Castles and chateaux of old Burgundy and the border provinces

^STLESe^'CHATEA

OF

UC-NRLF

B 3 M31 lOfl

A ^T ^ -THE BORDER PRO Vr

Fri\nr-iq Milfo?js

V

iSMUm

.iiiA^JLim&.lliSfi' ^^*-" '•f^'-' n-' -'■-'^^-''

m

aesJ>UCS aeBOlJROOC

i

jgafcC-;ji>;v>M«a^y4;«>ai iqjwifwrarMr - <i;>j»»^-4

e

I

Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

and the Border Provinces

1

WORKS OF

FRANCIS MILTOUN

;^i»*

Rambles on the Riviera

$2.50

Rambles in Normandy

2.50

Rambles tn Brittany

2.50

The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine

2.50

The Cathedrals of Northern France

2.50

The Cathedrals of Southern France

2.50

In the Land of Mosques and Minarets

3.00

Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine and

the Loire Country

3.00

Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre and

the Basque Provinces

3.00

Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

and the Border Provinces

3.00

Italian Highways and Byways from a

Motor Car

3.00

The Automobilist Abroad net

3.00

(Postage Extra) |

^^^^

L. C. Page and Company

New England Building, Boston, Mass.

Castles ana

uX

OF

OLD BUR

(

AND THE BORDER i

By Franc I

Cha:

RcprwHctd frc

By Blanche McManus

Chaicau. de Mnntbiliaiil

(S8« page 194)

C O M

Y

V 'i

(k" >asq s»2)

Castles and Chateaux

OF

OLD BURGUNDY

AND THE BORDER PROVINCES

By

Francis M i l t o u n

Author of " Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine," " Castles and

Chateaux of Old Navarre," " Rambles in Normandy," " Italian

Highways and Byways from a Motor-Car," etc.

With Many Illustrations
Reproduced from paintings madi on the spot

By Blanche McManus

Boston
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY

1909

Copyright, 1909,
By L. C. Page & Company

(IirCOBPOKATED)

All rights reserved

First Impression, November, 1909

•. / t : -: :

Flectrotvperl nnd Printed hy
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C. n. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A.

iCONTENT^W

11

Tll^Jt

iM

J

Vp -3^ OK -tl— J} — '!

""♦•ii-fy^-

OHAPTER

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

X.

XL

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

The Realm of the Burgundians
In the Valley of the Yonne

AVALLON, VeZELAY, AND ChASTELLUX .

Semur - en - Auxois, Epoisses and Bour

BILLY

MONTBARD AND BuSSY - RaBUTIN .

" Chastillon au Noble Due "

TONNERRE, TaNLAY AND AnCY - LE - FrANC

In Old Burgundy

Dijon the City of the Dukes .

In the Cote d'Or: Beaune, La Rochepot

AND Epinac . . * .
Macon, Cluny and the Charollais .
In the Beaujolais and Lyonnais
The Tranche Comte; Auxonne and Be-

SANrON

On the Swiss Border: Bugey and Bresse
Grenoble and Vizille : the Capital op the

Dauphins

Chambery and the Lac du Bourget .

V

1

19
36

50
62
75

84
101

mi

13

153
170

185
199

218
229

255125

VI

Contents

CHAPTER
XVII.

XVIII.

XIX.
XX.

XXI.
XXII.

In the Shadow of La Grande Chartreuse
Annecy and Lac Leman ....
The Mountain Background of Savoy
By the Banks of the Rhone
In the Alps of Dauphiny ....
In Lower Dauphiny

PAGB

245
259
278
290
300
313

Index 325

^nmr

^1

Chateau de Montbeliard (see page 194)

Geographical Limits covered by Contents

The Heart of Old Burgundy (Map) .

Chateau de Saint Fargeau

Tour Gaillarde, Auxerre

Chateau de Chastellux

Semur - en - Auxois .

Chateau d'Epoisses

Arnay - le - Due

Chateau de Bussy - Rabutin

Chateau des Dues, Chatillon

Chateau de Tanlay

Chateau and Gardens of Ancy - le - Franc

Chateau of Ancy - le - Franc

Monograms from the Chambre des Fleurs

Burgundy through the Ages (Map) .

The Dijonnais and the Beau.iolais (Map)

Key of Vaulting, Dijon ....

Cuisines at Di.ion

Chateau des Dues, Dijon ....

PAGE

Frontispiece

(Map)

X

facing

2

facing

28

facing

32

facing

38

facing

50

facing

54

facing

60

facing

68

facing

76

facing

90

94

facing

96

98

101

facing

112

.

113

119

facing

122

!'

viii List of Illustrations

PAGE

Clos Vougeot. — Chambebtin 137

Hospice de Beaune facing 144

Chateau de La Rochepot .... facing 148

Chateau de Sully facing 150

Chateau de Ch.vumont - la - Guiche . . facing 154

Hotel de Ville, Paray - le - Monail . facing 156

Chateau de Lamartine facing 166

Chateau de Noble 169

Palais Gran^t:lle, Besancon . . . facing 192

The Lion of Belfort 195

Women of Bresse facing 200

Chateau de Voltaire, Ferney . . facing 204

Tower of the Palais de Justice, Grenoble . 219

Chateau d'Uriage facing 224

Chateau de Vizille facing 226

Portal of the Chateau de Chambery . facing 230

Portal St. Dominique, Chambery .... 231

Chateau de Chambery facing 232

Les Charmettes 235

Chateau de Chignin facing 238

Abbey of Hautecombe facing 240

Maison des Dauphins, Tour -de - Pin . facing 246

Chateau Bayard facing 248

La Tour Sans YE^^N 255

Chateau d'Annecy ... . . facing 260

Chateau de Ripaille facing 272

EviAN facing 276

Aix - les - Bains to Albertville (Map) . . . 279

Montmelian 280

Chateau de Miolans facing 284

CoNFLANS facing 286

Seal of the Native Dauphins 290

Tower of Philippe de Valois, Vienne . facing 292

Chateau de Crussol facing 298

Chateau de Briancon .... facing 304

List of niustrations Lt

PAGE

Briancon; Its Chateau and Old Foetified Bridge 305

Chateau Quetras facing 308

Ch-^teac de Beauvoie facing 316

Chateau de la Sone facing 320

Castles and Chateaux
of Old Burgundy

2Uid the Border Provinces

CHAPTER I

THE REALM OF THE BURGUNDIANS

" La plus belle Comte', c'est Flandre:
La plus belle duche', c'est Bourgogne,
Le plus beau royaume, c'est France."

This statement is of undeniable merit, as
some of us, who so love la belle France — even
though we be strangers — well know.

The Burgundy of Charlemagne's time was a
much vaster extent of territory than that of the
period when the province came to play its own
kingly part. From the borders of Neustria to
Lombardia and Provence it extended from the
northwest to the southeast, and from Austrasia
and Alamannia in the northeast to Aquitania
and Septimania in the southwest. In other
words, it embraced practically the entire water-
shed of the Phone and even included the upper
reaches of the Yonne and Seine and a very large

1

2 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

portion of the Loire ; in short, all of the great
central plain lying hetween the Alps and the
Cevennes.

The old Burgnndian province was closely
allied topographically, climatically and by ties
of family, with many of its neighbouring polit-
ical divisions. Almost to the He de France
this extended on the north; to the east, the
Franche Comte was but a dismemberment;
whilst the Nivernais and the Bourbonnais to
the west, through the lands and influence of
their seigneurs, encroached more or less on
Burgundy or vice versa if one chooses to think
of it in that way. To the southeast Dombes,
Bresse and Bugey, all closely allied with one
another, bridged the leagues which separated
Burgundy from Savoy, and, still farther on,
Dauphiny.

The influence of the Burgundian spirit was,
however, over all. The neighbouring states, the
nobility and the people alike, envied and emu-
lated, as far as they were able, the luxurious
life of the Burgundian seigneurs later. If at
one time or another they were actually enemies,
they sooner, in many instances at least, allied
themselves as friends or partisans, and the
manner of life of the Burgundians of the mid-
dle ages became their own.

K^

/l

.1 \

-rt'-

1/ J - I V

' m\j' If "° '

I "I 1

rl

1

The Realm of the Burgundians 3

Not in the royal domain of France itself, not
in luxurious Touraine, was there more love of
splendour and the gorgeous trappings of the
ceremonial of the middle ages than in Bur-
gundy. It has ever been a land of prosperity
and plenty, to which, in these late days, must
be added peace, for there is no region in all
France of to-day where there is more content-
ment and comfort than in the wealthy and opu-
lent Departments of the Cote d'Or and the
Saone and Loire which, since the Revolution,
have been carved out of the very heart of old
Burgundy.

The French themselves are not commonly
thought to be great travellers, but they love
*' le voyage " nevertheless, and they are as
justifiably proud of their antiquities and their
historical monuments as any other race on
earth. That they love their patrie, and all that
pertains to it, with a devotion seemingly inex-
plicable to a people who go in only for
'' spreadeaglism," goes without saying.

" Qu'i7 est doux de courir le mnnde !
Ah ! qu'il est doux de voyager I "

sang the author of the libretto of '* Diamants
de la Couronne,'* and he certainly expressed
the sentiment well.

The Realm of the Burgundians 3

Not iu the royal domain of France itself, not
in luxurious Touraine, was there more love of
splendour and the gorgeous trappings of the
ceremonial of the middle ages than in Bur-
gundy. It has ever been a land of prosperity
and plenty, to which, in these late days, must
be added peace, for there is no region in all
France of to-day where there is more content-
ment and comfort than in the wealthy and opu-
lent Departments of the Cote d'Or and the
Saone and Loire which, since the Revolution,
have been carved out of the very heart of old
Burgundy.

The French themselves are not commonly
thought to be great travellers, but they love
*' le voyage " nevertheless, and they are as
justifiably proud of their antiquities and their
historical monmnents as any other race on
earth. That they love their patrie, and all that
pertains to it, with a devotion seemingly inex-
plicable to a people who go in only for
*' spreadeaglism," goes without saying.

" Qu'il est (loux de courir le mnnde !
Ah ! qu^il est doux de voyager ! "

sang the author of the libretto of " Diamants
de la Couronne," and he certainly expressed
the sentiment well.

4 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

The Parisians themselves know and love Bur-
gundy perhaps more than any other of the old
mediaeval provinces; that is, they seemingly
love it for itself; such minor contempt as they
have for a Provengal, a Xorman or a Breton
does not exist with regard to a Bourguignon.

Said Michelet: " Burgundy is a country
where all are possessed of a pompous and
solemn eloquence." This is a tribute to its
men. And he continued: "It is a country of
good livers and joyous seasons" — and this
is an encomium of its bounty.

The men of the modern world who own to
Burgundy as their pafrie are almost too numer-
ous to catalogue, but all will recall the names of
Buffon, Guyton de Morveau, Monge and Car-
not, Rude, Eameau, Sambin, Greuze and Pru-
d 'hon.

In the arts, too, Burgundy has played its own
special part, and if the chateau-builder did not
here run riot as luxuriously as in Touraine, he
at least builded well and left innumerable ex-
amples behind which will please the lover of
historic shrines no less than the more florid
Eenaissance of the Loire.

In the eighteenth century, the heart of Bur-
gundy was traversed by the celebrated '' caches
d'eau *' which, as a means of transportation for

The Realm of the Burgundians 5

travellers, was considerably more of an ap-
proach to the ideal than the railway of to-day.
These "caches d'eau" covered the distance
from Chalon to Lyon via the Saone. One reads
in the '' Almanach de Lyon et des Provinces
de Lyonnois, Forez et Beaujolais, pour I'annee
bissextile 17G0," that two of these " coches "
each week left Lyon, on Mondays and Thurs-
days, making the journey to Chalon without
interruption via Trevoux, Macon and Tournus.
From Lyon to Chalon took the better part of
two and a half days' time, but the descent was
accomplished in less than two days. From
Chalon, by '* guimharde," it was an affair of
eight days to Paris via Arnay-le-Duc, Saulieu,
Vermanton, Auxerre, Joigny and Sens. By
diligence all the way, the journey from the cap-
ital to Lyon was made in five days in summer
and six in winter. Says Mercier in his " Ta-
bleau de Paris " : '' Wlien Sunday came on, the
journey mass was said at three o'clock in the
morning at some tavern en route."

The ways and means of travel in Burgundy
have considerably changed in the last two hun-
dred years, but the old-time flavour of the road
still hangs over all, and the traveller down
through Burgundy to-day, especially if he goes
by road, may experience not a little of the

6 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

charm which has all but disappeared from
modern France and its interminably straight,
level, tree-lined highways. Often enough one
may stop at some old posting inn famous in his-
tory and, as he wheels his way along, will see
the same historic monuments, magnificent
churches and chateaux as did that prolific letter
writer, Madame de Sevigne.

Apropos of these mediasval and Kenaissance
chateaux scattered up and down France, the
Sieur Colin, in 1654, produced a work entitled
** Le Fidele Conducteur pour les Voyages en
France " in which he said that every hillside
throughout the kingdom was dotted with a
*' belle maison " or a '' palais." He, too, like
some of us of a later day, believed France the
land of chateaux par excellence.

Evelyn, the diarist (1641-1647), thought
much the same thing and so recorded his opin-
ion.

The Duchesse de Longueville, (1646-1647), on
her journey from Paris called the first chateau
passed on the way a " palais des fees," which
it doubtless was in aspect, and Mile, de Mont-
pensier, in a lodging with which she was forced
to put up at Saint Fargeau, named it " plus
beau d'lin cJiateati," — a true enough estimate
of many a 7naison bourgeois of the time. At

The Realm of the Burgundians 7

Pouges-les-Eaux, in the Xivernais, just on the
borders of Burgundy, whilst she was still trav-
elling south. Mile, de Montpensier put up at
the chateau of a family friend and partook
of an excellent dinner. This really speaks
much for the appointments of the house in
which she stopped, though one is forced to
imagine the other attributes. She seemingly
had arrived late, for she wrote: '^ I was indeed
greatly surprised and pleased with my wel-
come; one could hardly have expected such
attentions at so unseemly an hour."

