The Motor Routes of France To the Châteaux of Touraine, Biarritz, the Pyrenees, the Riviera, & the Rhone Valley — Themes and Context

with its convenient quay, soon grew prosperous. When Henry V. besieged the town, it held out for six months.

During the Franco-Prussian War the Germans occupied the old town, but fortunately did no damage to it.

It is with keen reluctance that one leaves the sunny quay of Caudebec, with its busy market scenes, its steam ferry-boat, and the lovely views up and down the curving river. However, the road follows the Seine, and one enjoys for mile after mile lovely views across the wide belt of silvery water, backed by sweeping green forests.

About two kilometres from Caudebec a turning to the left leads up in a few minutes to St. Wandrille, where the ruins of the Norman abbey stand in a pretty valley. The conventual buildings are now the residence of M. Maurice Maeterlinck, the dramatist and author, who recently performed an historical play in the refectory and cloisters of the abbey, the audience moving from one part of the buildings to another for each successive scene.

The abbey was originally called Fontenelle, after the stream that flows through the valley. It was founded in the middle of the seventh century by a pupil of St. Columba, and the early buildings fell a prey to the harrying Norsemen, who left the place in ruins. In 1033, having been rebuilt, the abbey was dedicated to St. Wandrille, but a fire did much destruction in the thirteenth century, and in 1631 the tower and spire of the church fell, and smashed down the nave and aisles, the Lady-chapel, and the choir-stalls. What remains of the church is not so remarkable as the ornate cloisters of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the imposing Norman refectory, with its vaulted roof of the fifteenth century and its fine Flamboyant windows.

Returning to the main road, and continuing towards Rouen, one soon catches sight of the two towers of the abbey of Jumièges rising above trees beyond a bend of the winding river. At the small village of Yainville, with a Norman church, the road to Jumièges goes to the right, and the singular beauty of this stately ruin justifies the détour.

The entrance to the abbey is at a lodge gate on the left side of the road in the pleasant village, and the _concierge_--a quite charming type of country-woman--accompanies one through the admirably-kept ruins, and afterwards to the museum adjoining, where is preserved, among other carved stones from the ruined buildings, the slab of black marble under which was buried the heart of Agnes Sorel, the beautiful mistress of Charles VII. She died near Jumièges in 1449, after the birth of her fourth daughter, and her body was buried at Loches, which is passed through on the way southwards from Tours (see Section VI.).

The impressiveness of the twin towers of the west end of the great church is due in part to the extreme simplicity of the Norman work--for the buildings were completed just before the Norman Conquest--and also to their great height of 328 feet. On entering it is hard to believe that until 1790 the abbey and its great church were in a perfect state of preservation, for the roofs have gone except in the aisles, where the stones of the vault have been in some places so disturbed by roots and frosts that collapses are imminent. There are traces of orange-coloured painting on the arches, and the stone is of a warm cream, which looks singularly beautiful when afternoon shadows are falling from arches and pillars. There are only the foundations of the semicircular apse, with its nine chapels, and the gaps in the east end of the church are beautified by the presence of tall larches that droop their graceful branches over the broken moss-grown walls. The fourteenth-century chapel on the south side, dedicated to St. Pierre, is also in a state of ruin.

St. Philibert founded Jumièges in 654, about the same time as St. Wandrille was begun, and it also suffered terribly at the hands of the Northmen, who tortured and massacred without mercy, and left the once prosperous abbey a shattered ruin.

The rebuilding was encouraged by William Longsword, the son of Rollo; but the builder of the Norman church which stands to-day was Abbot Robert of Jumièges, who was afterwards appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Edward the Confessor, who had been educated at Jumièges under his care. The buildings, completed and consecrated in 1067, remained in use until 1793, the date of the Suppression, so that, with an interval of about a century in its early history, Jumièges existed as a monastery for 1,139 years, and in that period was ruled by eighty-two abbots.

It is interesting to know that, although the Benedictines of Jumièges contributed a very large sum towards the ransom of Richard I. after his capture on the way home from the Holy Land, the monastery was twice plundered by English armies, and the first occasion was in Edward III.’s reign, when the generosity of the monks seems to have been quite forgotten!

A portion of the buildings belonging to William Longsword’s church is to be seen in the Chapel of St. Pierre already mentioned.

