecy, pop. 5400 (p. 15); _Inns:_ Boule d'Or; Univers; *Poste; on the junction of the Yonne with the Beuvron. On the bridge across the Yonne is a bronze bust by David of Jean Rouvet, the inventor of those large rafts by which the wood from the forests is floated down to Paris and other parts. In the church of St. Martin, 12th to 15th cent., are a statue of Ste. Genevieve by Simart, a handsome organ-case of the 16th cent., and a beautiful reredos on the high altar. Under the markets are the vaults of the old castle of the Dukes of Nevers. The Palais de Justice, the gendarmerie, and the prison occupy one large building.

22 m. N. from Clamecy is Cravant (p. 14), an important railway junction.

Junction also at Nevers with line to Chagny, 178 m. E. (see p. 24).

Branch to Le Creusot and Autun (see p. 24).

[Headnote: SAINCAIZE.]

{154}{ } +SAINCAIZE+, 600 ft. above sea; junction with line to Bourges, 38 m. W.

(See Black's _South France_, West Half.)

[Headnote: MOULINS.]

{195}{335} +MOULINS+, pop. 22,000. _Hotels:_ At the station, H. du Chemin de Fer; in. the town, Dauphin, Paris, France, Allier. Omnibuses at the station.

A cheerful town with extensive boulevards and pleasant walks along the banks of the Allier, crossed by a bridge built in 1763, of 13 arches, and 328 yards long. In the centre of the town is the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in the transition florid style of the 15th cent. The facade, over which rise two handsome spires, is of white sandstone, with colonnettes of dark Volvic lava. The tops of the b.u.t.tresses are adorned with statues. The choir, which is seven steps higher than the nave, is lighted by windows containing valuable 16th cent. gla.s.s, and covered with a curious roof. In the chapel to the right of the altar is a small mausoleum with a rec.u.mbent figure ill.u.s.trating the condition of even the fairest forms after death. Under the altar, in a little crypt, is an Entombment. In the first chapel, N. side of the choir, is an "Adoration of the Virgin" of considerable merit. Opposite the main entrance is a large square tower called "La tour mal coiffee," 15th cent., now a prison, which, with the handsome portico of the Gendarmerie, formed part of the famous castle of the Dukes of Bourbon. The most interesting old houses are within and around the Place de l'Allier. In that square is also the church of St. Nicolas, built in the style of the 13th cent. In the chapel of the Lycee, No. 15 Rue de Paris, a little beyond the Palais de Justice, is the marble mausoleum, by Coustou, Anguier, Renaudan and Poipant, of Henri II., Duc de Montmorenci, G.o.dson of Henri IV., and one of the bravest marshals of France. He had the misfortune to draw upon himself the enmity of Cardinal Richelieu and the displeasure of Louis XIII., which led to his execution in the Capitole of Toulouse on the 30th October 1632, where the knife is still preserved. His widow, Maria Orsini, caused his body to be brought to this chapel, then belonging to the convent of the nuns "de la Visitation." The statues, all of the finest Carrara marble, represent the duke in a half-rec.u.mbent posture and the d.u.c.h.ess seated near him. Fee, fr. In the Hotel de Ville is the public library, with 25,000 vols. and a ma.n.u.script Bible of the 12th cent, called the Souvigny Bible. The town clock, with its moving statues, is mounted on a square tower, 15th cent., 40 ft. high.

[Headnote: DUKE OF BERWICK. STERNE'S MARIA.]

Lord Clarendon, while on his way from Montpellier to Rouen, stayed some time at Moulins, where he wrote a part of his _History of the Rebellion_, which he finished while resident in Rouen, where he died on the 9th of December 1674, after having appealed twice in vain to Charles II. to be allowed to return to England. James Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick, a marshal and peer of France, natural son of James Duke of York, afterwards James II., by Arabella Churchill, sister of the great Duke of Marlborough, was born at Moulins on the 21st of August 1670, and died 12th June 1734. Montesquieu said of him: "In the works of Plutarch I have seen at a distance what great men were; in Marshal Berwick I have seen what they are." By the side of the Paris road, under a tree at the northern entrance into Moulins, the forlorn Maria, with her lute and her dog Sylvie, used to sit. Thwarted in love by the intrigues of the parish curate, she became the prey to a deep-seated melancholy. (See Sterne's _Sentimental Journey_, "Maria.")

[Headnote: SOUVIGNY.]

9 m. W. from Moulins by rail is +Souvigny+, pop. 4000. _Hotel:_ Croix d'Or. At the end of the village farthest from the station is a beautiful basilica, commenced in the 10th cent and rebuilt and restored at various periods. It is 275 ft. long, 125 broad, and 56 high. In the Chapelle Vieille, to the right of the high altar, is the mausoleum of Louis II., Duc de Bourbon, and Anne his wife. On the other side is that of Duc Charles I. and Anne de Bourgogne his wife. Both chapels are enclosed in a stone screen with delicate flamboyant tracery. To the left of the princ.i.p.al entrance is an ancient column with the signs of the Zodiac sculptured on it. N. from the church, on the opposite side of the street, is the old castle of the Bourbons, occupied by people of humble rank. From the Souvigny station an omnibus runs 10 m. N. to Bourbon l'Archambault, pa.s.sing at about half-way St. Menoux (Hotel de l'ecu). It stops in front of the church just sufficient time to allow the traveller to cast a rapid glance over this pleasing specimen of Aquitaine and Auvergne architecture of the 11th cent. (See map, p. 1.)

[Headnote: BOURBON-L'ARCHAMBAULT-BATHS. ST. PARDOUX SPRING.]

+Bourbon-l'Archambault+, pop. 4500. _Hotels:_ Close to the bathing establishment, the Hotel Montespan, on the site of the house which used to be occupied by Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV. About 100 yds.

distant the Hotel de France. On a hill at the northern side of this ancient town are the ruins of the once strong feudal castle of Bourbon, commenced by Louis I. in 1321, and finished in the 15th cent, by Duc Pierre II. Four ma.s.sive towers, built of stone, with projecting points, still remain of the twenty-four which it had originally.

On a hill at the opposite side of the town is the parish church, commenced in the 12th cent., resembling the church of St. Menoux. In the centre of the town is the copious spring of mineral water which, besides supplying the bathing establishment, is largely used for drinking and domestic purposes. It is clear, inodorous, unctuous, easily digested, slightly saline and aperient, and 128 Fahr.

One-sixth of its volume is free carbonic acid gas, besides the same acid in combination with lime, magnesia, and soda; and some salts of bromine, iodine, and iron. It is eminently diaph.o.r.etic, diuretic, and tonic, and excellent for rheumatism, rheumatic gout, and scrofula.

Between the bathing establishment and the church is the cold water spring called the "Source de Jonas," containing bicarbonates of lime and magnesia, chlorides of soda and magnesia, silicates of lime, alumina, and soda, the carbonate of iron and the oxide of manganese.

The water is tonic and slightly laxative. 9 m. S. from Bourbon is +St. Pardoux+, in a wooded and hilly country, forming one of the best drives from Bourbon. There is here a spring of remarkably sparkling water, ?ths of its volume being free carbonic acid gas. It contains the bicarbonates of lime, magnesia, and soda, silicates of lime and alumina, and the oxide of iron. It is delightful to the taste, very pungent, and, owing to the presence of so much carbonic acid gas, slightly heady. It is an excellent tonic, highly diuretic, and stimulates the secretion of bile. It is sold in litre bottles at Bourbon at 3d. per bottle. Madame Montespan, when in the height of her power, used regularly to visit Bourbon to recruit her health, and here she died, in solitude, on the 25th of May 1707, cast off and deserted by Louis XIV. 33 m. W. from Souvigny by rail is Commentry (see map, p. 1).

From Moulins branch line extends 73 m. E. to Montchanin, pa.s.sing, at 17 m. E. from Moulins, Dompierre; at 23 m. E., Gilly, station for Bourbon-Lancy; 29 m. E., Saint Agnan; 35 m. E., Digoin; and 41 m.

E., Paray-le-Monial (see p. 27, and map, p. 1).

+Dompierre-sur-Bebre+, pop. 2230. _Inns:_ Commerce; Lion d'Or. Coal and iron found in this neighbourhood. The country is undulating and well cultivated. Near the next station, Diou on the Loire, is the Cistercian abbey of Sept-Fonds, founded in 1132, rebuilt in the 17th cent., and now an agricultural school.

[Headnote: GILLY.]

+Gilly+, station for +Bourbon-Lancy+, pop. 3300, 8 m. N. by the Loire. Coach awaits pa.s.sengers at station, fare 1 fr. _Inn:_: H.

Trois Barbeaux, where carriages for drives can be had. The village, situated on an eminence, is full of old houses, of which the best are near the clock-tower, 15th cent. In the valley at the foot of the eminence is the suburb of +St. Leger+, with an excellent small +Bathing Establishment+, supplied by five alkaline springs, temp. 132 Fahrenheit, which flow into large basins in the court fronting the baths. The water contains free carbonic acid gas and 19 grains of the chloride of sodium to the pint. In lesser quant.i.ties the chlorides of calcium and magnesium, the sulphate of soda, the carbonates of lime and magnesia, and the oxide of iron. In Vichy the drinking of the water is the most important, but here it is the external application by baths and other means. They are very serviceable in the cure of nervous and cutaneous diseases, in neuralgia of the face, and in every form of rheumatism. The baths are of marble and easily entered, and furnished with ingenious contrivances to facilitate the application of the water to any particular part. Near the Casino, and standing by itself, is a swimming bath, 62 ft. long by 29 wide and 5 deep, filled with the mineral water cooled down to 90 Fahr. The surplus water is still carried off by the underground channels constructed by the Romans. At intervals along their course perpendicular shafts are sunk down to the bed of the outlet.

On a height near the bathing establishment is a hospital built by M.

and Mme. Aligre, and given by them to the town. A monument to their memory is in the Place of St. Leger, and a replica of the statue of Madame in silver is in the hospital. _Inns:_ Opposite the establishment, the *Grand Hotel, 12 frs., and the G. H. des Termes, pension 8 frs. A little farther, the G. H. des Bains, 7 frs.; for a lady, 6 frs. Opposite, the H. Allier. The charge for the baths and Casino is very reasonable. For particulars write to M. Le Regisseur des Bains de Bourbon-Lancy. The surrounding country is of considerable interest, the Loire is within an easy walk, while several important cities are within a few hours by rail.

A little beyond Gilly is Saint Agnan on the Loire. _Inn:_ H. de Marion. A small town in the midst of iron and coal mines. 6 m. farther is +Digoin+, pop. 3300. Inns: H. des Diligences, in the town; at the station, the H. de la Gare. Church of the llth cent. Suspension bridge across the Loire.

[Headnote: ST. GERMAIN-DES-FOSSeS.]

miles from PARIS miles to Ma.r.s.eILLES

{220}{310} +ST. GERMAIN-DES-FOSSES+, 845 ft. above the sea. Large refreshment rooms. Always a great deal of traffic at this station. Change carriages for Vichy. Behind the station, on a little eminence, is the inn G. H. du Pare (bed 2 frs.), with garden. At the warehouse end of the station is the inn H. de la Gare. In the village, the Paix. 7 m. S. from St.

Germain and 227 m. S. from Paris is

[Map: Vichy]