Embarcadère or station in Boulevard Mazas, near Rue de Bercy and Pont d'Austerlitz. Ommibuses to all the trains from various points central office, 21, Rue de Bouloi. Buffets for refreshments at Montereau, Tonnerre, Dijon. A fast steamer leaves Lyons at 4 a.m., corresponding with the Avignon railway to Marseilles and Montpelier, so as to reach them the same day: a second steamer at noon. From Chalons the route to Geneva is shorter by 25 kil. than that by Dijon, and is travelled by Caillard's fast coaches from the Hôtel du

Parc

Villen-St.-G.15 Pont-sur-Yn.11 Les Laumes, 14 Montgeron... 3 Sens....11 Verrey.........22 Brunoy 4 Villen-s-Yon 14 Blaisy-Bas ...11 Combs-la-V. 4 St.-Jul-du-S. 8 Malain......... Lieusaint 5 Joigny.........11 Ploinbières ...14 Cesson......... 7 Laroche...... 9 Dijon

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5

...... 6 5

Melum
7 Brienen ...... 8 Gevrey.........11
Bois-le-Roi... 6 St. Florentin 9 Vougeot
Fontainebleau 8 Flogny.........11 Nuits
Thomery ... 5 Tonnerre...13 Corgoloin 6
More - St. - Tanlay......... 8 Beaune
Mamés...... 5 Ancy-le-Frn. 14 Meursault
Montereau... 10 Nuits-s.-Rav. 6 Chagny
Villen - la - Aisy ............ 8 Fontaines
Guyard ...11 Montbard ...10 Chalon ......10

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8 6

The station is a large pile of stone, 720 feet by 262, with a hangar or starting-place 138 feet wide. Leaving this, outside the barrière de Bercy, is La Grande Pinte, among wine, spirit, and oil warehouses, which continue to Bercy, where a suspension-bridge crosses the Seine. The railway passes through the gardens (laid out by Le Nôtre), to the château of the time of Louis XIV. At Charenton, near the new fort, it crosses the Marne (which joins the Seine a little below), by a fivearched viaduct resting on an island, and not far

from the old ten-arch bridge to Al'ort, (four are of wood). Charenton is in a pleasant healthy spot, and has a country-seat, which belonged to Henry IVth's mistress, Gabrielle d'Estrées, and an excellent lunatic asylum for four hundred persons, founded as far back as 1644. Alfort is noted for its Government veterinary college, founded 1766 by Bourgelat.

[Vincennes, to the east (6 miles from Paris,) in a forest, where nine roads meet, is remarkable for an ancient château, now strengthened andrepaired, and made a depôt of artillery for the capital. It was built in 1337, by Philippe of Valois, on the site of Louis le Jeune's country seat, (as old as 1137). Henry V. of England died in it in 1422. Louis XI. lived here, and, as usual, made it a state prison. Charles IX. died in it, as did Cardinal Mazarin (1661), and here the Duc d'Enghien, was brought from across the frontier, tried, and shot by Napoleon's order, 20th March, 1801. A marble pillar in the ditch marks the spot ('Hic cecidit,' here he fell). Louis XV. lived here when young; Mirabeau was a prisoner hero; the ministers of Charles X. were also sent here; and lately it was the residence of the duke of Montpensier. Here Thiers, Changarnier, Cavaignac, &c. were confined on the memorable 2nd December, 1851. It is a moated space 4,115 feet by 656 feet, with remains of towers on the walls; and includes three or four courts; the tall square donjon, with round towers and turrets at the corner, (now a powder magazine) and la Sainte Chapelle, a later pointed building of the sixteenth century (begun 1379 by Charles V.), having three spires, the Duc d'Enghien's tomb, good traceried windows, stained by J. Cousin, in which you see the devices of Henry II. (an H.), and Diana de Poictiers (a crescent). The beautiful armoury is worth seeing; admission by ticket on Sat. urday. A great fête is held in the woods August 15th. Under its trees the excellent St. Louis used frequently to administer justice to his people. To the south of it is St. Maur-le-Pont, on the right bank of the Marne, ncar a canal of 3,640 feet, which cuts off a bend of that river, tunnelled through the rock.]