An interesting legend of the founder of the abbey explains the presence of a wolf at the feet of the saint on a carved stone boss. St. Philibert had given to a convent four leagues from Jumièges the laundry work of his abbey, and the Abbess and her nuns washed the linen which was sent to them. One day a wolf ate the ass that carried the washing, but the holy Abbess induced the wicked wolf to carry the baskets, which he did, we read, until the end of his life.

The greatness and power of the abbey declined very much after the Reformation, and at the time of the Revolution the religious who were dispersed were not numerous.

The short distance from Yainville has to be retraced, and then, going to the right through a belt of forest, one reaches the banks of the Seine once more, and passes through the little town of Duclair, with its sunny quay and its ferry-boat. There are beautiful views over the river, and as the car runs along the level road one may overtake a steamer that is sliding along with a little pile of water pushed up in front of its bow, and note the contrast of its stained red funnel with the soft green landscape beyond. On the left curious little chambers are cut out of the cliff of chalk, and several form complete cottages. So even and horizontal are the layers of chalk, with bands of flint at different heights, that the cliff has often an exceedingly artificial appearance.

Soon afterwards the road cuts across the neck of another peninsula formed by one of the deep windings of the Seine, and on reaching the foot of the rising ground a turning to the right leads to the hamlet of St. Martin Boscherville, whose noble Church of St. Georges rears its great bulk on the hillside. The hurried tourist might be inclined to pass this by, thinking that of ecclesiastic architecture he has seen enough in this neighbourhood; but throughout the whole of France he will not find another Norman church so perfect as that of St. Georges de Boscherville. The abbey was founded and built in the eleventh century by the Grand Chamberlain of William the Conqueror, Raoul de Tancarville, a fact proclaimed in an inscription above the chief portal; and the great church, built at the time when England was newly subjected to the Norman, stands to-day, with the exception of the western turrets, exactly as the original builders left it.

The transepts are remarkable for their galleries, similar to those in Winchester Cathedral; and the chapter-house, which is later than the church, being Transitional in style, should also be seen. The sixteenth-century tomb of Le Roulx, the last Abbot, is in front of the altar.

On resuming the journey, the hill just mentioned is negotiated with some considerable winding, which enables one to get especially fine views over the wooded country to the west, with the big church in the middle distance, and the gleaming river showing its snaky windings on either side.

After passing through a belt of typical French forest, composed of thin trees without beauty or individuality, one begins the long curving descent to Rouen, the historic capital of Normandy. The city appeals so much to the student of history that this first view of the place as a whole, threaded by its broad river, and dominated by the fretted spire and beautiful towers of cathedral and churches, is one that stands out vividly in the memory when other impressions have faded.

DIEPPE TO ROUEN (36 miles--58 kilometres)

This is a direct road, with a few hills, the ascent from the river at Sanqueville and the winding descent at Malaunay being the only ones worth mentioning.

BOULOGNE TO ROUEN (109½ miles--176 kilometres)

This road is through the little town of Samer, where there is an interesting fifteenth-century church and the ruins of the Abbey of St. Wulmer. Soon afterwards there is a steep hill.

Montreuil-sur-Mer has a Palais de Justice, which was formerly part of a Carmelite convent, and the college and École d’Infanterie occupy the buildings of the Abbey of Ste. Austreberthe. The chapel of the Gothic Hôtel Dieu has a curious altar-screen, and the very interesting Church of St. Saulve dates from the twelfth century. The view seawards down the Canche from the citadel, which is surrounded by towers and walls of the Middle Ages, is remarkably fine.

On the road to Abbeville there is a steep ascent at Nampont St. Martin, and a steep descent to Bernay-en-Ponthieu. The forest of Crécy lies to the left of the road, and on the farther side of it is the medieval battlefield, where the English army, under Edward III., crushingly defeated the French in 1346.

Abbeville is an interesting old town, still possessing some very good specimens of its domestic architecture of the thirteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The best are the Maison François I., with richly carved woodwork, at 29, Rue de la Tannerie; No. 2 in the same street (sixteenth century); 7, Rue du Pont de Boulogne; 3 and 5, Rue de l’Hôtel de Ville; 41, Rue de la Boucherie; and, besides these, several others will be noticed in a walk through the town. There are also some good town houses, or _hôtels_, in the Rue St. Gilles. The Church of St. Vulfran belongs to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and is remarkable for its fine restored façade, with beautifully sculptured doorways. The interior is not remarkable, except for two curved altar-screens.

