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SAUVETERRE (9 kil.), on the Gave d'Oloron, is remarkable for a decayed tower and other antique ruins,

ST. PALAIS (14 kii.), on the Bidouze, was an important place in French Navarre, where Henri d'Albret established his chancery after the loss of Pampeluna.

LARCEREAU (15 kil.), up the Bidouze.

[About 21 kil. east, by a winding road among the hills is the small sous-préfecture of Mauléon (population 1,145) on the Saison, or Gave de Mauléon, and divided into Low and High town, the latter including the ancient château.

Higher up the Gave and Val de Soule you come to Gottein, and Tardets (10 kil.), from which a road turns off east to Oloron, and another west, to the paths over Monts Solumongagna and St. Sauveur, to St. Jean. Further on is Licq in the Val de Soule, whence the Gave turns up cast towards Engrace, and Monts Leche and Argarry; to the west it brings you to Larrau, where there is a pass over Mont Bethaudy on the frontier, to Oca. gavia on the Salozax, under Mont Abaudy. ST. JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT (13 kil.) as in Route

65a.

ROUTE 89.

Paris to Sceaux.

By railway (Ligne de Paris à Sceaux). Embarcadère or station, Barrière d'Enfer, behind the Luxembourg, opened 1846; 6 miles. Trains, nearly every hour, in 25 minutes; omnibuses to all, from Rue du Bouloi, Place St. Sulpice, &c.

This line having many small curves in it, they use the patent jointed carriages and trains of M. Arnoux, which are about to be employed also on the Calais railway. The gauge is 6 feet; little wheels on the rims of the greater ones keep the

carriages on the rail; the carriages turn freely

on their wheels, and require no buffer. Curves of even 82 feet radius are safely passed.

[Sec. b

ARCUEIL (7 kil.) from Paris), so called from the aqueduct made by the Romans over the Biêvres, two arches of which are seen in the modern aqueduct, built 1613-24 by Desbrosses, for Mary de Medicis' palace at Luxembourg; it stands on 25 arches, 72 feet high, 1,200 long. Country seats are about. Cachan is across the valley.

BOUR-LA-REINE (9 kil. from Paris), on the high road to Etampes and Orleans, a pretty place, with a country seat of Gabrielle d'Estrées, 'la Belle Gabrielle,' mistress of Henry IV.,whose decorated chamber is still shewn. It was in the prison here that Condorcet, the philosopher and Girondist, poisoned himself, 1794. The cattle market or Marché de Sceaux, is held near this, every Monday

To the north-west are Chatillon on a hill, and Bagneux on another-the latter a healthy village, with an old church of the twelfth or thirteenth century. L'Hay and Chevilly lie to the southwest, and Berni château to the south beyond the viaduct.

FONTENAY-AUX-ROSES (9 kil. from Paris, ́a charming village, so called from the rose trees cultivated here, and spreading over the walls and houses.

grown.

The vine, strawberry, &c., are also

SCEAUX (11 kil. from Paris, a sous-préfecture in department Seine (population 1,800), had a château, built 1670 by Colbert the statesman, which came to Madame de Montespan and the Duc de Penthièvre. It was pulled down at the Revolution, except the orangerie, now a public garden for Sunday balls.

Near the gothic church of St. Jear is a pillar to Florian the novelist. The Hôtel de Ville is a good building. Plessis and the forest of Meu.. don are to the west.

Coaches to Antony, Lonjumeau, Lenas Arpajon, Massy, Palaiseau, Orsay (to which the railway is to be carried), Limours, Bonnelle, Epilly, Verrières, Chatenay, and Amblainvilliers.

[Chatenay (2 kil. south) was the birthplace of Voltaire 1694.-Palaiseau (9 kil, south-southwest) on the Yvette, so called from its palatium or château, has a church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. -At Orsay, 5 kil. above it, up the Yvette, is a fine moated château.]

ROUTE 90.

Paris to Versailles and La Loupe.

Opened to La Loupe 1852; 124 kil. or 77 miles. Embarcadères, as the traveller may prefer; either 24, Boulevard Mont Parnasse, for the rive gauche (or left bank of the Seine); or 24, Rue St. Lazairc, for the rive droite (or right bank); the first reaches Versailles by Bellevue, the second by St Cloud. Omnibuses to all the trains; four trains a day, in 3 to 6 hours: fares, 12fr. 80c., 9fr. 65c., and 7fr. 10c. Trains to Versailles every hour, in twenty to thirty-five minutes; 14 and 1 fr. Versailles park and the Trianons are open daily; the museum every day, except Thursday and Friday.

The stations of this line to Versailles (17 kil.)

...

7 Jouy

kil.

4

kil.

Saint-Cyr 5 Rambouillet. 8 Chartres......10 Trappeз 6 Epernon......13 Courville......18 Laverrière 5 Maintenon... Pontgouin ... 8 Lartoire..... 9 La Loupe...10 Leaving the station at Mont Parnasse, near Barrière du Maine, you have the cemetery on the left, and the large suburb of Vaugirard on the right, towards the river Seine. Beyond the lines are Vanvres and Issy, and their detached forts.

[Across the Seine are the following:Auteuil (4 kil. west of Paris), near Bois de Boulogne, St. Cloud, &c., was the favourite residence of Boileau, Molière, Racine, Lafontaine, Franklin, Condorcet, Helvetius, Count

Rumford, Cabanis. Boileau's house is still shown in the sixth street, to the left from the church on the St. Cloud road. The spire church of the twelfth century has the tomb of Nicolai; and there is a pillar to Chancellor d'Aguessau in the Place.

Passy, near this, on a hill-side by the Seine, is equally celebrated for its residents. Franklin lived here (1788), and gives name to a street; also Abbé Raynal (died here 1796); the Comte d'Estaing, who fought with Rodney: Picini and Bellini, the composers. It has a Ranelagh Garden, near the site of La Muette Château, and a good iron spa, which is useful in indigestion, &c.

Near is the Longchamp promenade. Before the revolution there was an abbey close to Suresnes, founded by St. Louis' sister Isabella, which the ladies of Louis XIV.th's court used to attend in Passion Week; and hence arose the custom of appearing here in gay equipages at this time of the year.] CLAMART-SOUS-MEUDON (5 kil.), near Meudon forest. A little further is Pont-du-Val viaduct, on a double row of arches, 108 fect high, with Fleury to the left, and Les Moulineceaux on the Seine to the right.

MEUDON (2 kil.), in department Seine-et-Oise, is a pretty place, near Meudon forest, under the château built by Louis XIV th's son, and restored by Napoleon for Marie Louise. An avenue leads up to the fine terrace in front of it (where stood the Cardinal of Lorraine's older château, made an ammunition factory at the revolution, and pulled down 1804), 450 yards long by 80 broad, and commanding a vast prospect over Paris, the Seine, &c.

The château has some pictures and tapestry

206

[Sec. 7

gard meuble, and a small building called Jen de Paume, where the States-General or National Assembly met 1789, before they moved to Paris, with the marché St. Louis, the Menus Plaisirs, and barracks. There are also baths, a public library of 48,000 vols., priests' seminary, &c. All the streets are regular and well built. Blucher pillaged it 1815.

BELLEVUE (1 kil.), with a good prospect, is near Sèvres (see Route 3), and the rive droite line beyond.

CHAVILLE (4 kil.)

VIROFLAY (1 kil.), where the branch of 4 kil. to Versailles turns off, past Petit Montreuil, to Avenue de la Mairie, opposite the palace.

Versailles, 17 kil. or 10 miles, from Paris. Hotels-Des Reservoirs; de France; de la Chasse Royale; de l'Europe. Population, 35,000. The capital of department Seine-et-Oise (formerly Ile de France, Hugh Capet's patrimony), seat of a bishop, tribunals, &c., and of a magnificent palace of the later Bourbon kings, which has been turned into a national museum since 1837. It was a mere hunting lodge of Henry IV. and others, till Louis XIII., in 1624, built a brick château here, to which Louis XIV., 'le Grand Monarque,' as he is styled, added the palace (1661-72), gardens and parks (twenty miles in circuit), at a vast expense; some say ten millions, some forty millions sterling.

At Place d'Armes, opposite the palace, the avenues de St. Cloud and de Sceaux meet each other and a third or centre avenue, de Paris, which is 288 feet wide, and wellplanted, and divides the town into two parishes.

That of Notre Dame to the north includes J. Mansard's doric church, built 1684, the palais de justice behind the great stables, the english church near Place Hoche (which has that general's statue), barracks, a large market, the Venerie, or grand huntsman's house, a fine hospital near the Austin college, founded by Louis XV th's queen (with an elegant chapel), the rive droite railway station, &c.

In the south or St. Louis parish are the Hôtel de Ville and rive gauche station, close to an other pile of stables (now a barrack), the grecian

The Place d'Armes, 800 feet broad, brings you to the Cour d'Honneur and the marble court, 380 feet broad, in front of Louis XIII.th's château, with Louis XIV.th's and sixteen other statues; to the right and left are ranges of buildings, as Louis XV.th's opera house, the bibliothèque, the Grand Conmun (now a military hospital), and Louis XIV.th's beautiful chapel, with its high-pitched roof, where Marie Antoinette was married. Behind the old château, facing the gar. dens, is the main or west front of the Palace, a noble ionic range, 1,400 feet long, something in the style of Somerset House (from the river), but with the wings thrown back from the domed centre; it was the work of Mansard, and has 102 columns, in groups of four to eight each, and 375 windows and doors, with a profusion of vases, busts, &c. Inside are splendid rooms and galleries, restored by Louis Philippe, as the Gallerie des Glaces, 242 feet long, the cabinet of Louis XIV. (who privately married Madame de Maintenon here), Louis XVI th's chamber, where he showed himself with the cap of liberty to the people below (a young officer, Bonaparte, and his friend Bourienne, being spectators), also the chamber where the ferocious mob broke in on Marie Antoinette, and other rooms, now filled with marbles, china, tapestry, busts and statues of eminent french soldiers, a marine gallery, and above 1,100 paintings dedicated to the glory of France, including portraits of admirals, marshals, generals, &c., works of the time of Louis XIV., views of royal palaces, paintings of battles from Clovis, down to H. Vernet's battle of Isly, in Algerie. (See Galignani's Paris Guide).

The Gardens or Little Park were laid out by Lenótre or his disciples, and comprise a beautiful Orangery (one tree as old as 1421), and a great number of terraces, allées, parterres, bosquets, pieces of water, &c., ornemented with vases ard staruary (that, by Lebrun, at the Bassin d'Apollon, for example). The centre walk, called

Route 90]

Tapis vert, or green carpet, leads to the Grand canal (a cross-shaped piece of water), and the fountains, supplied by forcing pumps at Marly (though Louis XIV.th's intention was to bring water from the Eure, by the aqueduct he began at Maintenon). The petites eaux play first Sunday of every month, but the grandes eaux only on especial fête days. The potager or kitchen garden is near the jardin Anglais made by Louis XVIII. when Count of Provence, and the lake called Pieces des Suisses.

Towards the north-west are, Grand Trianon (on the site of the village of Triarnum), a centre and wings in the italian style, built by Mansard of Campan marble, for Madame de Maintenon, and lately occupied by Madame Adelaide; and Petit Trianon to the right, a pavilion, 72 feet square, built by Louis XV. (who died in it) for Madame du Barry. Mario Antoinette, and the Duchess of Orleans, lived in it.

Philip V. of Spain (Louis XIV.th's grandson), Louis XVI., and his brothers Louis XVIII. and Charles X., were born in the palace. Marshal Berthier, Generals Hoche and Gonrgaud, and the excellent Abbé de l'Epée, were also natives; Marchaud's statue of the last was put up 1843; many fossil shells are found round this place. The agricultural college at Grignon, near Thiverbal, was discontinued 1852. Rev. N. Vors is protestant pastor here.

Firc-arms, clocks, and watches, and jewellery are made. Coaches to St. Nom, Villepreux, Dreux, Jouy, St. Cyr, Chevreuse, Houdan, Montfort, Septeuil.

[Buc, 2 kil. south of Versailles, is a charming little place in the woods above the Bièvre, here crossed by an aqueduct on nineteen arches, 70 feet high, built 1688 to supply Versailles with water. Among other seats is that called La Guerinière.-Jouy-en-Josas, 2 kil. east of it, down the Bièvre, was Gaugiacum in the ninth century, when it belonged to St. Germain's abbey. The river turns many mills; and M. Oberkampf's painted paper factory is here, as well as a fine château. Population, 1,244.]

ROUTE 90-Continued.

VIROFLAY, as above.

ST. CYR (3 miles), in the great park of Versailles, is known for its military school for 300

207

infantry cadets, established here 1806 by Napoleon, in place of the school for young ladies of rank, founded 1686 by Madame de Maintenon, who received a visit from Peter the Great, and died here 1719. As built by J. Mansard it forms five largo courts. Racine's Esther was performed here for the first time.

TRAPPES (3 miles). Coaches to Le Château, Neauphle, Thoiry, Pontel, Septeuil, &c. [About 5 kil. south-east near Vaumurier, in a deep valley, are a few fragments of Port Royal des Champs, originally a bernardine monastery, founded 1204 by Matthew de Marli, and called Portus regius, Porréal, &c., after Philippe Auguste found shelter when hunting; but having become, about 1640-60, the head quarters of the Jansenist leaders, Arnauld d'Andilly, Lancelot, Le Maistre (who translated the Bible), Pierre Nicole (who shared in Pascal's 'Provincial Letters' and other learned and pious recluses, it was suppressed 1708. Arnauld's house was at Les Granges, a farm still standing on the hill above.]

LAVERRIERE (3 miles). Coaches to Le Tremblay, Dampierre,-Chevreuse (8 kil, eastsouth-east), and the old castle of its seigneurs and dukes, on the Yvette,-Montfort, and La Queue, on the Dreux road.

LARTOIRE (4 miles). Coach to Menuts, and to Montfort-la-Maury, which is 11 miles north, under the remains of a castle built by one Amalric or Amaury. It has also a fine old church, with stained windows.

RAMBOUILLET (5) miles), a sous-préfecture of 3,100 souls, in a valley, having a royal château in the midst of a park of 3,000 acres (laid out by Lenôtre), and a hunting forest of 30,000 acres. The château, a large plain brick pile, flanked by turrets and a great tower, includes a grand saloon with a marble floor, the room in which Francis I. died, in 1547, stables for 500 horses, &c. Here Marie Louise and her son met the Allied sovereigns, and Charles X. abdicated here 1830, in favour of the Duc de Bordeaux, and set off for Cherbourg and Poole. Some of the earliest merinos in France were bred here. Hats and 'ace are made Hotels-Du Lion d'Or (Golden Lion); St. Pierre. Coaches to Ablis, Auneau, St. Arnoult, Dourdan (see Route 50), St. Lêger, Houdan, &c.