La Fontaine was a most conscientious travel-
ler and said some grand things of the Eenais-
sance chateaux-builders of which literary his-
tory has neglected to make mention.

Lippomano, the Venetian Ambassador of the
sixteenth century, professed to have met with
a population uncivil and wanting in probity, but
he exalted, nevertheless, to the highest the
admirable chateaux of princes and seigneurs
which he saw on the way through Burgundy.
Zinzerling, a young German traveller, in the
year 1616, remarked much the same thing, but
regretted that a certain class of sight-seers was
even then wont to scribble names in public
places. "VTe of to-day who love old monuments
have, then, no more reason to complain than

8 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

had this observant traveller of three hundred
years ago.

Madame Laroche was an indefatigable trav-
eller of a later day (1787), and her comments
on the " belles maisons de campagne " in these
parts (she was not a guest in royal chateaux,
it seems) throw many interesting side lights
on the people, the manners and the customs of
her time.

Bertin in his " Voyage de Bourgogne " re-
counts a noble welcome which he received at the
chateau of a Burgundian seigneur — ' ' Salvos
of musketry, with the seigneur and the ladies of
his household awaiting on the perron.'''' This
would have made an ideal stage grouping.

Arthur Young, the English agriculturist,
travelling in France just previous to the Revo-
lution, had all manner of comment for the
French dwelling of whatever rank, but his ob-
servations in general were more with reference
to the chaumieres of peasants than with the
chateaux of seigneurs.

Time was when France was more thickly
bestrewn with great monasteries and abbeys
than now. They were in many ways the rivals
of the palatial country houses of the seigneurs,
and their princely abbes and priors and prel-
ates frequently wielded a local power no

The Realm of the Burgundians 9

less militant than that of their secular neigh-
bours.

Great churches, abbeys, monasteries, for-
tresses, chateaux, donjons and barbican gates
are hardly less frequently seen in France to-
day than they were of old, although in many
instances a ruin only exists to tell the tale of
former splendour.

This is as true of Burgundy as it is of other
parts of France; indeed, it is, perhaps, a more
apt reference here than it would be with regard
to Normandy or Picardy, where many a mediae-
val civic or religious shrine has been made into
a warehouse or a beet-sugar factory. The
closest comparison of this nature that one can
make with respect to these parts is that some
Cistercian monastery has become a " wine-
chateau " like the Clos Vougeot or Beaune's
Hospice or Hotel Dieu, which, in truth, at cer-
tain periods, is nothing more nor less than a
great wholesale wine-shop.

Mediaeval French towns, as well in Burgundy
as elsewhere, were invariably built up on one
of three plans. The first was an outgrowth of
the remains and debris of a more ancient Gaul-
ish or Eoman civilization, and purely civic and
secular. The second class of community came
as a natural ally of some great abbey, sei-

10 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

gneurial chateau, really a fortress or an episco-
pal foundation which demanded freedom from
molestation as its undeniable right. It was in
such latter places that the bishops and abbes
held forth with a magnificence and splendour
of surroundings scarcely less imposing than
that of royalty itself, though their domains
were naturally more restricted in area and the
powers that the prelates wielded were often no
less powerful than their militant neighbours.
The third class of media?val settlements were
the villes-neuves, or the villes-f ranches, a class
of communities usually exempt from the exac-
tions of seigneurs and churchmen alike, a class
of towns readily recognized by their nomen-
clature.

By the sixteenth century the soil of France
was covered with a myriad of residential cha-
teaux which were the admiration and en\y of
the lords of all nations. There had sprung up
beside the old feudal fortresses a splendid gal-
axy of luxurious dwellings having more the air
of domesticity than of warfare, which was the
chief characteristics of their predecessors. It
was then that the word chateau came to sup-
plant that of chastel in the old-time chronicles.

Richelieu and the Fronde destroyed many a
mediasval fane whose ruins were afterwards re-

The Realm of the Burgundians 11

built by some later seigneur into a Renaissance
palace of great splendour. The Italian builder
lent his aid and his imported profusion of de-
tail until there grew up all over France a dis-
tinct variety of dwelling which quite outdis-
tanced anything that had gone before. This
was true in respect to its general plan as well
as with regard to the luxury of its decorative
embellishments. Fortresses were razed or re-
modelled, and the chateau — the French cha-
teau as we know it to-day, distinct from the
chastel — then first came into being.

Any review of the castle, chateau and palace
architecture of France, and of the historic inci-
dent and the personages connected therewith,
is bound to divide itself into a geographical or
climatic category. To begin with the manner
of building of the southland was only trans-
planted in northern soil experimentally, and it
did not always take root so vigorously that it
was able to live.

The Renaissance glories of Touraine and the
valley of the Loire, though the outcome of vari-
ous Italian pilgrimages, were of a more florid
and whimsical fashioning than anything in Italy
itself, either at the period of their inception or
even later, and so they are to be considered as
something distinctly French, — indeed, it was

12 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

their very influence which was to radiate all
over the chateau-building world of the four-
teenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

By contrast, the square and round donjon
towers of the fortress-chateaux — like Arques,
Falais and Coucy — were more or less
an indigenous growth taking their plan from
nothing alien. Midi and the centre of France,
Provence, the Pyrenees and the valleys of the
Rhone and Saone, gave birth, or development,
to still another variety of mediaeval architecture
both military and domestic, whilst the Ehine
provinces developed the species along still other
constructional lines.

There was, to be sure, a certain reminiscence,
or repetition of common details among all ex-
tensive works of mediaeval building, but they
existed only by s.ufferance and were seldom in-
corporated as constructive elements beyond the
fact that towers were square or round, and that
the most elaborately planned chateaux were
built around an inner courtyard, or were sur-
rounded by a fosse, or moat.

In Burgundy and the Bourbonnais, and to
some extent in the Nivernais, there grew up a
distinct method of castle-building which was
only allied with the many other varieties scat-
tered over France in the sense that the fabrics

The Realm of the Burgundians 13

were intended to serve the same purposes as
their contemporaries elsewhere. The solid
square shafts flanking a barbican gate, — the
same general effect observable of all fortified
towns, — the profuse use of heavy Renaissance
sculpture in town houses, the interpolated
Flemish-Gothic (seen so admirably at Beaune
and Dijon), and above all, the Burgundian
school of sculptured figures and figurines were
details which flowered hereabouts as they did
nowhere else.

So far as the actual numbers of the edifices
go it is evident that throughout Burgundy ec-
clesiastical architecture developed at the ex-
pense of the more luxuriously endowed ci\^c
and domestic varieties of Touraine, which, we
can not deny, must ever be considered the real
*' chateaux country." In Touraine the splen-
dour of ecclesiastical building took a second
place to that of the domestic dwelling, or coun-
try or town house.

For the most part, the Romanesque domestic
edifice has disappeared throughout Burgundy.
Only at Cluny are there any very considerable
remains of the domestic architecture of the
Romans, and even here there is nothing veiy
substantial, no tangible reminder of the palace
of emperor or consul, only some fragments of

16 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Khone or the Saone. The Ehine castle of our
imaginations may well stand for one type ; the
other is best represented by the great paral-
lelogram of Aigues-Mortes, or better yet by
the walls and towers of the Cite at Carcas-
sonne.

Feudal chateaux up to the thirteenth century
were almost always constructed upon an emi-
nence; it was only with the beginning of this
epoch that the seigneurs dared to build a coun-
try house without the protection of natural bul-
warks.

The two types are represented in this book,
those of the plain and those of the mountain,
though it is to be remembered that it is the
specific castle-like edifice, and not the purely
residential chateau that often exists in the
mountainous regions to the exclusion of the
other variety. After that comes the ornate
country house, in many cases lacking utterly the
defences which were the invariable attribute of
the castle. Miolans and Montmelian in Savoy
stand for examples of the first mentioned class ;
Chastellux, Ancy-le-Franc and Tanlay in Bur-
gundy for the second.

Examples of the hotels privees, the town
houses of the seigneurs who for the most part
spent their time in their maisons de campagne-

The Realm of the Burgundians 17

of the large towns and provincial cities are not
to be neglected, nor have they been by the au-
thor and artist who have made this book. As
examples may be cited the Maison des Dau-
phins at Tour-de-Pin, that elaborate edifice at
Paray-le-Monail, various examples at Dijon
and the svelt, though unpretending, Palais
des Granvelle at Besangon in the Franche
Comte.

To sum up the chateau architecture, and, to
be comprehensive, all mediaeval and Renaissance
architecture in France, we may say that it
stands as something distinctly national, some-
thing that has absorbed much of the best of
other lands but which has been fused with the
ingenious daring of the Gaul into a style which
later went abroad to all nations of the globe as
something distinctly French. It matters little
whether proof of this be sought in Touraine,
Burgundy or Poitou, for while each may pos-
sess their eccentricities of style, and excellen-
cies as varied as their climates, all are to-day
distinctly French, and must be so considered
from their inception.

Among these master works which go to give
glory and renown to French architecture are
not only the formidable castles and luxurious
chateaux of kings and princes but also the

18 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy-
great civic palaces and military works of con-
temporary epochs, for these, in many instances,
combined the functions of a royal dwelling with
their other condition.

CHAPTER II

IN THE VALLEY OF THE YONNE

There is no more charming river valley in
all France tlian tliat of tlie Yonne, which wan-
ders from mid- Burgundy down to join the Seine
just above Fontainebleau and the artists'
haunts of Moret and Montigny.

The present day Departement of the Yonne
was carved out of a part of the old Senonais
and Auxerrois; the latter, a Burgnndian fief,
and the former, a tiny countship under the
suzerainty of the Counts of Champagne. Man-
ners and customs, and art and architecture,
however, throughout the department favour
Burgundy in the south rather than the northern
influences which radiated from the lie de
France. This is true not only with respect to
ecclesiastical, civic and military architecture,
but doubly so with the domestic varieties rang-
ing from the humble cottage to the more
ambitious manoirs and gentilshommeries , and
finally, to the still more magnificent seigneurial
chateaux. Within the confines of this area are
some of the most splendid examples extant of

19

20 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Burgundian domestic architecture of the Re-
naissance period.

The Yonne is sing-ularly replete Tvith feudal
memories and monuments as well. One re-
marks this on all sides, whether one enters di-
rect from Paris or from the east or west. From
the Morvan and the Gatinais down through the
Auxerrois, the Tonnerrois and the fipoisses is
a definite sequence of architectural monuments
which in a very remarkable way suggest that
they were the outgrowth of a distinctly Bur-
gundian manner of building, something quite
different from anything to be seen elsewhere.

In the ninth century, when the feudality first
began to recognize its full administrative pow-
ers, the local counts of the valley of the Tonne
were deputies merely who put into motion the
machinery designed by the nobler powers, the
royal vassals of the powerful fiefs of Auxerre,
Sens, Tonnerre and Avallon. The actual lease
of life of these greater powers varied consid-
erably according to the individual fortunes of
their seigneurs, but those of Joigny and Ton-
nerre endured until 1789, and the latter is in-
corporated into a present day title which even
red republicanism has not succeeded in wiping
out.

The real gateway to the Yonne valley is prop-

In the Valley of the Yonne 21

erly enough Sens, but Sens itself is Uttle or
nothing Burgundian with respect to its archi-
tectural glories in general. Its Salle Synodale
is the one example which is distinct from the
northern born note which shows so plainly in
the tower and facade of its great cathedral;
mostly Sens is reminiscent of the sway and
tastes of the royal Bourbons.

A few leagues south of Sens the aspect of all
things changes precipitately. At Villeneuve-
sur- Yonne one takes a gigantic step backward
into the shadow^' past. "Whether or no he ar-
rives by the screeching railway or the scorch-
ing automobile of the twentieth century, from
the moment he passes the feudal-built gateway
which spans the main street — actually the
great national highway which links Paris
with the Swiss and Italian frontiers — and
gazes up at its battlemented crest, he is trans-
ported into the realms of romance. Travellers
there are, perhaps, who might prefer to arrive
on foot, but there are not many such passionate
pilgrims who would care to do this thing to-
day. They had much better, however, adopt
even this mode of travel should no other be
available, for at Villeneuve there are many aids
in conjuring up the genuine old-time spirit of
things.

22 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

At the opposite end of this long main street
is yet another great barbican gate, the twin of
that at the northerly end. Together they form
the sole remaining vestiges of the rampart
which enclosed the old Villeneuve-le-Eoi, the
title borne by the town of old. Yet despite such
notable landmarks, there are literally thousands
of stranger tourists who rush by Villeneuve by
road and rail in a season and give never so
much as a thought or a glance of the eye
to its wonderful scenic and romantic splen-
dours !

Before 1163 Villeneuve was known as Villa-
Longa, after its original Eoman nomenclature,
but a newer and grander city grew up on the
old emplacement with fortification walls and
towers and gates, built at the orders of
Louis VII. It was then that it came to be
known as the king's own city and was called
Villeneuve-le-Roi. By a special charter granted
at this time Villeneuve, like Lorris on the banks
of the Loire, was given unusual privileges
which made it exempt from Crown taxes, and
allowed the inhabitants to hunt and fish freely
— feudal favours which were none too readily
granted in those days. Louis himself gave the
new city the name of Villa-Francia-Regia, but
the name was soon corrupted to Villeneuve-le-

In the Valley of the Yonne 23

Eoi. For many years the city served as the
chief Burgundian outpost in the north.