[Sec. 4

Leaving Choisy-le-Roi, on the right, across the Seine, you come to

VILLENEUVE-ST.-GEORGES (9 miles), on the Seine, where the Yères joins (crossed by a threearched viaduct), among many country seats. That of Beauregard, on a hill, commands a fine view. Coaches to Draveil, Vigneux, Limcil, Boissy-St.-Leger, Valenton.

[Boissy (5 kil. east), is on a hill covered with vineyards and country houses, in department Seine-et-Oise. Grosbois château is near it]. MONTGERON (1 mile), in Senant forest, has a large château; and coaches to Crosne l'Abbaye and Valée d' Yères. A large viaduct crosses the valley of the Yères, leading on to

BRUNOY (2 miles), which stands in the forest, and had a château of Louis XVIII., who gave an estate here, with the title of Duc de Brunoy, to our great Wellington, one of his many wellearned rewards, though scarcely heard of till his death. It stands on the site of a favourite seat of Phillippe de Valois,and has achurch of the thirteenth century. Talma had a house here. Coaches to Quignes, Chaumes, and to BrieComte-Robert (9 kil. east-south-east), the old capital of Brie, in a marshy but fertile spot, founded in the twelfth century by Robert de Dreux (brother of Louis VII.), who built the old ruined eastle or Tour-de-Brie. Robert II. built St. Etienne's gothic church, which has some old tombs; the hôtel dieu is nearly as oid. Charles VII. took it from the English, 1440. Brie cheese, pens, tiles, &c. are made, and there is a good trade in grain. Population 2,800. COMBS-LA-VILLE (2 miles,) on the Yères. LIEUSAINT (3 miles).

CESSON (4 miles). Coach to Seine-Port, on the Seine. At 4 miles further, an iron viaduct of three arches, each 131 feet span, leads over the river to Melun.

MELUN. Hotels-De France; de la Galère (Galley); du Grand Monarque (i. e. Louis XIV.); du Commerce. Population 6,900. Capital of department Seine-et-Marne, and the Lodunum of Cæsar, in a pleasant spot on the Seine, which winds round an island here, on which the oldest part of the town with its broad quays is seated. Two bridges, one called the Pont-aux-Moulins (Windmill bridge), on several irregular arches, joins this part to the quarters on the right and left banks; the latter being the best built, and

Route 241

called St. Aspais, after an old solemn-looking gothic church, which has some excellent stained windows. It stands on Grande Place, near the préfecture, which, with the ancient clock tower, was part of St. Pierre's benedictine abbey, of very early date (when Clovis took the town in 494, it had several convents, &c.), but damaged by the normans in their invasion, and finally ruined by Henry IV. in the wars of the League. On the Ile, you see the house of detention, for this and four other departments, an enormous square pile, with two towers, &c.; and the site (built on since 1740) of the château or palace of the early French kings, where Philippe I. and Robert died, and Blanche, mother of St. Louis, kept her court; Isabella of Bavaria fled to it when driven out of Paris. There are a palais de justice in an old convent, a library of 10,000 volumes at the préfecture, a theatre, large barracks, &c. The English held possession between 1420-30; and Bishop Amyot, grand almoner of France, and the translater of Plutarch, was born here 1513. Trade in grain, wine, cattle, Brie cheese, &c.

Conveyances: by rail, to Paris, Fontainebleau, Troyes, Auxerre, Dijon, &c.; by steamer to Paris, Montereau, &c.; by coach to Nangis, Provins, La Chapelle, Gentière, Mormant, Champeaux, Blendy, Morsenay, Milly, Malesherbes, Valence-le-Chatelet.