208

{Houdan (28 kil. north-west), on the Vesgre, where the Opton joins, has a fine gothic church, built by Robert le Pioux, and an old tower, with some remains of its ancient fortifications.-Auneau (22 kil. south of Rambouillet), in department Eure-et-Loir, has a tower left of the old castle of its seigneurs, one of whom was Henry de Joyeuse, marshal of France in the sixteenth century.] EPERNON (8 miles), in a pretty well-watered spot, on the Guesle, in department Eure-et-Loir, has remains of the old château of its dukos, the first of whota was the favourite of Henry III., Nogaret de la Valette, whose pride was so ridiculous that he was styled king of Epernon. Formerly it was called Sparnonum, and strongly fortified. Population,1,700. Coaches to Gas and Gallardon. MAINTENON (5 miles), in the fertile valley of the Eure (here crossed by a fine viaduct on 32 arches), where the Voise joins, gave title of marchioness to the widow of Scarron, whom Louis XIV. privately married at Versailles. A squaro and several round high-peaked towers aro seen in the moated château, now belonging to the Duc de Broglic, but in part as old as Philippe Auguste's time; they show Madame's portrait (by Mignard), and her bed-room. The chapel has stained glass of the fifteenth century. At the end of the park are druid stones, called the Berceau (cradle), the Pierres de Gargantua, &c. The remains of an aqueduct, begun from Pont-Gouin, about 60 kil. west-south-west, up the Eure, 1684-8, by Louis XIV., to supply Versailles with water, are also seen; supported by 47 or 48 arches or piles, above 80 feet high, and to make which 60,000 troops were sometimes employed. Colin d'Harleville, the comic writer, was born here. Population, 2,100. Coaches to Nogent-le-Roi and Dreux (see Route 91).

Jour (5 miles), up the Eure.

At 4 miles beyond is

Chartres. Hotels-De France; du Grand Monarque (i.e. Louis XIV.); du Duc de Chartres; de l'Ecritoire (Writing table). Population, 16,000. The chief town of department Eure-et-Loir, seat of a tribunal, bishoprie, &c., in the fertile corn plain of the Beauce, on a hill, (crowned by its noble cathedral) by the Eure, which runs round the old ramparts, now turned .nto public walks. The ether promenades are near St. Pierre's church and Places des Epares, or

[Sec. 7

des Barricades, &c, Basse Ville, or Lower Town, is full of narrow streets and gothic-looking houses of wood, with their gables to the front, and is joined by very steep ascents to Upper Town, where the best buildings are. Among these are the vast and imposing

Cathedral, built 1140-1260, in the shape of a cross, 422 feet long, 208 broad through the transept, and 113 to the roof. The front, 160 feet broad, consists of a noble portal between two towers of equal breadth with it; one tower has a spire 364 feet high; the other 402 feet high, is later built (1514) and in a more florid style. Three entrances, covered with carvings of prophets and apostles, are in the portal, which is 40 feet by 30 and recessed 18 feet, having statues in the jambs, with a fine rose window above. Two other ornamented porches and rose windows are in the north and south sides. The nave is 239 feet long, but the interior is dark on account of the painted windows, of which there are 130. A beautifully carved screen of the fifteenth or sixteenth century, leads to the choir, which has 45 niches in it, and a multitude of sculpture, besides bas-reliefs of the Descent from the Cross and the Presentation, by Bridan; another over the altar by the same artist, of the Assumption of the Virgin, was saved at the revolution by putting a cap of liberty on her head. The crypt and chapels of the older foundations are below.

St. André's large old church, in Basse Ville, of the twelfth century, is a store house; St. Pierre's, now a barrack, belonged to the benedictines, and has some stained windows.

The préfecture stands in a good garden. At the Hôtel de Ville, which was the ursuline convent, the museum is kept, where they shew several objects of natural history, Charlemagne's glass, Philippe le Bel's armour, and the sword of General Marceau (a native), of whom a pillar in Place Marceau, or the herb market, states that he was 'Soldat à 16 ans, Géneral à 23. Il mourut à 27,' when he fell at Altenkirchen.

The public library contains 30,000 volumes and 1000 MSS. There is a theatre, also a college, normal school, school of design, public baths, a bridge, by Vauban.

Porte Guillaume, with its old towers remains; and there are some traces of aqueducts made by the Romans, who called this place Autricum,