The great tower, or citadel, a part of the
royal chateau where the king lodged on his
brief visits to his pet cit}', was intended at once
to ser\'e as a fortress and a s\Tnbol of dignity,
and it played the double i^art admirably. At-
tached to this tower on the north was the Royal
Chateau de Salles, a favourite abode of the
royalties of the thirteenth century. Little or
nothing of this dwelling remains to-day save
the walls of the chapel, and here and there an
expanse of wall built up into some more humble
edifice, but still recognizable as once having
possessed a greater dignity. There are various
fragmentary foundation walls of old towers and
other dependencies of the chateau, and the old
ramparts cropping out here and there, but there
is no definitely formed building of a sufficiently
commanding presence to warrant rank as a his-
torical monument of the quality required by the
governmental authorities in order to have its-
patronage and protection.

Philippe-Auguste, in 1204, assembled here a
parliament where the celebrated ordonnance
** Stabilementum Feudorum " was framed.
This alone is enough to make Villeneuve stand
out large in the annals of feudalism, if indeed

22 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

At the opposite end of this long main street
is yet another great barbican gate, the twin of
that at the northerly end. Together they form
the sole remaining vestiges of the rampart
which enclosed the old Villeneuve-le-Eoi, the
title borne by the town of old. Yet despite such
notable landmarks, there are literally thousands
of stranger tourists who rush by Villeneuve by
road and rail in a season and give never so
much as a thought or a glance of the eye
to its wonderful scenic and romantic splen-
dours !

Before 1163 Villeneuve was known as Villa-
Longa, after its original Roman nomenclature,
but a newer and grander city grew up on the
old emplacement with fortification walls and
towers and gates, built at the orders of
Louis VII. It was then that it came to be
known as the king's own city and was called
Villeneuve-le-Eoi. By a special charter granted
at this time Villeneuve, like Lorris on the banks
of the Loire, was given unusual privileges
which made it exempt from Crown taxes, and
allowed the inhabitants to hunt and fish freely
— feudal favours which were none too readily
granted in those days. Louis himself gave the
new city the name of Villa-Francia-Regia, but
the name was soon corrupted to Villeneuve-le-

In the Valley of the Yonne 23

Koi. For many years the city served as the
chief Burgundian outpost in the north.

The great tower, or citadel, a part of the
royal chateau where the king lodged on his
brief visits to his pet city, was intended at once
to serve as a fortress and a s\Tnbol of dignity,
and it played the double part admirably. At-
tached to this tower on the north was the Royal
Chateau de Salles, a favourite abode of the
royalties of the thirteenth century. Little or
nothing of this dwelling remains to-day save
the walls of the chapel, and here and there an
expanse of wall built up into some more humble
edifice, but still recognizable as once having
possessed a greater digTiity. There are various
fragmentary foundation walls of old towers and
other dependencies of the chateau, and the old
ramparts cropping out here and there, but there
is no definitely formed building of a sufficiently
commanding presence to warrant rank as a his-
torical monument of the quality required by the
governmental authorities in order to have its-
patronage and protection.

Philippe-Auguste, in 1204, assembled here a
parliament where the celebrated ordonnance
** Stabilementum Feudorum " was framed.
This alone is enough to make Villeneuve stand
out large in the annals of feudalism, if indeed

24 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy-
no monuments whatever existed to bring it to
mind. It was the code by which the entire
machinery of French feudalism was put into
motion and kept in running order, and for this
reason the Chateau de Salles, where the king
was in residence when he gave his hand and seal
to the document, should occupy a higher place
than it usually does. The Chateau de Salles
was called " royal " in distinction to the usual
seigneurial chateau which was merely ' ' noble. ' '
It was not so much a permanent residence of
the French monarchs as a sort of a rest-house
on the way down to their Burgundian posses-
sion after they had become masters of the
duchy. The donjon tower that one sees to-day
is the chief, indeed the only definitely defined,
fragment of this once royal chateau which still
exists, but it is sufficiently impressive and grand
in its proportions to suggest the magnitude of
the entire fabric as it must once have been, and
for that reason is all-sufficient in its appeal to
the romantic and historic sense.

Situated as it was on the main highway be-
tween Paris and Dijon, Villeneuve occupied a
most important strategic position. It spanned
this old Eoute Royale with its two city gates,
and its ramparts stretched out on either side in
a determinate fashion which allowed no one to

In the Valley of the Yonne 25

enter or pass through it that might not be wel-
come. These graceful towered gateways which
exist even to-day were the models from which
many more of their kind were built in other
parts of the royal domain, as at Magny-en-
Vexin, at Moret-sur-Loiug, and at Macon.

A dozen kilometres from Villeneuve-sur-
Yonne is Joigny, almost entirely surrounded by
a beautiful wildwood, the Foret National de
Joigny. Joigny was one of the last of the local
fiefs to give up its ancient rights and privileges.
The fief took rank as a Vicomte. Jeanne de
Valois founded a hospice here — the predeces-
sor of the present Hotel Dieu — and the Cardi-
nal de Gondi of unworthy fame built the local
chateau in the early seventeenth century.

The Chateau de Joigny, as became its digni-
fied state, was nobly endowed, having been
built to the Cardinal's orders by the Italian
Serlio in 1550-1613. To-day the structure
serves the functions of a schoolhouse and is
little to be remarked save that one hunts it out
knowing its history.

There is this much to say for the schoolhouse-
chateau at Joigny ; it partakes of the construct-
ive and decorative elements of the genuine local
manner of building regardless of its Italian
origin, and here, as at Villeneuve, there is a dis-

26 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

tinct element of novelty in all domestic archi-
tecture which is quite different from the varie-
ties to be remarked a little further north.
There, the town houses are manifestly town
houses, but at Joigny, as often as not, when they
advance beyond the rank of the most hmnble,
they partake somewhat of the attributes of a
castle and somewhat of those of a palace. This
is probably because the conditions of life have
become easier, or because, in general, wealth,
even in medireval times, was more evenly dis-
tributed. Certainly the noblesse here, as we
know, was more numerous than in many other
sections.

Any one of a score of Joigny's old Renais-
sance houses, which line its main street and the
immediate neighbourhood of its market-place,
is suggestive of the opulent life of the sei-
gneurs of old to almost as great a degree as the
Gondi chateau which has now become the £Jcole-
Coimnunal.

Of all Joigny's architectural beauties of the
past none takes so high a rank as its magnificent
Gothic church of Saint Jean, whose vaultings
are of the most remarkable known. Since the
ruling seigneur at the time the church was re-
built was a churclmaan, this is perhaps readily
enough accounted for. It demonstrates, too.

In the Valley of the Yonne 27

the intimacy with which the affairs of church
and state were bound together in those days.
A luxurious local chateau of the purely resi-
dential order, not a fortress, demanded a
worthy neighbouring church, and the seigneur,
whether or not he himself was a churchman,
often worked hand in hand with the local prel-
ate to see that the same was supplied and em-
bellished in a worthy manner. This is evident
to the close observer wherever he may rest on
his travels throughout the old French prov-
inces, and here at Joigny it is notably to be re-
marked.

Saint Fargeau, in the Commune of Joigny, is
unknown by name and situation to the majority,
but for a chateau-town it may well be classed
with many better, or at least more popularly,
known. On the principal place, or square, rises
a warm-coloured winsome fabric which is the
very quintessence of medifcvalism. It is a more
or less battered relic of the tenth century, and
is built in a rosy brick, a most unusual method
of construction for its time.

The history of the Chateau de Saint Fargeau
has been most momentous, its former dwellers
therein taking rank with the most noble and
influential of the old regime. Jacques Coeur,
the celebrated silversmith of Bourges and the

28 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

intimate of Charles VII, Mademoiselle de Mont-
pensier, and the leader of the Convention —
Lepelletier de Saint Fargeau — all lived for a
time within its walls, to mention only three who
have made romantic history, though widely dis-
similar were their stations.

An ornate park with various decorative de-
pendencies surrounds the old chateau on three
sides and the ensemble is as undeniably theatri-
cal as one could hope to find in the real. In
general the aspect is grandiose and it can read-
ily enough be counted as one of the *' show-
chateaux " of France, and would be were it
better known.

Mile, de Montpensier — * ' la Grande Made-
moiselle " — was chatelaine of Saint Fargeau
in the mid-seventeenth century. Her comings
and goings, to and from Paris, were ever writ-
ten down at length in court chronicles and many
were the ''incidents " — to give them a mild
definition — which happened here in the valley
of the Yonne which made good reading. On
one occasion when Mademoiselle quitted Paris
for Saint Fargeau she came in a modest ^' ca-
rosse sa7is amies." It was for a fact a sort
of sub-rosa sortie, but the historian was discreet
on this occasion. Travel in the old days had
not a little of romanticism about it, but for a

'3

tt

^

u

In the Valley of the Yonne 29

lady of quality to travel thus was, at the time,
a thing unheard of. This princess of blood
royal thus, for once in her life, travelled like a
plebeian.

Closely bound up with the Sennonais were the
fiefs of Auxerre and Tonnerre, whose capitals
are to-day of that class of important provincial
cities of the third rank which play so great a
part in the economic affairs of modern France.
But their present commercial status should by
no means discount their historic pasts, nor their
charm for the lover of old monuments, since
evidences remain at every street corner to re-
mind one that their origin was in the days when
knights were bold. The railway has since come,
followed by electric lights and automobiles, all
of which are once and again found in curious
juxtaposition with a bit of mediaeval or Renais-
sance architecture, in a manner that is surpris-
ing if not shocking. Regardless of the apparent
modernity roundabout, however, there is still
enough of the glamour of mediasvalism left to
subdue the garishness of twentieth century in-
novations. All this makes the charm of French
travel, — this unlocked for combination of the
new and the old that one so often meets. One
can not find just this same sort of thing at
Paris, nor on the Ri^dera, nor an>nvhere, in

30 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

fact, except in these minor capitals of the old
French provinces.

The Comte d'Auxerre was created in 1094 by
the Eoi Eobert, vrho, after the reunion of the
Burgnndian kingdom with the French monar-
chy, gave it to Eenaud, Comte de Xevers, as the
dot of one, Adelais, who may have been his
sister, or his cousin — history is not precise.
The house of Xevers possessed the countship
until 1182, when it came to Archambaud, the
ninth of the name, Sire de Bourbon. One of
his heirs married a son of the Due de Bour-
gogne and to him brought the county of Aux-
erre, which thus became Burgundian in fact.
Later it took on a separate entity again, or
rather, it allied itself with the Comtes de Ton-
nerre at a price paid in and out of hand, it must
not be neglected to state, of 144,400 I'lvres Toiir-
nois. The crown of France, through the Comtes
d'Auxerre, came next into possession, but
Charles VII, under the treaty of Arras, ceded
the countship in turn to Philippe-le-Bon, Due de
Bourgogne. Definite alliance with the royal
domain came under Louis XI, thus the prov-
ince remained until the Revolution.

TVith such a history small wonder it is that
Auxerre has preserved more than fleeting mem-
ories of its past. Of great civic and domestic

In the Valley of the Yonne 31

establishments of medirevalism, Auxerre is
poverty-stricken nevertheless. The Episcopal
Palace, now the Prefecture, is the most impo-
sing edifice of its class, and is indeed a worthy
thing from every view-point. It has a covered
loggia, or gallery running along its fagade, ma-
king one think that it was built by, or for, an
Italian, which is not improbable, since it was
conceived under the ministership of Cardinal
Mazarin who would, could he have had his way,
have made all things French take on an Italian
hue. From this loggia there is a wide-spread,
distant view of the broad valley of the Yonne
which here has widened out to considerable pro-
portions. The history of this Prefectural pal-
ace of to-day, save as it now serves its pur-
pose as a governmental administrative build-
ing, is wholly allied with that of Auxerre 's mag-
nificent cathedral and its battery of sister
churches.

Within the edifice, filled with clerks and offi-
cials in every cranny, all busy writing out docu-
ments by hand and clogging the wheels of prog-
ress as much as inefficiency can, are still found
certain of its ancient furnishings and fittings.
The great Salle des Audiences is still intact and
is a fine example of thirteenth century wood-
work. The wainscotting of its walls and ceiling

32 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

is remarkably worked vdih. a finesse of detail
that would be hard to duplicate to-day except
at the expense of a lord of finance or a king of
petrol. Xot even government contractors, no
matter what price they are paid, could presume
to supply anything half so fine.

It was at Auxerre that the art and craft of
building noble edifices developed so highly
among churchmen. The builders of the twelfth
century were not only often monks but church-
men of rank as well. They occupied themselves
not only with ecclesiastical architecture, but
with painting and sculpture. One of the first
of these clerical master-builders was Geoffroy,
Bishop of Auxerre, and three of his prebend-
aries were classed respectively as painters,
glass-setters and metal-workers.

The towering structure on the Place du
Marche is to-day Auxerre 's nearest approach to
a chateau of the romantic age, and this is only
a mere tower to-day, a fragment left behind of
a more extensive residential and fortified cha-
teau which served its double purpose well in its
time. It is something more than a mere belfry,
or clock tower, however. It is called the Tour
Gaillarde, and flanked at one time the principal
breach in the rampart wall which surrounded
the city. It is one of the finest^specimens of its

Tour Giiilldrdc, Anxcrrc

In the Valley of the Yonne 33

class extant, and is more than the rival of the
great Tour de I'Horloge at Rouen or the pair
of towers over which conventional tourists rave,
as they do over the bears in the bear-pit, at
Berne in Switzerland.

The entire edifice, the tower and that portion
which has disappeared, formed originally the
residence of the governor of the place, the per-
sonal representative of the counts who them-
selves, in default of a special residence in their
capital, were forced to lodge therein on their
seemingly brief visits. The names of the counts
of Tonnerre and Auxerre appear frequently in
the historical chronicles of their time, but refer-
ences to their doings lead one to think that they
chiefly idled their time away at Paris. That
this great tower made a part of some sort of
a fortified dwelling there is no doubt, but that
it was ever a part of a seigneurial chateau is
not so certain.

With respect to the part Auxerre played in
the military science of the middle ages it is in-
teresting to recall that the drum, or tambour,
is claimed as of local origin, or at least that
it was here first known in France, in the four-
teenth century. Xo precise date is given and
one is inclined to think that its use with the
army of Edward III at Calais on the 3rd

34 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

August, 1347, was really its first appearance
across the Channel after all.