The Hôtel de Ville has a bell-tower dating from the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the library in the Jardin Public d’Emonville contains a Gospel which belonged to Charlemagne.

Neufchâtel-en-Bray is famous for its cheeses, and is the chief town of the district, which has been called ‘the dairy of Paris.’ It was at one time called Driencourt, the name having been altered when a new castle was built by Henri Beauclerc. The Church of Notre Dame, of various periods from the twelfth century, has a sixteenth-century tower. A passage from the Grand Rue leads to the Maison des Templiers, a most picturesque timber-framed building, with much carved woodwork.

From Neufchâtel to above the River Arques the road climbs, dropping steeply down to that river at St. Martin Omonville. After leaving the valley the road is comparatively level to Rouen.

Along the coast, 22 miles--35 kilometres

By Marquise, 20 miles--32 kilometres

The coast route is the most interesting, as it gives splendid views of the Straits of Dover and the white cliffs of England. Sangatte (7½ kilometres from Calais) is famous in connection with M. Blériot’s cross-Channel flight, and for the abandoned workings of the Channel tunnel.

Four miles before passing over Cape Grisnez one passes the little town of Wissant, associated with the Roman _Portus Itius_, from which Julius Cæsar sailed when he made his first reconnaissance of the coast of Britain. Beyond the great headland is Ambleteuse, the landing-place of the fugitive James II. at 3 a.m. on Christmas Day, 1688. The King had left Rochester on the night of the 23rd, and had passed by a back-door on to the Medway, where he boarded the smack which brought him to the French coast.

At the next river-mouth is Wimereux Harbour, the landing-place of Prince Louis Napoleon in August, 1840. Having received no support, the Prince and his followers were easily captured, and in Boulogne one can see the thirteenth-century château, now converted into barracks, where he was imprisoned.

Boulogne Cathedral was erected in 1869 on the site of the original Norman church, built in 1104 by Ida, the mother of Geoffrey de Bouillon.

ROUEN TO EVREUX, 32½ MILES (52 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

=Rouen= to Pont de l’Arche =18= 11¼ =Pont de l’Arche= to Louviers =10= 6¼ =Louviers= to Evreux =24= 15

On leaving the Seine for Pont de l’Arche, there is a long, winding ascent.

After =Pont de l’Arche= comes a climb through the forest, and a switchback of small, sharp hills before reaching =Louviers=.

After crossing the Iton, the road is hilly until the valley of that river is dropped into again, about 6 kilometres from Evreux.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

=Rouen.=--Cathedral; churches of St. Ouen and St. Maclou, and crypt of St. Gervais (on hill above the Place Cauchoise); the Grosse-Horloge gateway and belfry; Palais de Justice; Tour de Jeanne d’Arc; the spot where Jeanne d’Arc was burnt in the Place du Vieux-Marché; Maison Bourgthéroulde, No. 15 in the Place de la Pucelle, dating from 1486; many old timber-framed houses near cathedral.

=Pont de l’Arche.=--Small town on the Seine; remains of ramparts; fifteenth- and sixteenth-century timber houses; beautiful fifteenth-century church, with coeval glass.

=Louviers.=--Old manufacturing town, with a few picturesque houses near the church and market-place; south aisle and porch of church covered with remarkable profusion of fifteenth-century carving.

=Evreux.=--An old city, famous for its cathedral (see next section).

On the sunlit slopes that went down to the swamps by the Seine, where stands the Rouen of to-day, there were Celtic inhabitants in remote times; and when the advancing sway of Rome brought civilization to the north of France, the light of history illuminates the spot, and reveals the presence of a town called Ratuma, the chief centre of the tribe of the Veliocassians. The Romans modified the name to Rotomagus, and in the second century it is believed to have received the first seeds of Christianity. From South Wales, the home of so much evangelizing enthusiasm, there arrived, about the year 260, a missionary called St. Mellon, who became in time the first Bishop of Rouen. This may, perhaps, sound a far-away piece of information, belonging too much to what is legendary to be of much service as a guide to the antiquities of Rouen; but it is not so, for beneath the Church of St. Gervais, a building in the modern Norman style, there can still be seen, in a crypt of the fourth or fifth century, the tomb in which was laid the body of that early missionary. The crypt was probably built soon after the year 404 by St. Victrice, the sixth to succeed St. Mellon, and the body must, therefore, have been placed there more than a century after his death. It remained there until 1562, when the Huguenots opened the tomb and removed the remains.