At

[Nangis (23 kil. east), in a fertile hollow of the Brie country, has a population of 2,200, who trade in corn, butter, cheese. Two towers of the château of its marquises remain, besides an ancient gothic church. Napoleon defeated the allies here 1814. 21 kil. further is Provins (see Route 26). Near Mormant (10 kil. north-west of Nangis), which has a good spire church, are the old moated châteaux of Bressey and GrangeBleneau. In the latter Lafayette lived, and was visited by Fox, who planted the ivy over the gateway. It has portraits of Presidents of the United States, and of Franklin, Kosciusko, Bailly, Rochefoucauld, &c., besides theflag of the States, given to Lafayette in his last voyage to America.-Malesherbes (30 kil. south-west of Melun), in a marshy part of the Esonne, under a hill covered by a fine château.]

From Melun, on the rail, to Dijon, you pass, BOIS-LE-ROI (3 miles), at the border of the

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royal forest of Fontainebleau. The châteaux of Pény (finely scated) and Rochetto; then

FONTAINEBLEAU, 5 miles (Hotel de 1 Aigle Noir), remarkable for its château, where Napoleon abdi. cated 1814, standing near the town, which is a sous-préfecture, in department Seine-et-Marne, in a hollow of the forest, with 8,200 souls. It is well built, and has an Hôtel de Ville, a church, built 1624, the palais de justice in Place du Marché, with the bibliothèque of 28,000 vols.; two hospices founded by Anne of Austria and Madame de Montespan; a château d' cau or reservoir in Rue Bawer, for supplying the fountains; and the obelisk to the south built 1770 when Louis XVI. was married.

The Château or Palace is an irregular pile composed of five or six courts in different ages and styles, chiefly of brick and high-roofed; joined together by galleries, and adorned with wall paintings, Gobelin tapestry, china, &c. It originated 1162-9 in a hunting seat of Louis VII., called Fontaine de Belle eau, after a spring here; though some explain it Fontaine-Bleaud, from a dog of that name. Philippe-le-Bel died in it, Francis I. greatly improved it; it was the favourite seat of Henry IV.; Louis XIII. was born here, as was Henry III.; the great Condé died here, 1686, the year after Louis XIV. signed here the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; Louis XV. was married here, 1734; Napoleon too here married Marie Louise, 1810; signed the concordat with Pius VII. (who was here a prisoner), 1812, and abdicated 1814; and here the late Duke of Orleans was married 1837, since which the château has been restored in part. A gate called the Entrée d'honneur, in Place Ferrare (from which a railing 340 feet divides it), leads into the first court, or Cour du Cheval Blanc, so called from the plaster cast of M. Aurelian's horse at Rome; it is the largest court, and since Napoleon took leave of his guard in it, is commonly styled Cour des Adieux. The Cour de la Fontaine opens out to the gardens, and has on one side the Salle de la belle Cheminée; here Charles V. was lodged with his suite, 1539; it has the apartments of the Queen-Mother, and of the Duke of Orleans. Cour Ovale or du Donjon, the most ancient, is long and narrow, and entered by the Porte Dorée (with its frescos), from the Allée Maintenon; another gate is called Porte Dauphin, in memory of the birth of Louis

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XIII. It includes a balcony on 45 pillars, with several rooms or salles, as the salle de bal or gallery of Henry II., with pictures; the salles du trône and du conseil; a library of 30,000 vols. in Francis I's chapel, whose gallery of frescoes by Rossi is here; a small plain cabinet, where Napoleon signed his abdication; the gallery of Diana, 1600, and its pictures, by Pujol, &c. In the Cour de l'Orangerie, is the gallerie des cerfs (ornamented with stag heads), where Christiana of Sweden put her servant Monaldeschi to death, 1657. She lived in the next court, Cour des Princes, the smallest of all. The last, or Cour des Cuisines, has the kitchens, &c., and was built 1609, and contains a fountain with bronze mascarons or grotesque marks on it. The chapel was built 1529, by Henry IV., on the site of St. Louis's, and is richly decorated. Statues, besides jets d'eau, are dispersed over the gardens, especially a Telemachus by Canova, which was Napoleon's favourite; the parterre du Tibre is the oldest; the new one on the south side has a large pond or étang full of carp, and some waterfalls at the end where the canal goes off through the park, towards the old church of Avon (where a stone records that Ci-git MONADELXI.); the park contains a Jardin Anglais, a labyrinth, &c., and the royal treille or vineyard.

You walk from the town directly into the Forest, which is spread over an extent of 35,000 acres, on a white sandstone rock, with a very irregular surface. It is pierced by scores of sentiers or paths; and is full of strikingly picturesque sites, some parts being green and well wooded, with magnificent shady alleys of oak, beech, &c., nearly 100 feet high, and groves of fir; others bare and rugged, or covered by patches of heath and broom. The whole has been throroughly investigated by M. Denecourt, an enthusiastic resident, who has published an excellent plan, and about a dozen numbers of the 'Délices de Fontainebleau,' containing minute itineraries of the best promenades, and points of view, as the Rocher d' Avon, Chêne des Fées, Mont Ussy, the Gorge de Franchard, and its hermitage, where people spend Whit Tuesday, the Gorges d' Apremont, and aux Loups, the Vallée de la Solle, Calvaire, La Croix du Grand Veneur, &c.

Trade in wine, fruit, paving stones, ornaments in juniper wood, called genévrines, &c. HotelsDe France, near the château; du Lyon, in Rue

[Sec. 4

Royale; de l'Aigle Noir. A steamer runs on the Seine to Paris. Coaches to Nemours, Beaumont, Montargis, Château Landon, Gien, Briare, Cosne, Sancerre (see Route 25).

A fine curved viaduct leads into

THOMERY (3 miles), near the Seine, but still in the forest; it is noted for its choice Fontainebleau or chasselas grapes. Another viaduct leads to

MORET ST. MAMES (3 miles), on the Seine, where the Loing falls in, having parts of its ancient walls and castle, and old church, built by Louis VII, and dedicated by Becket when a refugee at Sens. Henry IV's son, Antoine de Bourbon, killed 1652, at Castlenaudary, was Count of Moret. The Allies took it 1814.

MONTEREAU (6 miles), on the river, where the Yonne joins it, is the site of the roman Condate, under a hill which has the château of Surville (i. e. Above town) on top, commanding a fine view of both rivers, their bridges, &c. Napoleon beat the allies here 1814; and in the church is the sword (or a wooden copy) of Jean Sans-Peur of Burgundy,who was murdered on the old bridge over the Seine,by Charles the Dauphin, for having killed his father. Till the Revolution, they used to shew his head, with a gash in it. When Francis I. saw it, he observed that it seemed to be a very large hole. 'Yes,' said a canon, 'it ought to be, for the English entered France through it,' -the murder being followed by a civil war, which encouraged them to invade the country. Population 5,000, who make good tiles, porcelain, and pottery, one work being in the Recollets' convent. The branch railway to Troyes turns off here (see Route 26).

Coaches to Cannes, Mizy, Barbey, Marolles. VILLENEUVE-LA-GUYD (6 miles).

PONT-SUR-YONNE (64 miles), at the bridge on the Yonne, in a pretty wine country.

SENS (7 miles), a sous-préfecture, in department Yonne, seat of an archdiocess, and the old capital of the Senones in Cæsar's time, to whom they made a bold resistance. It stands in a pleasant spot on the Yonne, near where the Vanne joins; is well built, and watered by little brooks running through the streets, and is enclosed by remains of walls (used as promenades) built by Charles V., on the top of those built by the Romans, on courses of large rough stones. Its gates are all ancient-looking. Roman ways are traced in the neighbourhood, besides an