Above Auxerre the Yonne divides, or rather
takes to itself the Armangon and the Seruin to
swell its bulk as it flows down through the
Auxerrois. Above lies the Avallonnais, where
another race of seigneurs contribute an alto-
gether different series of episodes from that of
their neighbours. It remains a patent fact,
however, that the cities and towns of the valley
of the Yonne give one ample proof of the close
alliance in manners and customs of all mid-
France of mediaeval times.

The inhabitants of this region are not a race
apart, but are traditionally a blend of the
'' natural " Champenois and the '' frank and
loyal ' ' Burgundian, — ' ' strictly keeping to
their promises, and with a notable probity in
business affairs," says a proud local histo-
rian. Here in this delightful river valley were
bred and nourished the celebrated painter,
Jean-Cousin; the illustrious Vauban, the
builder of fortresses; the enigmatical Cheva-
liere d'Eon; the artist Soufflot, architect of the
Pantheon; Eegnault de Saint- Jean d'Angely,
Minister of Napoleon; Bourrienne, his secre-
tary and afterwards Minister of State under
the Bourbons.

In the Valley of the Yonne 35

Following the Yonne still upwards towards
its source one comes ultimately to Clamecy.
Between Auxerre and Clamecy the riverside is
strewn thickly with the remains of many an
ancient feudal fortress or later chateaux. At
Mailly-le-Chateau are the very scanty frag-
ments of a former edifice built by the Comtes
d 'Auxerre in the fifteenth century, and at
Chatel-Censoir is another of the same class.
At Coulanges-sur-Yonne is the debris, a tower
merely, of what must one day have been a really
splendid edifice, though even locally one can get
no specific information concerning its history.

From Clamecy the highroad crosses the
Bazois to Chateau Chinon in the Xivernais.
The name leads one to imagine much, but of
chateaux it has none, though its nomenclature
was derived from the emplacement of an an-
cient oppidum gaiilois, a castrum gallo-romain
and later a feudal chateau.

The road on to Burgundy lies to the south-
west via the Avallonnais, or, leaving the water-
shed of the Yonne for that of the upper Seine,
via Tonnerre and Chatillon-sur-Seine lying to
the eastward of Auxerre.

CHAPTEE ni

AVALLON, VEZELAY AND CHASTELLUX

AvALLON owes its origin to the construction
of a chateau- fort. It was built by Robert-le-
Pieux, the son of Hugues Capet, in the tenth
century. Little by little the fortress has crum-
bled and very nearly disappeared. All that re-
mains are the foundation walls on what is lo-
cally called the Rocher d'Avallon, virtually the
pedestal upon which sits the present city.

Avallon, like neighbouring Semur and Veze-
lay, sits snugly and proudly behind its rampart
of nature's ravines and gorges, a series of mili-
tary defences ready-made which on more than
one occasion in mediaeval times served their
purpose well.

It was in the old Chateau d'Avallon that
Jacques d'Epailly, called '^ Forte Epice," was
giving a great ball when Philippe-le-Bon be-
seiged the city. Jacques treated the inhabitants
with the utmost disrespect, even the ladies, and
secretly quitted the ball just before the city

36

Avallon, Vezelay and Chastellux 37

troops surrendered. History says that the
weak-hearted gallant sold out to the enemy and
saved himself by the back door, and in spite
of no docmnentary evidence to this effect the
long arm of coincidence points to the dastardly
act in an almost unmistakable manner.

Near Avallon are still to be seen extensive
Roman remains. A Roman camp, the Camp
des Alleux, celebrated in Gaulish and Roman
history, was here, and the old Roman road
between Lyons and Boulogne in Belgica Secun-
dus passed near by.

It is not so much with reference to Avallon
itself, quaint and picturesque as the city is, that
one's interest lies hereabouts. More particu-
larly it is in the neighbouring chateaux of Chas-
tellux and Montreal.

The Seigneur de Chastellux was one of the
most powerful vassals of the Due de Bourgogne.
By hereditary custom the eldest of each new
generation presented himself before the Bishop
of Auxerre clad in a surplice covering his mili-
tary accoutrements, and wearing a falcon at
his wrist. In this garb he swore to support
Church and State, and for this devotion was
vested in the title of Chanoin d 'Auxerre, a title
which supposedly served him in good stead in
case of military disaster. It was thus that the

38 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Marechal de Chastellux, a famous warrior, was,
as late as 1792, also a canon of the cathedral at
Auxerre. It was, too, in this grotesque costume
that the Chanoin-Comte d 'Chastellux welcomed
Louis XIV on a certain visit to Auxerre. At
Auxerre, in the cathedral, one sees a monument
commemorative of the Sires de Chastellux.
It was erected by Cesar de Chastellux under the
Restoration, to replace the tomb torn down by
the Chapter in the fifteenth century. This dese-
cration, by churchmen themselves, one must re-
member, took place in spite of the fact that a
Chastellux was even then a dignitary of the
church.

Chastellux, beyond its magnificent chateau, is
an indefinable, unconvincing little bourg, but
from the very moment one sets foot within its
quaintly named Hotel de Marechal de Chastel-
lux he, or she, is permeated with the very spirit
of romance and mediaevalism. The bridge
which crosses the Cure in the middle of the vil-
lage owns to the ripe old age of three hundred
and fifty years, and is still rendering efficient
service. This is something mature for a bridge,
even in France, where many are doing their
daily work as they have for centuries. Will the
modern '' suspension " affairs do as well?
That's what nobody knows! The hotel, or at*-

Chateau de Chastellux

Avallon, Vezelay and Chastellux 39

berge rather, can not be less aged than the
bridge, though the manner in which it is con-
ducted is not at all antiquated.

A rocky, jagged pedestal, of a height of per-
haps a hundred and fifty feet, holds aloft the
fine mass of the Chateau de Chastellux. For
eight centuries this fine old pile was in the ma-
king and, though manifestly non-contemporary
as to its details, it holds itself together in a re-
markably consistent manner and presents an
ensemble and silhouette far more satisfactory
to view than many a more popular historic
monument of its class. Its great round towers,
their coijffes and the pignons and gables of the
roof, give it all a cachet which is so striking that
one forgives, or ignores the fact that it is after
all a work of various epochs.

Visitors here are welcome. One may stroll
the corridors and apartments, the vast halls
and the courtyard as fancy wills, except that
one is always discreetly ciceroned by a guardian
who may be a man, a woman, or even a small
child. There is none of the espionage system
about the surveillance, however, and one can but
feel welcome. Blazons in stone and wood and
tapestries are ever^^where. They are the best,
or the worst, of their kind; one really doesn't
stop to think which; the effect is undeniably

40 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

what one would wish, and surely no carping
critic has any right to exercise his functions
here. There is not the least cause to complain
if the furnishings are of non-contemporary
periods like the exterior adornments, because
the certain stamp of sincerity and genuineness
over all defies undue criticism.

The Chateau de Chastellux dates, primarily,
from the thirteenth century, with many fif-
teenth, sixteenth and seventeenth century res-
torations or additions which are readily enough
to be recognized. From its inception, the cha-
teau has belonged to the family of Beauvoir-de-
Chastellux, the cadet branch of Anseric-de-
Montreal.

Practically triangular in form, as best served
its original functions of a defensive habitation,
this most theatrical of all Burgundian chateaux
is flanked by four great attached towers. The
Tour de I'Horloge is a massive rectangular pile
of the fifteenth century; the Tour d'Amboise is
a round tower dating from 1592; the Tour de
I'Hermitage and the Tour des Archives, each
of them also round, are of the sixteenth century.
In the disposition and massiveness of these
towers alone the Chateau de Chastellux is
unique. Another isolated tower, even more
stupendous in its proportions, is known as the

Avallon, Vezelay and Chastellux 41

Tour Saiut Jeau, and is a doujon of the ideally-
acceptable variety, dating from some period
anterior to the chateau proper.

Moat-surrounded, the chateau is only to be
entered by crossing an ornamental waterway.
One arrives at the actual entrance by the usual
all-eyed roadway ending at the perron of the
chateau where a simple bell-pull silently an-
nounces the ways and means of gaining en-
trance. The domestic appears at once and with-
out questioning your right proceeds to do the
honours as if it were for yourself alone that the
place were kept open.

The chief and most splendid apartment is
the Salle des Gardes, to a great extent restored,
but typical of the best of fifteenth century work-
manship and appointments. Its chimney-piece,
as splendid in general effect as any to be seen
in the Loire chateaux, is but a re-made affair,
but follows the best traditions and encloses
moreover fragments of fifteenth century sculp-
tures which are authentically of that period.
The cornice of this majestic apartment bears
the Chastellux arms and those of their allied
families, interwoven with the oft repeated in-
scription, Monreal a Sire de Chastellux. In
this same Salle des Gardes are hung a pair of
ancient Gobelins, and set into the floor is a

42 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

dainty morsel of an antique mosaic found
nearby.

The modem billiard-room, also shown to the
inquisitive, contains portraits of the Chancelier
d'Aguesseau and his wife, and its fittings —
aside from the green baize tables and their
accessories — are well carried out after the
style of Louis XIII. Good taste, or bad, one
makes no comment, save to suggest that the
billiard tables look out of place.

In what the present dweller calls the Salon
Rouge are portraits and souvenirs of a military
ancestor Comte Cesar de Chastellux, who, judg-
ing from- his dress and cast of countenance,
must have been a warrior bold of the conven-
tional type.

After the Salle des Gardes the Grand Salon
is the most effective apartment. Its wall and
ceiling decorations are the same that were com-
pleted in 1696, and incorporated therein are
fourteen portraits of the Sires and Comtes who
one day lived and loved within these castle
walls. These portraits are reproductions of
others which were destroyed by the unchained
devils of the French Revolution who made way
with so much valuable documentary evidence
from which one might build up French mediae-
val history anew. The village church contains

Avallon, Vezelay and Chastellux 43

several tombal monuments of the Chastel-
lux.

The Chateau de Montreal, or Mout-Royal, so
closely allied ^^ith the fortunes of the Chastel-
lux, between Avallon and Chastellux, is built
high on a mamelon overlooking the Seruin, and
is one of the most ancient and curious places in
Burgundy. The little town, of but five hundred
inhabitants, is built up mostly of the material
which came from one of the most ancient of the
feudal chateaux of mid-France. This chateau
was originally a primitive fortress, once the
residence of Queen Brunhaut, the wife of the
Eoi d'Austrasie in 566. It was from this hill-
top residence that the name Montreal has been
evolved.

The sparse population of the place were bene-
fited by special privileges from the earliest
times and the cite movenageuse itself was en-
dowed with many admirable examples of ad-
ministrative and domestic architecture.

Of the Renaissance chateaux of the later
seigneurs, here and there many portions re-
main built into other edifices, but there is no
single example left which, as a whole, takes
definite shape as a noble historical monument.
There are a dozen old Renaissance house-fronts,
with here and there a supporting tower or wall

44 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

which is unquestionably of mediseval times and
might tell thrilling stories could stones but
speak.

In Eenaissance annals Montreal was cele-
brated by the exploit of the Dame de Eagny
(1590), who recaptured the place after it had
been taken possession of by the Ligeurs during
the absence of her husband, the governor.

At the entrance of the old bourg is a great
gateway which originally led to the seigneurial
enclosure. It is called the Port d'en Bas and
has arches dating from the thirteenth century.
Montreal and its Mediaeval chateau was the
cradle of the Anseric-de-Montreal family, who
were dispossessed in 1255 to the iDrofit of the
Dues de Bourgogne. It was to the cadet
branch of this same family Chastellux once
belonged.

To the west lies Vezelay, one of the most
remarkable conglomerate piles of ancient ma-
sonry to be seen in France to-day. It was a
most luxm'ious abode in mediaeval times, and
its great church, with its ornate portal and
fagade, ranks as one of the most celebrated in
Europe.

Vezelay is on no well-worn tourist track;
it is indeed chiefly unknowu except to those who

Avallon, Vezelay and Chastellux 45

know well their ecclesiastical history. It was
within this famous church that Saint Bernard
awakened the fervour of the Crusade in the
breast of Louis-le-Jeune. The abbey church
saw, too, Philippe- AugTiste and Richard Coeur-
de-Lion start for their Crusades, and even Saint
Louis came here before setting out from Aignes
Mortes for the land of the Turk. This illustri-
ous church quite crushes anything else in Veze-
lay by its splendour, but nevertheless the his-
tory of its other monuments has been great, and
the part played by the miniscule city itself has
been no less important in more mundane mat-
ters. Its mediaeval trading-fairs were famous
throughout the provinces of all France, and
even afar.

In the middle ages Vezelay had a population
of ten thousand souls ; to-day a bare eight hun-
dred call it their home town.

The seigneurial chateau at Vezelay is hardly
in keeping to-day with its former proud estate.
One mounts from the lower town by a winding
street lined on either side by admirably con-
served Renaissance houses of an unpretentious
class. The chateau, where lodged Louis-le-
Jeune, has embedded in its facade two great
shot launched from Huguenot cannon during

46 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

the siege of 1559. Another seigneurial " hotel
privee " has over its portal this inscription:

" Comme Colomhe humhle et simple seray
Et a mon nom mes mes mceurs conformeray ."

Here in opulent Basse-Bourgogne, where the
vassals of a seigneur were often as powerful as
he, their dwellings were frequently quite as
splendid as the official residence of the over-
lord. It is this genuinely unspoiled mediseval
aspect of seemingly nearly all the houses of this
curious old town of Vezelay which give the place
its charm.

The Porte Neuve is a great dependent tower
which formerly was attached to the residence
of the governor — the chateau-fort in fact —
and it still stands militant as of old, supported
on either side by two enormous round towers
and surmounted by a machicoulis and a serrated
cornice which tells much of its efficiency as a
mediaeval defence. To the right are still very
extensive remains of the fourteenth and fif-
teenth century ramparts.