=The Cathedral.=--_Building Dates_

_c._ 400 A.D. First church on present site, built by St. Victrice.

638. Archbishop St. Romain, who died in this year, enlarged the church.

_c._ 841. Destroyed by Northmen.

930. By this year a new cathedral had been built, and Rollo was buried in it.

_c._ 1063. The cathedral having been again practically rebuilt, it was consecrated in this year. The only portions standing to-day are the lower part of the Tour St. Romain, and a few traces here and there; the rest of the Norman building was burnt in 1200.

1202-1255. _Early French_ nave, choir, transepts, and central tower built.

1278-1478. Portail aux Libraires and Portail de la Calende built.

1477. _Flamboyant._ Tour St. Romain finished.

1485-1507. _Flamboyant._ Tour de Beurre built.

1508-1527. _Flamboyant._ West portal built.

1827. Iron spire begun.

St. Victrice was the first to put up any church on the site of the present cathedral, and the numerous Bishops who succeeded him rebuilt and enlarged the Early Christian structure until it must have been something far removed from the simple rudeness of the first building. Rouen, however, was destined to frequent disaster. A fire in 556 was followed by a plague, and the city suffered much in the disorder which followed the death of Charles the Great. Therefore, in the year 841, when the Northmen began their raids upon the north of France, they found only a lean city to plunder; and when Rollo became first Duke of Normandy, and was converted to Christianity, he had almost to refound the capital of his new dominion. It is therefore in no way surprising that the crypt of St. Gervais is the sole survival yet discovered of the buildings of the earlier city.

After the paralysis of fear which gripped Christendom at the approach of the year 1000 had passed off, with the unchanged procession of normal days and nights brought in by the new century, there came so great an enthusiasm for church building that the cathedral of Rouen was reconstructed on a larger and finer scale. The new structure was consecrated on October 1, 1063, by Archbishop Maurilius, in the presence of William the Norman.

It is quite possible that this church was of greater magnificence than those of Jumièges or St. Georges de Boscherville, and perhaps even more perfect than St. Étienne at Caen; but whatever theories one may care to form must be built upon the style of the lower portion of the north-west tower--the Tour St. Romain--for in the year 1200 a disastrous fire destroyed the great building, and all that now exists of the Norman church is this portion of a tower and some indications of Romanesque work that can be discovered in a few other places. The havoc a fire can work in a Norman church even at the present time, in spite of modern fire extinguishing appliances, has been very forcibly illustrated by the recent burning of the abbey church of Selby, in Yorkshire, in which the terrific heat burnt halfway through stone piers of enormous thickness.

The reconstruction of the cathedral appears to have been undertaken soon after the disaster, and was commenced at the east end, where one finds that the chapels of the apse and transepts were built first and the choir soon afterwards, for it was finished in the Early French style. Between 1202 and 1220 the nave, choir, transepts, and central tower would appear to have been built, and before St. Louis (IX.) visited the cathedral in 1255, the magnificent church, as it is to be seen to-day, had assumed an appearance of completeness.

The embellishment of the great pile continued right through the centuries that followed, until the influence of the Renaissance shows itself in the central porch of the west front. In the fourteenth century the Lady-chapel was built, and in the fifteenth the Tour de Beurre climbed upwards, while the money provided by the indulgences sold, giving permission to eat butter in Lent, was helping to provide the funds. This tower, therefore, together with the uppermost portion of the Tour St. Romain, the western rose-window, and a good deal of decoration on each of the porches, belong to the Flamboyant period, corresponding to the Perpendicular of English architecture.

At the base of the Tour St. Romain there still stands the lodge of the porter, whose duties from very early times right up to 1700 included the care of the fierce watch-dogs who were at night let loose in the cathedral to guard its many precious treasures from robbers. How much would we give for a glimpse of one of those porters walking through the cavernous gloom of the echoing aisles, with his lamp throwing strange shadows from the great slouching dogs!

The misereres of the choir-stalls were carved between 1457 and 1469, and should be seen for the vivid details they reveal of nearly every trade and employment, as well as the costumes of the period when the Flamboyant style was in vogue.

The tombs in the cathedral bring one into close touch with the Dukes of Normandy and their successors on the throne of England. In the easternmost chapels on either side of the nave are the tombs of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, and his son, William Longsword, who was murdered in 943. The statues were made in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and have been restored. The inscription on Rollo’s tomb says: