ROUTE 18.

Laval to Fougères, Pontorson, Mont St. Michel, and Avranches.

Distance, 110 kil., or 68 miles.

Laval Station, as in Route 15. Hence to Fougères by road is 32 miles; but that place may be reached by branch rail, við Vitré, 45 miles.

LA BACCONNIÈRE (16 kil.)

ERNÉE (14 kil.), a pretty, industrious place, on the Ernée, which the Vendéan army crossed, 1793, in their advance northwards. Linens are made. Population, 6,320.

Hotel.-De la Poste.

Fougères (21 kil.), a station on the branch rail from Vitré (23 miles), and a handsome, well-built sous-préfecture, in department Ille-et-Vilaine, in a healthy spot, where several roads join. Population, 9,500. It was formerly one of the most important keys of Brittany, before its union with the crown. A point behind the church commands a view of the charming valley of the Nonçon, and the old Gothic towers of Raoul de Fougères' ruined Château. In the forest, near this, are the Monument and Pierre de Trésor (both Druid stones); also a subterranean passage called the Celliers de

Landeau.

Vast numbers of sabots, or wooden shoes, are made here; besides which it has manufactures of linen and hemp cloths, and a trade in grain, oatmeal of well-known quality, beer, honey, &c.

Hotels.-St. Jacques (James); Des Voyageurs (Travellers).

Rail to Vitré, on the main line. A continuation through Fougères is projected to Pontorson, as below.

[About 20 kil. south-west, on the Rennes road, is ST. AUBIN-DU-CORMIER, in a forest, with its tall, picturesque tower of the Castle, built 1222, by Pierre, Duc de Bretagne. It is celebrated for the great defeat sustained by Duke Francis II. (father of Anne of Brittany) and the Duke of Orléans (afterwards Louis XII.), from the forces of Charles VIII., commanded by Vicomte de la Trémouille, then a young man of 18, in the year 1488.]

ST. BRICE (15 kil.), on the Oisance.

ANTRAIN (11 kil.), lower down the stream, where it joins the Couesnon. Dol (see Route 19) is 24 kil. north-west.

PONTORSON (12 kil.), at the mouth of the Couesnon, in department Manche, an old place, fortified by Robert, Duke of Normandy, and nearly all

burnt in 1736. The castle of the Montmorencies was pulled down by Louis XIII. Trade in linen and eggs.

Population, 2,000.

A road, made 1842, leads to the famous Mont St. Michel (9 kil. north), which, as well as AVRANCHES, 20 kil. from Pontorson (by way of Pont-aux-Beaux, on the Celune), is described in Route 14.

ROUTE 19.

Rennes to Dinan, Dol, and St. Malo.
By rail to St. Malo, 50 miles.

Rennes Station, as in Route 15. This is the best station to take the road to

HÉDÉ (23 Kil.), a village, with remains of a Castle, approached by a causeway, which overlooks a lake on one side and a brook and several mills on the other. Each house has its own pretty garden. The direct roads to St. Malo, by St. Pierre de Plesguen (20 kil.) and Châteauneuf (13 kil.), and to Dol, unite here; but we leave them to follow that to the south-west, about 20 kil. by Bécherel, to reach

DINAN,

A sous-préfecture, in department Côtes-du-Nord, and a fine old town, most picturesquely seated on a steep granite rock, 200 feet above the Rance, up which river small craft from St. Malo (30 kil.) come, by taking advantage of the tide, which rises 30 to 40 feet, with great suddenness.

Hotels.-De la Poste; De Commerce.
Hobbs's English Boarding-House
Church Service every Sunday.

Population, 9,150. Dinan was a Roman station in the country of the Curiosolites. Duguesclin took it from the English, 1373, and De Clisson again, a few years later. The Leaguers of this part made it their headquarters, but gave it up to Marshal Brissac, 1598,

Its old walls remain, so thick, that you might drive a carriage on them; the moat outside is

planted over. In one part, near Porte St. Louis, is the tall machicolated donjon, built 1300, by Duchess Anne, now serving for a prison.

Like all old towns, Dinan has many narrow dark streets, of old-fashioned wooden houses; but the

more modern ones are built of granite. Place

Duguesclin is the site of a combat in 1359, between that warrior and a "Thomas of Canterbury." His statue ornaments one end, and his house stands in Rue de la Croix.

St. Malo's Gothic Church, with its spire, has various carvings of sacred and profane subjects. That of St. Sauveur, is marked by another tall spire, and contains bas-reliefs of the Loves of Psyche, and a monument over Duguesclin's heart, brought here in 1810, from the Dominican church.

The granite horloge, or clock tower, ends in a spire, near the Hôtel de Ville, which was formerly an hospice, and holds the public library of 3,000 volumes, besides portraits of Duclos the historian, the excellent La Garaye, and the soldiers Duguesclin and Beaumanoir. In the museum founded a few years ago by M. Odorici, are three curious old statues of saints, brought from Plumaudan church. Two pillars, of a single block of granite each, front the tribunal. There are also a college, hospital, salle-de-concert, and a chapel for the English residents here.

A pretty road leads out to the Coninaie mineral springs (1 kil.), in a deep valley: useful in cases of indigestion, &c.

The neighbourhood is exceedingly pleasant, abounding in many charming walks and points of view. Within a distance of 6 or 8 kil. are the following:

At Léhon, or Léon, only 1 kil. off, on a round hill, are the massive walls and eight round towers of a Castle, built, they say, on the site of a Roman fort, and rebuilt about 1400. Close by is the Gothic chapel of St. Magliore's priory (founded 850, by Nominoé), where the Beaumanoir family were buried. Near St. Esprit and the large lunatic asylum (1 kil. west), under the care of the brothers of St. Jean de Dieu, is a Gothic cross of granite, worth notice.

La Garaye château (2 kil. north-west), in the Renaissance style, is the ruined seat of its benevolent owner, of the last century, who retired here with

his wife, and turned it into a dispensary, &c., for the benefit of the poor.-Chesnan, in the forest of Coëtquen, was the seat of Abbé F. De Lamennais.

Corseul (4 kil. north-west) was the capital of the Curiosolites, a Gaulic people, where remains of a temple of Mars (30 feet high), Roman epitaphs, altars, pieces of columns, coins, bronzes, &c., have been found. Many of the tiles in its walls were used to repair those of St. Malo. An inscription is seen on the church; and a Roman way may be traced. Montafilan château is a ruin.-At St. Jurat, Quiou, &c. (8 kil. south), fossil shells are abundant.-Ganterie (6 kil.) has remains of the Roche-aux-Fées (Fairies' Rock), in granite; another Druid stone (of quartz rock) is at Lesmonts (4 kil.), near Plouer; and a granite menhir of large size at St. Samson or Tremblaie (4 kil.)

A steamer up and down the Rance daily, with the tide. Its banks are high and rocky, and in some parts well wooded.

Trade in butter, flax, honey, souliers de pacotille (shoes for exportation). Coaches to Rennes, St. Malo, Dol, &c.

Following the rail to St. Malo, down the Ille, from Rennes (as above) we come to Belton (8 miles) and

St. Germain-sur-Ille (43 miles) near Ille and Rance Canal. Then

Montreuil-sur-Ille (54 miles), and Combourg (8 miles), near the road to Hédé (10 miles) as above, may be taken. Bonnemain (4 to Dinan, 15 miles.

miles). Here is a cross-road The next station is

Dol, an old fortified place (population, 4,200), on a rock, rising above a marshy inlet of the sea (6 kil. off), on the old Norman frontier. It was held by the Vendéans, 1793. Some of the houses are granite built-in Grand Rue, for instance-but most of them are like those at Dinan, having the first floor overhanging that on the ground, and supported by pillars, which thus make an arcade, in front. The old cathedral church, once the seat of a bishop (from the 6th century) is a large Gothic pile of granite, with high towers, and a fine lofty nave, resting on four-shafted columns. On the sands, at the mouth of the creek is a granite rock called Mont Dol, with a telegraph on it.

There are two other churches, with a bourse or exchange, two hospitals (one for foundlings), a high school, school for navigation, a theatre, government tobacco factory, and an Hotel de Ville, containing some curious relics of Cartier, the navigator. Under Fort de la Cité, is a suspension bridge to St. Servan, built 1847; and leading to the marée graphe, or tide-mètre. A casino and ball rooms are attached to the Baths, which are much frequented in the season.

Opposite the cathedral, is the statue of DuguayTrouin, a brave seaman, and a native; Châteaubriand was born in Rue des Juifs, and is buried on an island near Solidor fort. Cartier, who discovered Canada, 1534; Maupertuis, the astronomer; Labourdonnaye, who took Madras; and Abbé Lamennais, are also natives.

It was a great place for privateers in war time, and, as might be expected, was noted for smuggling, but this has fallen off. Some of the best sailors in

France are found here. Ships are fitted out for the whale and cod fisheries, and the coasting trade (petit cabotage).

Cordage, lines, fish-hooks, sails, soap, &c., are made. Chief exports are grain, potatoes, butter,

and eggs; imports, cod and coal. There is a trade, also, in fruit, wine, spirits, salt provisions, toiles de Bretagne (linens), cider, honey, butter, wax, oysters, &c.

A steamer ascends the Rance to Dinan, in the summer months only. Sailing boats, 2 to 3 francs the hour.

From St. Malo, along the Dol road, you come to Paramé, where you leave it for St. Columb and

CANCALE, or CANCALLE (15 kil. to the east), a town on the cliffs, overlooking a sandy bay, which stretches round (by Mont Dol and Mont St. Michel) to Granville. With the little port of La Houle, it contains a population of 5,100, fishermen and oyster catchers. The oysters are sent to Paris, or to replenish the beds of natives, in the Thames. A church on the height, commands a fine view of the bay, of the Herpin rocks at the Grouin de Cancale, and other objects.

A pleasant excursion can be made to Mont St. Michel (page 51); first, by taking train to Dol; then by carriage to the Mont, at 15 francs per day. Return to Dol if you want a better hotel than the one at the Mont.