Near Vezelay is the Chateau de Bazoche,
which possesses a profound interest for the stu-
dent of military architecture in France by
reason of its having been the birthplace of
Marechal Vauban, who became so celebrated as

Avallon, Vezelay and Chastellux 47

a fortress-builder that he, as much as anybody,
may be considered the real welder of modern
France. Vauban's body is buried in the local
churchyard, but his heart had the distinction of
being torn from his body and given a glori-
ous ( 2) burial along with countless other frag-
ments of military heroes in the Hotel des In-
valides at Paris.

Bazoches is not a name that is on the tip of
the tongue of every mentor and guide to French
history, though the appearance of its chateau
is such that one wonders that it is not more
often cited by the guide-books which are sup-
posed to point out the quaint and curious to
vagabond travellers. There are many such who
had rather worship at a shrine such as this
than to spend their time loitering about the big
hotels of the flash resorts with which the Eu-
rope of the average tourist is becoming over-
crowded. Makers of guide-books and the mana-
gers of tourist agencies do not seem to know
this.

Bazoches is a townlet of five hundred inhabi-
tants, and not one of them cares whether you
come or go. They do not even marvel that the
chateau is the only thing in the place that ever
brings a stranger there, — they ignore the fact
that you are there, so by this reckoning one puts

48 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Bazoches, the town and the chateau, down as
something quite unspoiled. Half the population
lives in fine old Gothic and Eenaissance houses
which, to many of us, used to living under an-
other species of rooftree, would seem a palace.

What the Chateau de Bazoches lacks in great
renown it makes up for in imposing effect.
Each angle meets in a svelt round tower of the
typical picture-book and stage-carpenter fash-
ion. Each tower is coiffed with a peaked can-
dle-snuffer cap and a row of machicoulis which
gives the whole edifice a warlike look which is
unmistakable. The finest detail of all is ''La
Grande Tour " supporting one end of the prin-
ciple mass of the chateau, and half built into
the hillside which backs it up on the rear.
Yauban bought an old feudal castle in 1663 and
added to it after liis own effective manner, thus
making the chateau, as one sees it to-day, the
powerful bulwark that it is.

The chateau belongs to-day to the Vibrave
family, who keep open house for the visitor who
would see within and without. The principle
apartment is entirely furnished with the same
belongings which ser^^ed Vauban for his per-
sonal use.

Another neighbouring chateau, bearing also
the name Chateau de Vauban, was also the

Avallon, Vezelay and Chastellux 49

property of the Marechal. It dates from the
sixteenth century, and though in no way his-
toric, has many architectural details worthy of
observation and remark.

CHAPTER IV

SEMUR-EN-AUXOIS, EPOISSES ATTD BOr-RBILLY

Due east from Avallon some thirty odd kilo-
metres is Semur-en-Auxois. It is -^ell described
as a feudal city ^tliout and a banal one within.
Its mediaeval walls and gates lead one to expect
the same old-world atmosphere over all, but,
aside from its churches and an occasional archi-
tectural display of a Eenaissance house-front,
its cast of countenance, when seen from its de-
cidedly bourgeois point of view, is, if not mod-
ern, at least matter-of-fact and uns^Tni^athetic.

In spite of this its historical recollections are
many and varied, and there are fragments
galore of its once proud architectural glories
which bespeak their prime importance, and also
that the vandal hand of so-called progress and
improvement has fallen heavily on all sides.

The site of Semur to a great extent gives it
that far-away mediaeval look; that, at least,
could not be taken away from it. It i^ossesses,
moreover, one of the most astonishing silhou-

50

Semur-en-Auxois, Epoisses, Bourbilly 51

ettes of any hill-top town in France. Like Con-
stantine in North Africa it is walled and bat-
tlemented by a series of natural defences in the
form of ravines or gorges so profound that cer-
tainly no ordinary invading force could have
entered the city.

Semur was formerly the capital of the
Auxois, and for some time held the same rank
in the Burgundian Duchy.

The city from within suggests little of mediae-
valism. Prosperity and contentment do not
make for a picturesque and romantic environ-
ment of the life of the twentieth century. It
was different in the olden time. Semur, by and
large, is of the age of medisevalism, however,
though one has to delve below the surface to
discover this after having passed the great
walls and portals of its natural and artificial
ramparts.

Semur 's bourg, donjon and chateau, as the
respective quarters of the town are known, tell
the story of its past, but they tell it only by
suggestion. The ancient fortifications, as en-
tire works, have disappeared, and the chateau
has become a barracks or a hospital. Only the
chateau donjon and immediate dependencies, a
group of towering walls, rise grim and silent as
of old above the great arch of the bridge flung

52 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

so daringly across the Armangon at the bottom
of the gorge.

The last proprietor of Semur's chateau was
the Marquis du Chatelet, the husband of the
even more celebrated Madame du Chatelet, who
held so gi-eat a place in the life of Voltaire.
The philosopher, it seems, resided here for a
time, and his room is still kept sacred and
shown to visitors upon application.

Semur as much as anything is a reminder of
the past rather than a living representation of
what has gone before. Within the city walls
were enacted many momentous events of state
while still it was the Burgundian capital.
Again during the troublous times of the
'' Ligue," ijenri IV transferred to its old
chateau the Parliament which had previously
held its sittings at Dijon.

Semur's monuments deserved a better fate
than has befallen them, for they were magnifi-
cent and epoch-making, if not always from an
artistic point of view, at least from an historic
one.

We made Semur our headquarters for a little
journey to Slpoisses, Bourbilly and Montbard,
wliere formerly lived and died the naturalist
Buffon, in the celebrated Chateau de Montbard.

fipoisses lies but a few kilometres west of

Semur-en-Auxois, Epoisses, Eourbilly 53

Semiir. Its chateau is a magnificently artistic
and historic shrine if there ever was such. In
1677 Madame de Sevigne wrote that she " here
descended from her carriage: chez son Seigneur
d'Epoisses.^^ Here she found herself so com-
fortably off that she forgot to go on to Bour-
billy, where she was expected and daily awaited.
It was ten days later that she finally moved on ;
so one has but the best of opinions regarding
the good cheer which was offered her. At the
time it must have been an ideal country house,
this mansion of the Seigneur d 'Epoisses, as in-
deed it is to-day. The lady wrote further:
*' Here there is the greatest liberty; one reads
or walks or talks or works as he, or she,
pleases." This is what everyone desires and
so seldom gets when on a visit. As for the
other natural and artificial charms which sur-
rounded the place, one may well judge by a
contemplation of it to-day.

Here in the chateau, or manor, or whatever
manner of rank it actually takes in one's mind,
you may see the room occupied by Madame de
Sevigne on the occasion of her '* pleasant
visit." It is a " Chambre aux Fleurs " in
truth, and that, too, is the name by which the
apartment is officially known.

Above the mantel, garlanded with flowers

54 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

carved in wood, one reads the following attrib-
II I uted to the fascinating Marquise herself. The

circumstance is authenticated in spite of the
fantastic orthography. As a letter writer, at
any rate, she made no such faults.

" Nos plaisirs ne sont capparence
Et souvent se cache nos plenrs
Sous r eclat de ces helles Jieurs
Qui ne sont que vaine e'perance,"

The Chateau de Bourbilly, where Madame de
Sevigne was really bound at the time she lin-
gered on " cliez son cher seigneur/' is a near
neighbour of Epoisses. It was the retreat of
Madame de Chantal, the ancestress of Madame
de Se\'igne, the founder of the Order of the
Visitation who has since become a saint of the
church calendar — Sainte Jeanne-de-Chantal.

This fine seventeenth century chateau, with
its pointed towers and its mansard, belonged
successively to the families Marigny, de Mello,
de Thil, de Savace, de la Tremouille and Eabu-
tin-Chantel, of which the sanctified Jeanne and
Madame de Se^dgne were the most illustrious
members.

Madame de Sevigne, the amiable letter
writer, sojourned here often on her voyages up
and down France. She herself lived in the

«0

w

Semur-en-Auxois, Epoisses, Bourbilly 55

Cliateau des Rocliers in Brittany and her
daughter, the Comtesse de Grignan, in Pro-
vence, and they did not a little visiting between
the two. Bourbilly was a convenient and de-
lightful halfway house.

Madame de Sevigne can not be said to have
made Bourbilly her residence for long at any
time. For a fact she was as frequently a guest
at the neighbouring Chateau de Guitant, a
feudal dwelling still inhabited by the de Gui-
tants, or at Epoisses, as she was at Bourbilly.

In the chajDel, which is of the sixteenth cen-
tury, is the tomb of the Baron de Bussy-Rabutin
and some reliques of Sainte-Jeanne-de-Chantal.
The latter has served to make of Bourbilly a
pilgrim shrine which, on the 21st Augaist, draws
a throng from all parts for the annual fete.

There was a popular impression long current
among French writers that Madame de Sevigne
was born in the Chateau de Bourbilly. A line
or two of that indefatigable x^enman, Bussy,
tended to make this ready of belief when he
wrote of his cousin as ^' Une demoiselle de
Bourgogne egaree en Bretagne." She herself
claimed to have been '' transplanted," but it
was a transplantation by marriage; she was
most certainly not born at Bourbilly, at any
rate, for history, better informed than an un-

56 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

convincing scribbler, states that she was born
in Paris, like Moliere and Voltaire, who also
have finally been claimed by the capital as her
own.

At all events, at Bourbilly Madame de Se-
vigne was true enough on the land of the
'' vieux chateau de ses peres, ses belles prairies,
sa petite riviere, ses magnifiques hois." It was
her property in fact, or came to be, and she
might have lived there had she chosen. She
would not dispose of it when importuned to do
so, and replied simply, but coldly (one reads
this in the ^' Letters "), "I will not sell the
property for the reason that I wish to hand
it down to my daughter. ' ' From this one would
think that she had a great affection for it, but
at times it was a '' vieux chateau " and at
others it was a " horrible maison." Capricious
woman! The letters of Madame de Sevigne
written from here were not numerous, as she
only '' stopped over " on her various joumey-
ings. When one recognizes the tastes and hab-
its of the Marquise, it is not to be wondered at
that her visits to Bourbilly were neither pro-
longed nor multiplied.

Turning one's itinerary south from Semur
one comes shortly to Cussy-la-Colonne, where
'^ la Colonne " is recognized by the archasolo-

Semur-en-Auxois, Epoisses, Bourbilly 57

gists as one of the most celebrated and most
ancient monuments of Burgimdy.

One learns from the inscription in Franco-
Latin that the ancient monument {antiquissi-
muni hoc monumentum) , much damaged by the
flapping wings of time, was rebuilt, as nearly as
possible in its original form, by a prefect of
the Department of the Cote d'Or (Collis Aurei
Praefectus), M. Charles Arbaud, in the reign
(sous I'empire) of Charles X (imperante Ca-
rolo X. . . . Anno Salutis MDCCCXXV. An
astonishing melange this of the tongue of
Cicero and modern administrative patois.

The Colonne de Cussy, is rather a pagan
memorial of a victory of the Romans in the
reign of Diocletian, or, from another surmise, a
funeral monument to a Roman general dead on
the eve of victory. In either case, there it
stands fragmentary and wind and weather worn
like the pillars of Hercules or Pompey.

One simply notes Cussy and its " colonne "
en passayit on the road to Saulieu and Arnay-le-
Duc, where the Dues de Bourgogne had one of
their most favoured country houses, or manors.

We only stopped at Saulieu by chance any-
way; we stopped for the night in fact because
it was getting too late to push on farther, and
we were glad indeed that we did.

58 Casties and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Saulieu is a most ancient town and owes its
name to a neighbouring wood. Here was first
erected a pagan temple to the sun; fragments
of it have recently been found; and here one
may still see the tracings of the old Eoman way
crossing what was afterwards, — to the power-
ful colony at Autun, — the Duchy of Burgundy.

As a fortified place Saulieu was most potent,
but in 1519 a pest destroyed almost its total
population. Disaster after disaster fell upon it
and the place never again achieved the promi-
nence of its neighbouring contemporaries.

It was here at Saulieu in Eevolutionary times
that the good people, as if in remembrance of
the disasters which had befallen them under
monarchial days, hailed with joy the arrival of
the men of the Marseilles Battalion as they were
marching on Paris ^' to help capture Capet's
castle." Before the church of Saint Saturnin
the Patriots ' Club had lighted a big bonfire, and
the '^ Men of the Midi " were received with
open arms and a warm welcome.

" How good they were to us at Saulieu,"
said one of the number, recounting his adven-
tures upon his arrival at Paris; " they gave
us all the wine we could swallow and all the
good things we could eat, — we had enough
boeuf-a-la-daub to rise over our ears ..."

Semur-en-Auxois, Epoisses, Bourbilly 59

To-day the good folk of Saulieu treat the
stranger in not unsimilar fashion, and though
the town lacks noble monuments it makes up
for the deficiency in its good cheer. Saulieu in
this respect quite lives up to its reputation of
old. This little capital of the Morvan-Bour-
guignon has ever owned to one or more distin-
guished Vatel's, Madame de Se\4gne, in 1677,
stopped here at a friend's country house, and,
as she wrote, '' le fermier donne a tons un grand
diner." This was probably the Manoir de
Guitant between Bourbilly and Saulieu. They
were long at table, for it was a diner des adieux
given by her friend Guitant to his visitors. She
wrote further : ' ' With the dinner one drank a
great deal, and afterwards a great deal more;
all went off with the greatest possible eclat.
Voilal 'affaire! "

E^^dently such a manner of parting did not
produce sadness!

A donjon tower with a duck-pond before it,
opposite the Hotel de la Poste is all the medicT-
valism that one sees within the town at Saulieu
to-day. It is all that one's imagination can
conjure up of the ideal donjon of mediaevalism
and interesting withal, though its history is
most brief, indeed may be said to exist not at
all in recorded form, for the chief references to

60 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Saulieu's historic past date back to the pagan
temple and the founding of the Abbey of Saint
Andoche in the eighth century.

