(see Route 44). The line from Saintes also joins here. Only the gate of its once large castle remains. The line traverses the grounds. It belonged to the family of de Foix. Here Henry of Navarre slept after the Battle of Coutras, 1587, in which de defeated the Leaguers, under the Duc de Joyeuse, who was killed. This was the first victory gained by the Protestants, and was announced to Henry III. by the victor in these words, "Sire, mon seigneur et frère, remerciez Dieu, jái battu vos ennemis et votre armée," Henry III. being secretly favourable to the Protestant leaders. After crossing the L'Isle, on a bridge of six arches, each 49 feet span, you come to The St. Denis-de-Pile (54 miles), and its Romanesque church, shaped like a Greek cross. Château of Grave belongs to the Duc Decazes. Follow the L'Isle to Libourne (4 miles), a fine well-built town and sous-préfecture (in department Gironde) of 13,600 population, on the Dordogne, where the Isle joins it, under a handsome suspension bridge. Another of nine arches crosses the main stream, which has a Port large enough for 300-tons ships. Libourne succeeded a place called Condat and Fozera, and as one of the chief places in Gascony, was rebuilt and fortified by Edward I. of England. The old machicolated tower styled Tour de l' Horloge (with a peaked top added) remains at the Port; it was formerly called Tour de Richard, after the Black Prince's son (Richard II.), born at Bordeaux. The church of St. Jean was rebuilt 1856. It has a public library, a botanic garden, large cavalry barracks, glass factory, &c.; and a trade in eauxde-vie, oil, timber. Hotels.-De France; Des Princes. The old pilgrims' chapel of Notre Dame de Condat in the neighbourhood, was built by Eleanor of Guienne, through whom Henry II. acquired this territory. Fronsac, across the Dordogne, is known for its red and white wines. It stands under the Tertre de Fronsac, a hill about 230 feet above, commanding a good panoramic view. Its ancient castle is gone. Rail to St. Emilion, Castillon, &c., up the Dordogne. [The line passes St. Laurent-des-Combes, to St. Emilion (6 miles from Libourne,) in a gorge among vineyards noted for the good quality of the wines, is a decayed fortified town, having many antiquities to show: as, a parish church of the 12th century, with handsome slender spire; the façade of Cardinal de Cauterai's palace; remains of the Convents of the Dominicans and Cordeliers; the hermitage of the Saint, near the Place, cut in the rock, close to a fountain, where they show his stone bed and chair; his monolithic temple or church, in the rock, 85 feet by 53, with a vault resting on eight great pillars, and various carvings, and what is called the Rotonde or round chapel, in a light Gothic style, of the 12th century. There are also remains of the castle, built by Louis VIII., which has a square tower, &c. Guadet, the Girondist, was born here, and was beheaded at Bordeaux, with Barbaroux, &c., after their proscription by the Jacobins. Pétion and Buzot were found starved to death in a corn field, since called "Champ des Emigrés." Population, 3,014. Pass St. Etienne de Lisse to Castillon (43 miles from St. Emilion), higher up the river (population, 2,900), celebrated for the Battle of 1453, in which the English, under the great Talbot (who, with his son, was killed) were defeated by the French, and finally driven out of France. The line goes on to Montcaret and St. Antoine-Porte-Ste Foy (towards Bergerac, page 203).-About 5 kil. north-east (in department Dordogne) is St. Michel Montaigne, the old feudal château of Montaigne, who wrote his "Essais" here. They show his room, in which are sentences from the Bible and the classics, a portrait of his daughter Eléonore, also his writing table, books, bed, and clock. To the north is VILLEFRANCHE DE LONGCHAPT, a very old place on a rock, walled round by the English, and taken by assault, 1577, by the Huguenots, Sully being among them.] Leaving Libourne, you cross the Dordogne, by a bridge on nine arches, the Tertre de Fronsac being in view; then a viaduct of 3,870 feet on 100 arches, to Arveyres (3 miles), a pleasant spot on a hill. Vayres (2 miles), anciently Varatedum, has tho old castle of its marquises, to the west; partly St. Loubes (2 miles). The plain between the Dordogne and Garonne is called Entre Deux Mers, a sort of Mesopotamia, on a small scale. La Grave d'Ambares (64 miles), a village of 2,700 inhabitants. Coaches to Cubzac and Blaye. [CUBZAC (6 kil.), on the Dordogne, here crossed by a splendid wire Suspension Bridge, in five bends, 1,788 feet long between the river's banks, or 5,079 feet, including the viaducts which approach it on each side, 24 feet wide, and 92 feet above the water. It was built 1835-9, by Fortuné-de-Vergey, for £120,000. The Bordeaux merchants have large warehouses at this spot, where the high road from Paris falls in. Blaye (37 kil.) a sous-préfecture of 5,000 sou ls, in department Gironde, and a pilot station, on the east bank of the Garonne. Here the branch rail from St. Mariens ends (page 189). It was the ancient Blavia, and had a strong castle, taken by the Huguenots, 1568, and then by the Leaguers. This now makes part of the citadel, on a rock in Upper Town, commanding the river (about 4 kil. broad), in conjunction with the fort of le Paté (or the Pic), on an island in the midst, and Fort Médoc on the opposite side. In the old Gothic tower of this castle the Duchesse de Berri was confined, 1833. A good mairie, hospital, theatre, &c., are in the Lower Town, where the merchants and pilots live. At the Austin abbey here, King Caribert of Aquitaine was buried, 631. Charlemagne's Champion, Roland, who fell in battle against the "Paynim sons of swarthy Spain," at Roncesvalles, in 778, was brought hither to be buried. Here the hero was born. From Bourg, St. Disant du Gua, Chénac, and other points, fine views may be obtained of After La Grave, the line bends to the south, past hills covered with vineyards and country-seats, and three short viaducts on eighteen, four, and seven arches, succeeded by three short tunnels, to Here Lormont (1 miles), a place of 3,000 souls, the ancient Mons Laurens, on the Dordogne. was a country-seat of the Archbishops of Bordeaux. A fourth tunnel, of 1,312 feet, is followed by a fifth of 919 feet, which brings you out in sight of Bordeaux, and to the Embarcadère at la Bastide, opposite the town, close to the bridge, a building 984 feet long. BORDEAUX, 383 miles from Paris, 1234 from Bayonne, 160 from Toulouse. For the lines to Spain and Toulouse (see Routes 63 and 66). For the Médoc (see below). The stations from Toulouse are on the southwest side of the town. Omnibuses run between, past Place de la Comédie, &c. HOTELS.-De Nantes, first-class hotel; splendidly situated. Good cuisine. Hotel Marine et des Colonies, Americains, Commerce, Voyageurs, Quatre Sours; Des Ambassadeurs, in Rue Cours l'Intendance; Hotel des Sept Sœurs, opposite the Post Office; De Paris; Des Princes. Cafés. De la Comédie, near the Theatre; De la Préfecture Fossés-du-Chapeau Rouge, Helvetius, &c. Restaurants.-De Richelieu; De la Préfecture, &c. Breakfasts and dejeûners a la fourchette, 75c. to 1 franc at the cafés, or 1 to 2 francs at the hotels; a good dinner for 3 francs at the hotels. English Consul, T. C. Hunt, Esq., No. 15, Cours Portal; American Consul, Chaplain, at British Chapel, Quai de Chartrons, Rev. E. S. Froissard. Bankers.-Barton and Guestie, Cours Pavé, 35, near Quai des Chartrons; Johnston and Sons, Rue Foy, 21. Library and Reading Room at M. Chaumas-Gayet, opposite the Préfecture. Post Office, 5, Rue-Porte-Dijeaux. Steamboats to Mortagne, Blaye, and Pauillac, daily; to Royan, twice a week. To Lisbon, Sene gal, Rio Janeiro, &c., monthly, by the Messageries | Street), is the principal Theatre, a large and noble Maritimes. To Bristol, and Bombay (via Suez Canal), see BRADSHAW's Continental Guide. OBJECTS OF NOTICE.-The ChartronsBridge-Bourse-Theatre-Hôtel de Ville-Palais de Justice-Museum-Churches of St. Michael, St. Croix, &c.-Tour de l'Horloge-CathedralEffigies of Montaigne-Palais Gallien-Place des Quinconces-Wine Cellars. Population, 194,055. Bordeaux is the third commercial port in France, the centre of the vin de Bordeaux, or Claret trade, chief town of the department Gironde (formerly of the province of Guienne or Aquitaine), head of a military division, seat of an archbishop, &c. It stands on the west bank of the Garonne, à bord-des-eaux, 70 miles from the sea, where the river is 500 to 800 yards broad (the Thames at London Bridge is 350 yards); and it is from the water that you see to advantage its noble range of quays and buildings, stretching like a crescent, three miles long, from the shipyards at the south end to the fine streets and houses at the north extremity, towards the Chartrons and Chapeau Rouge quarters, where the merchants live. A fine, nearly level, stone Bridge, of seventeen arches, 531 yards long, 50 feet broad, was built 1811-21, by Deschamps, from the Porte de Bourgogne to the village of La Bastide opposite. This will soon be accompanied by a railway bridge uniting the termini of the lines which centre here. The river below forms the Port, where as many as 1,000 sail may lie; but the larger vessels anchor at Pauillac, which is the real port. High water at full and change, 3 o'clock. The Houses are large and well-built; the higher classes are wealthy and luxurious in their habits, and particularly well-disposed towards the English, to whom Bordeaux and the province belonged for three centuries, down to 1451. Its climate, however, is damp. The principal buildings are as follows: The Bourse (exchange) in Place Royale, near the bridge, is 98 feet by 65, and 78 feet high to the middle of the glazed dome. The Chamber of Commerce occupies a place here, with a library of 6,000 volumes, which includes a good collection of voyages. The Douane, or custom-house, is near the Bourse; both buildings are by Gabriel. In the Rue Chapeau Rouge (a fine street like Portland structure, built by Louis XIV., and opened 1780; it has a Corinthian portico of twelve columns, with a great vestibule and staircase, and will hold 4,000 persons. It is usually reckoned the best out of Paris. Here the Government Delegation had its head-quarters when driven from Tours by the Germans, 1871. The Théâtre de Gymnase is new. Another, called les Variétés in Rue Fossés de l'Intendance, was burnt down in 1855. The Préfecture, in Rue de la Comédie, is the work of Louis, 1775, and has been restored. Hôtel de Ville (or town hall), near the Cathedral, was the palace of the archbishops, and was built, 1780-1, by Prince de Rohan, then primate of Aquitaine; it is a large square pile, with a court in the midst, and a picture gallery. Here they show Napoleon's own Cross of the Legion of Honour, a History of his Battles, with his MS. notes, and other curiosities, presented by General Bertrand; also a collection of antique arms. The pictures number 466, including Lesueur's Urania, Rubens' Martyrdom of St. Just, &c., but they are ill arranged. Catalogue, 1 fr. An older Gothic town hall is in the street leading to the bridge. The Palais de Justice (law courts), near the Hôtel de Ville, is a large and rather elegant building, 480 feet long, built 1839-46, and has Maggesi's statues of Malesherbes, d'Aguesseau, l'Hôpital, and Montesque (who lived at Château de Brède, 10 miles off); behind it are the prisons; and opposite the Hôtel Dieu, or public hospital of St. André, with 650 beds. It was rebuilt 1825-9, but founded as far back as 1390. In Rue St. Dominique, is the Museum, comprising the public library of 120,000 volumes, and 300 MSS., among which is Montaigne's annotated Copy of his Essais; also the museums of antiquity and natural history, and the Observatory, open daily to strangers. The Hospice des Enfans Trouvés, where 700 foundlings are provided for, is on the Quai de la Paludatte. St. André's Cathedral, built by the English in the 13th century, the foundation having been laid by Henry II. and his Queen, is a large but irregular structure, with buttresses, &c.; it is 413 feet long, and has two spires, 150 feet high, in the north transept, a good rose window, a fine altar, and an arched roof, 56 feet broad, of the 16th century, It contains pictures by Veronese and Jordaens. Its detached clock tower, called Pey Berland, 156 feet high, was built, 1440, by Archbishop Pierre Berland, and is a fine piece of Gothic work, with buttresses at the corners, and a circular turret at the top. St. Michael's Gothic church, near the Quai de la Grave, was also built by the English, but has a north front of later date. Length, 243 feet. It was restored 1855. Its clock-tower, 180 feet high, is also detached and buttressed at the angles. The vault below the church is laid out with bones brought from a neigbouring cemetery. St. Croix, near Quai St. Croix, though quite irregular within and without, is a most curious and interesting church, and the oldest here. It is Romanesque, of the 10th and 11th centuries, and was founded by William the Good, Duke of Aquitaine. The curious carvings on the front, the wall paintings, and old carved font, all deserve notice. St. Seurin (or Severin) in Place de Prado, though modern in the front, is worth visiting for its ancient crypt of St. Fort, of the 11th century, to which mothers take their children every 16th of May, and to which, or rather to an earlier building on its site, the body of Roland was brought after his death at Roncesvaux. Nôtre Dame, a modern church, was rebuilt 1701; and the Feuillant's church, attached to the Lyceum, has the mailed effigy of Montaigne, who was a judge of the Bordeaux parliament, was twice mayor, and died, 1592, in Rue des Minimes. There are, besides these, seven other Catholic churches, four Protestant churches, and a handsome synagogue, the last in Rue Causserouge. Some remains of the Chartreuse abbey church are left in the public Cemetery outside the town, where Moreau is buried. gives name to the Quai des Chartrons, &c. It The amphitheatre, or Palais Gallien, now hardly to be seen for the houses on it, is a Roman remain, near the Jardin des Plantes (botanic garden). It was 241 feet by 177, and €4 high. Tour de l' Horloge, or clock tower, which was attached to the old Hôtel de Ville, is an old gate built by Henry III. of England, and has three peaked turrets, witha lion on the middle one. It stands 135 feet gh Round the bell is inscribed its round of duties, viz.:-"Convoco arma, Signo dies, Noto horas, compello nubila, concino læta Ploro rogos." Another gate, Porte du Palais, or du Cailhau, near the Custom House and Quai de Bourgogne, was built, 1495, by Charles VIII. It is 112 feet high, and known by its five or six peaked turrets. It serves as a prison. In Place d'Aquitaine is the ancient évêché or bishop's house, near a gate or porte, which served for a triumphal arch when the Bourbons returned, in 1814. The Entrepôt Réel, for colonial produce, is a large pile on the Quai des Chartrons; on Quay de Bacalan, are the Victualling Office, and Viellard's (formerly Johnson's) large porcelain factory, which communicates by canals with the river. Hôtel des Monnaies (mint) is in Rue de Palais Gallien; the Bank, in Rue Esprit des Lois. Joubert's spinning factory is on a large scale. Crusse's caves, or cellars, containing 30,000 barrels of wine, are worth visiting; so are Guestier's, in Pavé des Chartrons. Excellent public baths, near the Bourse, and in Place Lainé; also two swimming schools, mineral baths, &c. The best Promenades are in the Cours d'Albret de Tourny (so called after M. de Tourny, formerly Intendant, and a great benefactor to the town, whose statue is near), and du Jardin publique (which, however, is no garden, but an open space)but especially in the large Place Quinconces, on the site of the Château Trompette. It is about a quarter of a mile long. At one end are baths, at the other, two columns, 65 feet high with gas reflectors. All these walks are laid out with avenues of trees. Fairs are held the first ten days in July, at the hippodrome at Gradignan (10 kil. away). There are at Bordeaux, a college or university (as old as 1441), schools of architecture and medicine, deaf and dumb institution, and many benevolent societies; an abattoir, large barracks, &c. Among the persons born here, are Ausonius, the Latin poet of the 4th century; Richard II. of England; Clement V.; Marcellus Empiricus, the first of quacks; Ducos and other "Girondists," who figured in the Revolution. Another native was Girard, the rich merchant of New York, who sailed hence, 1762, as a cabin boy, and died worth two and a half millions sterling. Bordeaux was called Burdigala by Strabo, and was the chief town of the Bituriges. Ausonius praises it for its soft climate, its long spring, and short winter. He describes it as four-sided; with high towers, and broad well-planned streets, and watered by the stream called Devitia (now La Devise); "and when father ocean flows up, the whole surface is covered with fleets," i.e., fleets of boats and merchantmen. The Roman city stood between Place Royale on the Quay, and the Cathedral. It had fourteen gates, of which the last (Porte Basse) was pulled down, 1805. The Visigoths burnt it, 412, and the Saracens again about 732. Bordeaux was for a time the capital of Gascony; and through Eleanor, wife of Henry II. (of England), it came to the English crown, as head of the duchy of Guienne. Henry III., who built the old Hôtel de Ville, made Simon de Montfort governor; Edward I., when prince, lived here; and from hence the Black Prince marched to the battle of Poitiers, and brought back John of France prisoner. Charles VII. took it from the English in 1451, and built Château Trompette to defend it. This was fortified by Vauban, and called Fort Louis; to build which stones were taken from a Roman Temple, "Augusto sacrum, &c.," called Pilliers de Tutelle. Its altar is in the museum of antiquities. To this fortress was added Castle Ha, or Cailhau, abovementioned, forming part of L'Ombrière, the old palace of the dukes of Aquitaine, which disappeared in 1800, when this space was cleared. Here the banquet of 9th October, 1852, was given to the Prince President, Louis Napoléon, when he uttered his memorable words, "L'Empire, c'est la Paix,' which served to rally so many hesitating adherents round the imperial throne. In the present day it became the temporary seat of the National Assembly, February, 1871, who here elected M. Thiers, Chief of the Executive Power, declared anew the forfeiture of the throne by Napoléon III., and voted the treaty of peace with Germany. Trade. The produce brought up by the Canal du Midi and Cette rail, and shipped to the French colonies, &c., consists of hides, flour, seeds, brandy, almonds, prunes, chestnuts, cork, resin, verdigris, honey, hams, &c. The manufactures are perfumery, liqueurs, ornamental fruit-boxes, stockings, carpets, cotton, earthenware, bottles, casks, hats, paper, vinegar, tobacco, refined sugar, rope, &c., and gloves from André's factory. Imports of all kinds from abroad. About 100,000 tons of shipping M are employed, which possess one-fourth of the French colonial trade. Claret wine is produced below the city, on the west side of the river, in the Médoc district: about 50,000 tuns of the premier crus, or "first growth" (called Château Margaux, Lafitte, Latour, and Haut Brion), are made yearly, and the best of it is sent to England. [From Bordeaux, by the Chemin de fer du Médoc, to Soulac, down the west side of the Garonne, in the wine country of the Médoc (so called from its Roman name In medio aquæ, signifying a peninsular tract), you pass Blanquefort (5 miles), which belonged to the Black Prince. Then Ludon (4 miles); Macau (1 miles); Margaux (43 miles), near Château Margaux (noted for its first growth claret), opposite Blaye; followed by Beycheville, and Château Léoville (second growth), and Château Latour (first growth). Moulis (4 miles); beyond which is Château Lafitte (another first growth); then Pauillac (9 miles), 29 miles from Bordeaux, where large ships stop. The best Clarets are produced on a most unpicturesque gravel strip, about two miles broad and 50 to 80 feet above the river. The vines are trained about two feet high in open fields; vintage takes place in September. Château Loudanne belongs to Messrs. Gilbey. The grape-plague appeared here, 1852. Lesparre (68 kil. from Bordeaux), a small souspréfecture in department Gironde (population 1,232), among vineyards and meadows. You then come to Soulac (25 kil.), or Soulacles-Bains, at the mouth of the Garonne, in the Bay of Biscay. Thence to Le Verdon, 6 miles from Bordeaux, opposite the bathing-place of Royan, and near the Tour de Cordouan, a round, solid, light-house of three stories, 234 feet high, built 1611, by Louis de Foix, having large refractors on Fresnel's system. It replaces one built by the English, 1362.] ROUTE 36. Tours to Angers, Nantes, and St. Nazaire. DOWN THE LOIRE. By rail.-To Nantes, 196 kil., or 122 miles. |