Still heading south one comes in a dozen kilo-
metres to a chateau of the fourteenth century,
and the restorations of Henri IV at Thoisy-la-
Berchere. Later restorations, by the Marquis
de Montbossier, who occupies it to-day, have
made of it one of the most attractive of the
minor chateaux of France. One may visit it
under certain conditions, whether the family is
in residence or not, and will carry away memo-
ries of many splendid chimney pieces and wall
tapestries. For the rest the furnishings are
modern, which is sa^^ng that they are banal.
This of course need not always be so, but when
the Eenaissance is mixed with the art nouveau
and the latest fantasies of Dufayal it lacks ap-
peal. This is as bad as " Empire " and " Mis-
sion," which seem to have set the pace for
" club furniture " during the past decade.

Amay-le-Duc still to the south was the site
of a ducal Burgundian manor which almost
reached the distinction of a palace. Here the
country loving dukes spent not a little of their
leisure time when away from their capital.

Arnay-le-Duc, more than any other town of
its class in France, retains its almost undefiled

Semur-en-Auxois, Epoisses, Bourbilly 61

feudal aspect to-day when viewed from beyond
the walls. Formerly it was the seat of a bail-
liage and has conserved the debris of the feudal
official residence. This is supported in addition
by many fine examples of Renaissance-Burg-un-
dian architectural treasures which give the
town at once the stamp of genuineness which it
will take many years of progress to wholly
eradicate.

None of these fine structures, least of all the
ducal manor, is perfectly conserved, but the
remains are sufficiently ample and well cared
for to merit the classification of still being
reckoned habitable and of importance. The old
manor of the dukes has now descended to more
humble uses, but has lost little of the aristo-
cratic bearing which it once owned.

It was near this fortified bourgade of other
days — fortified that the dukes might rest in
peace when they repaired thither — that the in-
fant Henri IV, at the age of sixteen, received
his baptism of fire and first gained his stripes
under the direction of Marechal de Cosse-
Brissac.

CHAPTEE V

MONTBAED AND BUSSY - RABUTIN

MoNTBARD lies inidway between Semur and
Cliatillon-sur-Seine, on the great highroad lead-
ing from Burgundy into Champagne. The old
Chateau de Montbard is represented only by the
donjon tower which rises grimly above the
modern edifice built around its base and the
sprawling little town which clusters around its
park gates at the edge of the tiny river Brenne.

The ' ' grand seigneur ' ' of Montbard was but
a simple man of letters, the naturalist Buffon.
Here he found comfort and tranquillity, and
loved the place and its old associations accord-
ingly. Here he lived, " having doffed his
sword and cloak," and occupied himself only
with his literary labours, though with a gallan-
try and esprit which could but have produced
the eloquent pages ascribed to him.

Buffon was a native of the town, and through
him, more than anyone else, the town has since
been heard of in history.

Having acquired the property of the old

62

Montbard and Bussy-Rabutin 63

chateau, the donjon of which stood firm and
broad on its base, he made of the latter his
study, or salon de travail. This is the only
remaining portion of the mediaeval castle of
Montbard. The ancient walls which existed,
though in a ruined state, were all either levelled
or rebuilt by Buffon into the dependent dwell-
ing which he attached to the donjon. The Rev-
olution, too, did not a little towards wiping out
a part of the structure, as indeed it did the tomb
of the naturalist in the local churchyard.

Buffon, or, to give him his full title, Georges-
Louis-Leclerc-de-Buffon lived here a life of re-
tirement, amid a comfort, perhaps even of lux-
ury, that caused his jealous critics to say that
he worked in a velvet coat, and that he was
a sort of eighteenth century *' nature-fakir."
This is probably an injustice.

In 1774 Louis XV made the ^^ terre de Buf-
fon " a countship, but the naturalist chose not
to reside in the village of the name, but to live
at Montbard some leagues away.

Montbard 's actual celebrity came long before
the time of Buffon, for its chateau was built in
the fourteenth century and was for centuries
the possessor of an illustrious sequence of an-
nals intimately associated with the dukedom of
Burgundy.

64 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Jean-Sans-Peur, it is to be noted, passed a
portion of liis youth within its walls. This
gives it at once rank as a royal chateau, though
that was not actually its classification. The
Princesse Anne, sister of Philippe le Bon, here
married the Duke of Bedford in 1423. All this
would seem fame enough for Montbard, but the
local old men and women know no more of their
remote rulers than they do of Buff on; local
pride is a very doubtful commodity.

It is disconcerting for a stranger to accost
some bon horn me or bonne femme to learn the
way to the Chateau de Buffon, and to receive in
reply a simple stare and the observation, " I
don't know the man." Aside, to some crony,
you may hear the observation, " "Who are
these strangers and what do they want with
their man Buffon anyway? " This may seem
an exaggeration, but it is not, and furthermore
the thing may happen anywhere. Glory is but
as smoke, and local fame is often an infinitesi-
mal thing. Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vani-
tas!

Buffon wrote his extensive " Histoire Xa-
turelle " at Montbard. It created much admi-
ration at the time. To-day Buffon, his work
and his chateau are all but forgotten or ignored,
and but few visitors come to continue the idol-

Montbard and Bussy-Rabutin 65

atry of Jean Jacques Rousseau, who kissed the
*' seuil de la noble demure."

Not long since, within some few years at any
rate, a former friend of Alfred de Musset
quoted some little known lines of the poet on
this " berceau de la histoire naturelle," with
the result that quite recently the local authori-
ties, in establishing the Musee Buffon, have
caused them to be carved on a panel in the
naturalist's former study at the chateau.

" Buffon, que ton ombre pardonne
A une t^m^rit6
D'ajouter une fleur a la double couronne
Que sur ton front mit I'lmmortalit^."

Buffon 's additions to the old chateau were
made for comfort, whatever they may have
lacked of romanticism. The French Pliny was
evidently not in the least romantically inclined,
or he would not have levelled these historic
walls and the alleyed walks and gardens laid
out in the profuse and formal manner of those
of Italy. The result is a poor substitute for
a picturesque grass-grown ruin, or a faithfully
restored medi.Tval castle.

Between the Brenne and a canal which flows
through the town rises an admirable feudal
tower indicating the one time military and

66 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

strategic importance of the site. It is called
Mont Bard, and marks where once stood the
fortress that surrendered in its time to the
*' Lignenrs."

Near Montbard is a hamlet which bears the
illustrious name of Buffon, but it is doubtful if
even a few among its three hundred inhabitants
know for whom it is named.

Still further away, on the Chatillon road, is
the little town of Yillaines-en-Dumois, a bourg
of no importance in the life of modernity. It
is somnolent to an extreme, comfortable-look-
ing and apparently prosperous. The grand
route from Paris to Dijon passes it by a dozen
kilometres to the left, and the railway likewise.
Coaching days left it out in the cold also, and
modern travel hardly knows that it exists.

In spite of this the town owns to something
more than the trivial morsels of stone which
many a township locally claims as a chateau.
Here was once a favourite summer residence of
the Burgundian dukes, and here to-day the
shell, or framework, of the same edifice looks as
though it might easily be made habitable. The
property came later to the Madame de Longue-
■^-ille, the sister of the Grand Conde. There is
nothing absolutely magnificent about it now,
but the suggestion of its former estate is stUI

Montbard and Bussy-Rabutin 67

there to a notable degree. The walls and tow-
ers, lacking roofs though they do, well suggest
the princely part the edifice once played in the
life of its time.

In spite of the fact that the name of the town
appears in none of the red or blue backed guide-
books, enough is known of it to establish it as
the former temporary seat of one of the most
fonnal of the minor courts of Europe, where —
the records tell — etiquette was as strict as in
the ducal palace at Dijon. Four great round
towers are each surrounded by a half-filled
moat, and the suggestion of the old chapel, in
the shape of an expanse of wall which shows
a remarkably beautiful ogival window, defi-
nitely remains to give the idea of the former
luxury and magnificence with which the whole
structure was endowed.

A detached dwelling, said to be the house of
the prior of a neighbouring monastery who at-
tached himself to the little court, is in rather
a better state of preservation than the chateau
itself, and might indeed be made habitable by
one with a modest purse and a desire to play
the '* grand seigneur " to-day in some petty
gone-to-seed community. These opportunities
exist all up and down France to-day, and this
seems as likely a spot as any for one who

68 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

wishes to transplant his, or her, household
gods.

Beyond Montbard is Les Laumes, a minor
railway junction on the line to Dijon, which is
scarcely ever remembered by the traveller who
passes it by. But, although there is nothing
inspiring to be had from even a glance of the
eye in any direction as one stops a brief mo-
ment at the station, nevertheless it is a prolific
centre for a series of historical pilgrimages
which, for pleasurable edification, would make
the traveller remember it all his life did he give
it more than a passing thought. One must
know its history though, or many of the historic
souvenirs will be passed by without an impres-
sion worth while.

On Mont Auxois, rising up back of the town,
stands a colossal statue of Vercingetorix, in
memory of a resistance which he here made
against the usually redoubtable Caesar.

Six kilometres away there is one of the most
romantically historic of all the minor chateaux
of France and one not to be omitted from any-
body's chateaux tour of France. It is the
Chateau de Bussy-Eabutin, to-day restored and
reinhabited, though for long periods since its
construction it was empty save for bats and
mice. This restoration, which looks to-day like

»

i

68 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

■wishes to transplant l\is, or her, household
gods.

Beyond Montbard is ? -. a minor

railway junction on tV- i, which is

scarcely ever remembe. /eller who

passes it by. But, althcn; - nothing

inspiring to be had from ev: vhe

eye in any direction as" one . mo-

ment at the station, neverthek'.-- .- i f j;i'Hc
centre for a series of historical pilgrimages
n'hich, for pleasurable edification, would make
tlir i :•;■ vf'ller remember it all his life did he give
it moreQiateau de Biissg-Rabtttfnt. One must
• ■• -'^ ••■.•- T^ ■ '' ••"^ ^'^ ^-i-oric

Vi. rciiigelorix, iii
;. . V -i.ich he here made

age- vloubtahle CaE?sar.

Six kilometres away there is one of the most
romantically historic of all the minor chateaux
of France and one not to be omitted from any-
body's chateaux tour of France. It is the
Chateau de Bussy-Eabutin, to-day restored and
reinliabited, though for long ])eriods since its
construction it was empty save for bats and
mice. This restoration, which looks to-day lit»

^j»?^T|l';^

Montbard and Bussy-Rabutin 69

a part of the original fabric, was the conceit
of the Comte de Bussy-Rabutin, a cousin of
Madame de Sevigne in the seventeenth century.
It gives one the impression of being an exact
replica of a seigneurial domain of its time.

The main fabric is a vast square edifice with
four towers, each marking one of the cardinal
points. The Tour du Donjon to the east, and
the Tour de la Chapelle to the west are bound
to a heavy ungainly facade which the Comte
Roger de Bussy-Rabutin built in 1649. This
ligature is a sort of a galleried arcade which
itself dates from the reign of Henri II.

As to its foundation the chateau probably
dates from an ancestor who came into being in
the twelfth century. In later centuries it fre-
quently changed hands, until it came to Leon-
ard du Rabutin, Baron d'Epiry, and father of
the Comte Roger who did the real work of
remodelling. It was this Comte Roger who has
gone down to fame as the too-celebrated cousin
of Madame de Sevigne. To-day, the chateau
belongs to Madame la Comtesse de Sarcus and
although it is perhaps the most historic, at
least in a romantic sense, of all the great Re-
naissance establishments of these parts, it is
knoviTi to modern map-makers as the Chateau
de Savoigny. Much of its early historj'- is

70 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

closely bound with that picturesque owner,
Comte de Bussy-Rabutin.

In Holy Week in 1657, at the age of forty-
one, Bussy became involved in some sort of a
military scandal and was exiled from France.
The following year he made peace with the
powers that be and returned to court, when he
composed the famous, or infamous, " Histoire
Amoureuse des Gaules," a work of supposed
great wit and satirical purport, but scandalous
to a degree unspeakable. It was written to
curry favour with a certain fair lady, the Mar-
quise de Monglat, who had an axe to grind
among a certain coterie of court favourites.
Bussy stood her in great stead and the scheme
worked to a charm up to a certain point, when
Louis XIV, not at all pleased with the un-
seemly satire, hurried its unthinking, or too
willing, author off to the Bastile and kept him
there for five years, that no more of his lucu-
brations of a similar, or any other, nature
should see the light.

In 1666 Bussy got back to his native land
and was again heard of by boiling over once
more with similar indiscretions at Chazeu, near
Autun. Finally he got home to the chateau
and there remained for sixteen consecutive
years, not a recluse exactly, and yet not daring

Montbard and Bussy-Rabutin 71

to show his head at Paris. It was a long time
before he again regained favour in royal cir-
cles.

The Cour d'Honneur of the chateau is
reached by a monumental portal which trav-
erses the middle of the corps du log is. Above
this are two marble busts, one of Sainte-
Jeanne-de-Chantal, which came originally from
the Convent de Visitation at Dijon, and the
other of Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV.

The ancient Salle des Devises (now the mod-
ern billiard room) has a very beautiful pave-
ment of hexagonal tiles, and a series of alle-
gorical devises which Bussy had painted in
1667 by way of reproach to one of his feminine
admirers. On other panels are painted various
reproductions of royal chateaux and a portrait
of Bussy with his emblazoned arms.

The Salon des Grands Hommes de Guerre,
on the second floor, is well explained by its
name. Its decorations are chiefly interlaced
monograms of Bussy and the Marquise Mon-
glat, setting off sixty odd portraits of famous
French warriors, from Duguesclin and Dunois
to Bussy himself, who, though more wielder of
the pen than the sword, chose to include him-
self in the collection. Some of these are orig-
inals, contemporary with the period of their

72 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy-
subjects; others are manifestly modern copies
and mediocre at that, though the array of ef-
figies is undeniably imposing.

The Chambre Sevigne, as one infers, is con-
secrated to the memory of the most famous
letter writer of her time. For ornamentation
it has twenty-six portraits, one or more being
by Mignard, while that of ''La Grande Made-
moiselle," who became the Duchesse de Berry,
is by Coypel.

Below a portrait of Madame de Sevigne,
Bussy caused to be inscribed the following:
" Marie de Rabutin: vive agreable et sage,
fille de Celse Beninge de Rabutin et Marie de
Coulanges et femme de Henri de Sevigne."
This, one may be justified in thinking, is quite
a biography in brief, the sort of a description
one might expect to find in a seventeenth cen-
tury " Who's Who."

Beneath the portrait of her daughter —
Comtesse de Grignan — the inscription reads
thus: " Frangoise de Sevigne; jolie, amiable,
enfin marchant sur les pas de sa mere sur le
chapitre des agreements, fille de Henri de Se-
vigne et de Marie de Rabutin et femme du
Comte de Grignan." A rather more extended
biography than the former, but condensed
withal.

Montbard and Bussy-Rabutin 73

Another neighbouring room is known as the
Petite Chambre Sevigne, and contains some ad-
mirable sculptures and paintings.

Leading to the famous Tour Doree is a long
gallery furnished after the style of the time of
Henri II, whilst a great circular room in the
tower itself is richly decorated and furnished,
including two faisceaux of six standards, each
bearing the Bussy colours.

Legend and fable have furnished the motive
of the frescoes of this curious apartment, and
under one of them, *' Cephale et Procris," in
which one recognizes the features of Bussy and
the Marquise, his particular friend, are the
following lines:

" Eprouver si sa femme a le coeur pr^cieux,
C'est §tre impertinent autant que curieux :
Un peu d' obscurity vaut, en cette matiere,
Mille fois mieux que la lumiere."

Not logical, you say, and unprincipled. Just
that! But as a documentary expression of the
life of the times it is probably genuine.

Here and elsewhere on the walls of the cha-
teau are many really worthy works of art, por-
traits by Mignard, Lebrun, Just, and others,
including still another elaborate series of four-
teen, representing Richelieu, Louis XIII, Anne

74 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

d'Autriche, Mazarin, Louis XIV. Again in the
plafond of the great tower are other frescoes
representing the " Petits Amours " of the
time, always with the interlaced cyphers of
Bussy and Madame la Comtesse.

From the Chambre Sevigne a gallery leads
to the tribune of the chapel. Here is a portrait
gallery of the kings of the third race, of the
parents of Bussy, and of the four Burgundian
dukes and duchesses of the race of Valois. The
chapel itself is formed of a part of the Tour
Ronde where are two canvasses of Poussin, a
Murillo and one of Andrea del Sarto.

The gardens and Park of the chateau are
attributed to Le Notre, the garden-maker of
Versailles. This may or may not be so, the as-
sertion is advanced cautiously, because the
claim has so often falsely been made of other
chateau properties. The gardens here, how-
ever, were certainly conceived after Le Notre 's
magnificent manner. There is a great orna-
mental water environing the chateau some
sixty metres in length and twelve metres in
width, and this of itself is enough to give great
distinction to any garden-plot.

CHAPTER VI

" CHASTILLON AU NOBLE DUG '*
(The War Cry of the Bourguignone)

The importance of the ancient Chastillon on
the banks of the Seine was entirely due to the
prominence given to it by the Burgundian
dukes of the first race who made it their pre-
ferred habitation.

The place was the ancient capital of the Bail-
liage de la Montague, the rampart and keep to
the Burgundian frontier from the tenth to the
fifteenth centun,'.

The origin of the Chateau des Duc^ is blan-
keted in the night of time. Savants, even, can
not agree as to the date of its commencement.
One says that it and its name were derived
from Castico, a rich Sequanais; and another
that it comes from Castell, an enclosed place;
or from Castellio — a small fortress. Each
seems plausible in the absence of anything
more definite, though according to the castle's
latest historian it owes its actual inception to

75

76 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

the occupation of the Romans who did build a
castrum here in their time.

During the pourparlers between Henri IV
and the League, the inhabitants of the city de-
manded of Nicolas de Gellan, governor of the
place, the giving up of the castle which had for
years been the cause of so much misery and
misfortune. The place had been the culmina-
tive point of the attacks of centuries of war-
riors, and the inhabitants believed that they had
so suffered that it was time to cry quits.

"\Yhen the surrender, or the turning over,
of the castle took place, all the population,
including women and ' children, marched en
masse upon the structure, and wall by wall and
stone by stone dismantled it, leaving it in the
condition one sees it to-day. A castle of sorts
still exists, but it is a mere wraith of its former
self. There is this much to say for it, however,
and that is that its stern, gi'im walls which still
stand remain as silent witnesses to the fact that
it was not despoiled from without but demol-
ished from within. Peace came soon after, and
the people in submitting to the new regime
would not hear of the rebuilding of the chateau,
and so for three hundred years its battered
walls and blank windows have stood the stresses
of rigorous winters and broiling summers, a

" Chastillon au Noble Due " 77

silent and conspicuous monument to the rights
of the people.

The majestic tower of the chateau, for some-
thing more than the mere outline of the ground-
plan still exists, is bound to two others by a
very considerable expanse of wall of the don-
jon, and by the court ines which formerly joined
the bastions with the main structure.

The suggestion of the ample inner court is
still there, and the foundations of still two other
towers, as well as various ruined walls. A
neighbouring edifice, the buildings formerly oc-
cupied by the Canons of Saint Vorles, is inex-
plicably intermingled with the ruins of the cha-
teau in a way that makes it difficult to tell where
one leaves off and the other begins. The chevet
of the Eglise de Saint Vorles and its church-
yard also intermingle with the confines of the
chateau in an extraordinary manner. To say
the least, the juxtaposition of things secular and
ecclesiastic is the least bit incongruous.

Chatillon's Tour de Gissey, practically an
accessory to the chateau, is a noble work whose
well-preserved existence is due entirely to the
solidity of its construction. Its lower ranges
are of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but
its upper gallery and its row of meurtrieres
were due to the military engineers of Henri IV

78 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

who sought to make it the better serve the pur-
pose of their royal master.

"Within this tower are two fine apartments,
of which the upper, known as the Salle des
Gardes, was, before the Eevolution, the sepul-
chre of certain wealthy neighbouring fami-
lies.

Within the limits of the plot which surrounds
the chateau, the church and the tower, is the
tomb of Marechal Marmont, Due de Eaguse.

The present edifice at Chatillon occupied by
the Sous-Prefecture was built, as a plaque on
the wall indicates, by Madame la Comtesse de
Langeac in 1765. It is a fine example of the
architecture of the period which, in spite of
glaring inconsistencies to be noted once and
again, is unquestionably most effective, and sug-
gests that after all the chateau filled its pur-
pose well as a great town house of a wealthy
noble. The building plays a public part to-day,
and if it serves its present purpose half as well
as its former, no one should complain. Within
this really superb and palatial structure is still
to be seen the magnificent stairway of forged
iron of the period of Louis XVI. Besides this
are various apartments with finely sculptured
wooden panels and rafters of the same epoch,
all of which accessories were brought thither

'* Chastillon au Noble Due " 79

from the nearby Chateau de Courcelles-les-
Ranges, demolished during the Revolution.

The Chateau de Marmont at Chatillon was
formerly the princely residence of the Marechal
de Marmont, rebuilt from the fifteenth century
chatelet occupied by the Sires de Rochefort,
who were simply the appointed chatelains of
the Due de Bourgogne, to whom the property
really belonged.

In various successive eras the edifice was
transformed, or added to, until it took its pres-
ent form, the gradual transformation leaving
little or no trace of its original plan.

The Marechal de Marmont, one of Chatillon 's
most illustrious sons, would have transformed
his native city into a Burgundian Versailles, or
at least a " Garden City." He did found a
great agricultural enterprise, of which the cha-
teau, its gardens and its park, formed the pivot.
Too enterprising for his times, the Due de Ra-
guse saw himself ruined, and then came the
German invasion of '71, when, in a combat with
the Garibaldians, the chateau was burned.

Chatillon has perpetuated the name of its
great man in the public place, and also by nam-
ing one of the principal streets for him, but has
not yet erected a statue to him. This indeed
may be a blessing in disguise. Statues in trou-

80 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

sers are seldom dignified, and this noble duke
lived too late for cloak and sword or suit ar-
mour.

The Chateau de Marmont, so called even to-
day, was rebuilt after the fire and now serves
a former Maire of the city as his private resi-
dence.

Chatillon-sur-Seine was — though all the
world seems to have forgotten or ignored it —
the seat of a convention in 1814 which proposed
leaving France its original territorial limits of
1792, a proposition of the ambassadors which
was utterly rejected by Napoleon.

Albeit that Chatillon lies on the banks of the
Seine it is well within the confines of Burgundy.
Roundabout is a most fascinating and little ex-
ploited region.

Thirty kilometres to the north is Bar-sur-
Seine and to the northwest Brienne-le-Chateau,
where the Corsican first learned the rudiments
of the art of war.

" La grand' ville de. Bar-sur-Seine a fait
trembler Troyes en CJiampaignel " Poor
grand'ville! To-day it is withered and all but
dried up and blown away. Poor grand'ville!
It is the same of which Froissart recounts that
it lost in one day the houses of nine hundred
" nobles et de riches bourgeois " by fire. With-

" Chastillon au Noble Due " 81

out doubt these houses were of wooden frames
and offered but little resistance to fire, as the
period was 1359. Afterwards the town was
rebuilt and became again populous and rich.
Then began the decadence, until to-day it is the
least populous '' chef -lieu " of the department.
Its population is, and ever has been, part Bour-
guignon and part Champagnois, the latter prov-
ince being but a league to the northward, where,
on the actual boundary, is found the curiously
named little village of Bourguignons.

South from Chatillon, across the great forest
of the same name, one of the great national for-
ests of France so paternally cared for by the
Minister for Agriculture, is the actual source
of the Seine. Here is what the engineers call a
" Chateau d'Faux," though there is little
enough of the real chateau of romance about
it. It is simply a head-house with an iron grille
and various culverts and canals and what not
which lead the bubbling waters of the Seine to
a wider bed lower down, there to continue their
way, via Paris, to the sea.

A classic sculpture, typifying the Source of
the Seine, has been erected commemorating the
achievement of the engineers, but appropriate
as the sentiment is it has not prevented the dis-
honouring hand of that abominable certain

82 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

class of tourist of graving its names and dates
thereon.

The Seine at this point is nothing very ma-
jestic. It is simply a " Jiumhle filet que le nain
vert, Oberon, francherait d'un bond sans mouil-
ler ses grelots." All Frenchmen, and Paris-
ians in particular, have a reverence for every
kilometre of the swift-flowing waters of the
Seine. This is perhaps difficult for the stranger,
who may be familiar with greater if less his-
toric streams at home, to appreciate until he
has actually discussed the thing with some
Frenchman. Then he learns that it is the
Frenchman's Niagara, Mississippi and Yosem-
ite and Pike's Peak all rolled into one so far as
his worship goes.

Midway between Chatillon and the source is
Duesme, a smug, unheard of little hamlet, the
successor of a feudal bourg of great renown
in its day. The sparse ruined walls still sug-
gest the pride of place which it once held when
capital of the powerful Burgundian Countship
of Duesme. Its walls are still something more
than mere outlines, but the manorial residence
has become one of those '' walled farms," so
called, so frequently seen, and so unexpectedly,
in the countryside of France. Here and there a
gate-post, a wall or a gable, is as of old, and two

" Chastillon au Noble Due " 83

great ornamental vases support the entrance
to the alleyed row of trees which leads from the
highroad to the dwelling, suggesting, if in a
vague way, the old adage, " Other days, other
ways. ' '

The fall of this fine old feudal residence has
been great, but the present occupant — if he has
a thought or care for such things — must be
content indeed with such a princely farm-house.
It must be a fine thing to raise chickens and
other barn-yard livestock amid such surround-
ings!

CHAPTER VII

TOXNEEEE, TANLAY AND AXCY - LE - FEAXC

The origin of Tonnerre was due to a chateau-
fort built here on the right bank of the Arman-
Qon, surrounded by a groupment of huddling
dwellings which, in turn, were enclosed by a
corselet wall of ramparts.

Tonnerre gi'ew to its majority through the
ambitions of a powerful line of counts who
made the original fortress which they con-
structed the centre of a tiny capital of a feudal
kingdom in miniature. From the suzerainty of
the Sennonais, of which it was a county, Ton-
nerre came to bear the same title under control
of the Burgundians, in whose hands it remained
until it passed to the house of Luvois.

Only skimpy odds and ends remain of Ton-
nerre's one-time flanking gates, walls and tow-
ers. Its old chateau — which the counts in-
variably referred to, and with reason doubt-
less, as a palace — has been rebuilt and incor-
porated into the structure of the present hos-

84

Tonnerre, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc 85

pital, itself a foundation by Marguerite de
Bourgogne and dating back to 1293. No doubt
many of the wards which to-day shelter the ill
and crippled were once the scene of princely
revels.

In the nineteenth century the structure was
further remodelled and put in order, but it re-
mains still, from an architectural point of view
at least, an admirable example of Renaissance
building, though none of its attributes to be
seen at a first glance are such as are usually
associated with a great chateau of the noblesse
of other days. At all events its functions of
to-day are worthy, and it is far better to ad-
mire a mediaeval chateau which has become a
hospital than one which has been transformed
into a military barracks or a prison for thieves
and cutthroats, an indignity which has been
thrust on many a grand old edifice in France
deserving of a better fate. To-day such a hard
sentence is seldom passed. The '' Commission
des Monuments Historiques " sees to it that no
such desecrations are further committed.

Within the hospice is the remarkably sculp-
tured tomb of Marguerite de Bourgogne; as
remarkably done in fact as the better known
ducal tombs at Dijon, and those of the figlise
de Brou at Bourg-en-Bresse. The workman-

86 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

sMp of these elaborate sculptures is typical of
that known as the Ecole de Dijon.

Tonnerre's most remarkable sight is neither
its chateau, nor its hospice, at least not accord-
ing to the inhabitant. There is nothing to the
native more curious or interesting to see than
the celebrated Fosse Dionne (the Fons Diony-
sius of the ancients), a fountain which supplies
the city with an abundance of fresh water com-
ing from no one knows where, but spouting
from the earth like a geyser, and with a suffi-
cient force to turn a couple of water-mills. An
ordinary enough bubbling sjDring is interesting
to most of us, so that one enjoying an ancient
and mysterious reputation is put down as
a local curiosity well worth coming miles to
see.

Half a dozen kilometres out from Tonnerre,
on the road to Chatillon-sur-Seine, is the Cha-
teau de Tanlay, not known at all to the travel-
lers by express trains who are whisked by to
Switzerland with never as much as a slow-up or
a whistle as they pass the little station but a
short distance from the park gates.

The Chateau de Tanlay is a superb relic of
a sixteenth century work. This was a period
when architectural art had become debased not
a little, but here there is scarcelv a trace of its

Tonnerre, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc 87

lia\Tiig fallen off from the best traditions of a
couple of centuries before. It is this fact, and
some others, that makes Tanlay a sight not to
be neglected by the lover of old chateaux.

In the midst of a great flowered and shady
park sits this admirable edifice belonging to the
descendants of the family of Coligny. It was
here, to be precise, that the Coligny and the
Prince de Conde leagued themselves together
against the wily Catherine de Medicis and her
crew, and much bad blood was shed on both
sides before they got en rapport again.

The Chateau de Tanlay is perhaps the finest,
certainly one of the most monumental, chateaux
of Burgundy. Frankly Eenaissance, the best
of it dating from 1559, it was begun by Coligny
d'Andelot, the brother of the " Admiral."

One of the most notable of its constructive
features is the imposing Tour de la Ligue
where, previous to that dread Saint Bartholo-
mew's night, the Colignys and the Prince de
Conde and their followers plotted and planned
their future actions, and those of their associ-
ated Ligueurs.

The Marquis de Tanlay, the present owner
of the ancient lands of the Courtneys of royal
race, graciously opens the portal of the chateau
that the world of curiosity-loving folk who pass

88 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

by may enter if they will, and marvel at the
delights within.

The " Terre de Tanlay " in the thirteenth,
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries belonged to
the de Courtneys, by whom it was sold to Louise
de Montmorency, the mother of the Huguenot
Admiral of Henri IV. This latter, in 1559,
ceded it to another of her sons, Frangois
d'Andelot, the Coligny who began the work of
construction of the chateau forthwith. In 157-4
d'Andelot bequeathed the unachieved work to
Anne de Coligny, the wife of the Marquis de
Mirabeau, who, still working on the original
plans, left it uncompleted at his death in 1630.
His daughter Catherine fell heir to the prop-
erty, but sold it five years later to Porticelli
d'Hemery — Mazarin's Surintendant des Fi-
nances, who called in the architect Lemuet to
carry the work to a finish. This he did, or at
least brought it practically to the condition in
which it stands to-day.

The name of Hemery did not long survive as
chatelain of the property, and the lands passed
by letters patent to the Thevenin family, its
present owners, who were able to have the fief
made into a marquisat. The chateau fortu-
nately escaped Eevolutionary destruction and
to-day ranks as one of the most beautiful ex-

Tonnerre, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc 89

amples of the Eenaissance-Bourgnignonne style
of domestic architecture to be seen.

The edifice in its construction and exterior
decoration shows plainly its transition between
the moyen-age manner of building and that
which is considerably more modern. It is tow-
ered and turreted after the defensive manner
of the earliest times, and moat surrounded in
a way which suggests that the ornamental water
is something more than a mere accessory in-
tended to please the eye. Entrance is had by a
bridge over this moat and finally into the Cour
d'Honneur through a fortified gateway, as
pleasingly artistic in its disposition as it is ef-
fective as a defence.

Chiefly, the chateau shows to-day d'Hemery's
construction of the seventeenth century, paid
for, says one authority, by silver extorted from
the poor subjects of his king in the form of gen-
eral taxes. This may or may not be so, but as
d'Hemery's wealth was quickly acquired only
when he had need of it to build this great cha-
teau, it is quite likely that some of it came from
sources which might never otherwise have pro-
duced a personal revenue.

Another distinct portion of the chateau is
that arrived at through the Cour d'Honneur,
and known as Le Petit Chateau, a sort of dis-

90 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

tinct pavilion, a beautiful example of late Re-
naissance work at least a century older than the
main fabric.

Though non-contemporary in its parts, the
chateau taken entire is intensely interesting and
satisfying in every particular. Furthermore,
its sylvan site is still preserved much as it was
in other days, and its alleyed walks are the same
through which strolled the Colignys and the de
Courtneys of old. Xo sacrilege has been com-
mitted here as in many other seigneurial parks,
where more than one virgin forest has been cut
down to make firewood, or perhaps sold to bring
in gold which an impoverished scion of a noble
house may have thought he needed. One ave-
nue alone of this great park runs straight as
the proverbial flight of an arrow, only ending at
the chateau portal after a course of two kilo-
metres straightaway.

The park in turn is enclosed by a wall nearly
six kilometres long, and the chief ornamental
water is considerably over five hundred metres
in length, and merits well its appellation of
Grand Canal. This water which fills the moat
and surrounds the chateau is not stagnant, but
flows gently from the Quincy to the Armangon
after first enveloping the property in its folds.

The greater portion of the structure, that of

Tonneire, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc 91

Lemuet, is imposingly grand with its central
corps de logis and its two wings which advance
to join np with the extended members of the
Petit Chateau, forming with them the grand
Cour d'Honneur, more familiarly known as the
Cour Verte.

The actual entrance is known as the Portail
Xeuf (1547) and serves as the habitation of the
concierge. At the right is the imposing Tour
de la Ligue (1648) and to the left the Tour des
Archives, each enclosing a large spiral stair-
way and surmounted by a dome tenninated with
a lanternon. At each end of the outer fagade
are two other towers, in form more svelt than
those in the courtyard.

In the vestibule within, as one enters the
main building, are the marble busts of eight
Roman Emperors, of little interest one thinks
in a place where one would expect to find ef-
figies of the former illustrious occupants of the
chateau. Various trophies of the chase are
hung about the walls of this corridor and are
certainly more in keeping with the general tone
of things than the cold-cut \'isages of the noble
Romans before mentioned.

A gallery of mythological paintings opens
out of the vestibule and leads to the seventeenth
century chapel, which contains a '* Descent

92 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

from the Cross," by Peregrin, and other relig-
ious paintings of the Flemish school. Distrib-
uted throughout the various apartments are
nmnerous paintings and portraits by Mignard,
Nattier, Philippe-de-Champaigne, and others,
and some pastels by Quentin de la Tour.

The chimney-pieces throughout are notable
for their gorgeousness ; that in the Chambre
des Archeveques, at least a dozen feet high, is
decorated with two pairs of massive caryatides
and other statuettes in relief. On another is
a carven bust of Coligny, the Admiral, with a
cast of countenance suggesting a sinister leer
towards the statue of a sphinx which is sup-
posed to represent the features of Catherine de
Medicis.

The paintings of the Tour de la Ligue, sup-
posedly by Primataccio, representing mytholog-
ical divinities in the personages of the members
of the court of the Medicis, bespeak a question-
able taste on the part of the Colignys who
caused them to be put there. It would seem as
though spite had been carried too far, or that
the artist was given carte blanche to run a riot
of questionable fantasy for which no one stood
responsible. All these gods and goddesses of
the court are, if not repulsive, at least un-
seemly effigies. Catherine herself is there as

Tonnerre, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc 93

Juno, lier son Charles IX as Pluto, the Admiral
as Hercules, Guise as Mars, and Venus, of
course, bears the features of the huntress,
Diane de Poitiers.

About as far south from Tonnerre as Tanlay
is to the eastward is Ancy-le-Franc. It is in
exactly the same position as Tanlay; its charms
are pretty generally unknown and unsung, but
its sixteenth century chateau of the Clermont-
Tonnerre family is one of the wonder works of
its era. Rather more admirably designed to
begin with than many of its confreres, and con-
siderably less overloaded with meaningless or-
nament, it has preserved very nearly its orig-
inal aspect without and within. The finest
apartments have been conserved and decorated
to-day with many fine examples of the best of
Renaissance furnishings. This one may ob-
serve for himself if he, or she, is fortunate
enough to gain entrance, a procedure not im-
possible of accomplishment though the edifice is
not usually reckoned a sight by the guide-books.

At present the Marquis de Clermont-Ton-
nerre holds possession of the property, and
keeps it up with no little suggestion of its
former magnificent state.

If not notable for its fine suggestive feudal
nomenclature, Ancy-le-Franc certainly claims

94 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

that distinction by reason of the memories of
its chateau, which dates from the reign of
Henri II. Nearly three-quarters of a century
were given to its inception. Of a unique spe-
cies of architecture, presenting from without
the effect of a series of squat fagades, orna-
mented at each corner with a two storied square
pavilion, it is sober and dignified to excess. The

Mo o%^'\ f5li I? ! 1=

m

Garoens

interior arrangements are likewise unique and
equally precise, though not severe. The whole
is a blend of the best of dignified Italian mo-
tives, for in truth there is little distinctively
French about it, and nothing at all Burgundian.
The structure was begun by the then ruling
Comtes de Tonnerre in 1555, and became in
1668 the property of the Marquis de Louvois,
the minister of Louis XIV, and already pro-

Tonnerre, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc 95

prietor of the countsliip of Tonnerre which
came to him as a dot upon his marriage with
the rich heiress Anne de Souvre.

The gardens and park, now dismembered,
were once much more extensive and followed
throughout the conventional Italian motives of
the period of their designing. Enough is left
of them to make the site truly enough sylvan,
but with their curtailment a certain aspect of
isolation has been lost, and the whole property
presents rather the aspect of a country place of
modest proportions than a great estate of vast
extent.

The Chateau de Ancy-le-Franc is commonly
accredited as one of the few edifices of its im-
portant rank which has preserved its general
aspect uncontaminated and uncurtailed. No
parasitical outgrowths, or additions, have been
interpolated, and nothing really desirable has
been lopped off. With Chambord and Dam-
pierre, Ancy-le-Franc stands in this respect in
a small and select company. Ancy-le-Franc is
even now much the same as it was when An-
drouet du Cerceau included a drawing of it in
his great work (1576), '' Les Plus Excellents
Bastiments de France."

He was an architect as well as a writer, this
Androuet du Cerceau, and he said further:

96 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

** For my part I know no other minor edifice
so much to my liMng, not only for its general
arrangements and surroundings, but for the
dignified formalities which it possesses."

Comte Antoine de Clermont, Grand Maitre
des Eaux et Forets, built the chateau of Ancy-
le-Franc on the plans of Primataccio, probably
in 1545, certainly not later, though the exact
date appears to be doubtful. That Primataccio
may have designed the building there is little
doubt, as he is definitely known to have con-
tributed to the royal chateaux of Fontainebleau
and Chambord. For a matter of three-quarters
of a century the edifice was in the construction
period however, and since Primataccio died in
1570 it is improbable that he carried out the
decorations, a class of work upon which he
made his great reputation, for the simple rea-
son that they were additions or interpolations
which came near the end of the construction
period. This observation probably holds true
with the decorations attributed to the Italian at
neighbouring Tanlay. It may be that Prima-
taccio only furnished sketches for these decora-
tions and that another hand actually executed
them. Historical records are often vague and
indefinite with regard to such matters. Again,
since Primataccio was chieflv known as a deco-

Tonnerre, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc 97

rator the doubt is justly cast upon his actually
having been the designer of Ancy-le-Franc. It
is all very vague, one must admit that, in spite
of claims and counterclaims.

All things considered, this chateau ranks as
one of the most notable in these parts. The
surrounding Trails bathe their forefoot in the
waters of the Armangon and thus give it a de-
fence of value and importance, though the prop-
erty was never used for anything more than a
luxurious country dwelling.

Built, or at any rate designed, by an artist
who was above all a painter, its walls and pla-
fonds naturally took on an abundance of deco-
rative detail. For this reason the chateau of
Ancy-le-Franc, if for no other, is indeed re-
markable. Two of its great rooms have been
celebrated for centuries among art-lovers and
experts, the Chambre des Fleurs, with its elab-
orately panelled ceiling, and that of Pastor
Fido, whose walls show eight great paintings
depicting the scenes of a pastoral romance.
The Chambre du Cardinal contains a portrait
of Richelieu, and the Chambre des Arts is gar-
nished most ornately throughout. The mono-
grams and devises of the ceiling of the Chambre
des Fleurs suggest the various alliances of the
Clermonts, but the painted arms are those of

98 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

the Louvois, who substituted their own marque
for that of the Clermonts wherever it could
readily be done.

The present Marquis de Clermont-Tonnerre
has ably restored the chateau of his ancestors
and put the family arms for the great part
back where they belong. His arms are as fol-
lows: '' De gueules aux deux clefs d'argent en
sautoir avec la tiare pour cimier." The motto
is '" Etsi omnes ego non." These arms were

Monograms from the Chambre des Fleurs

originally conceded to Sibaut 11 de Clermont
by Pope Calixtus II in recognition of his hav-
ing chased the Anti-Pope Gregoire YTil from
Rome in 1120.

In the Salle des Empereurs Remains are a
series of paintings of Roman Emperors which
makes one think that Tanlay's sculptured
Roman busts must have set the fashion here-
abouts or vice versa.

Tonnerre, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc 99

The Bibliotheque contains a remarkable folio
showing plans and views of the chateaux of
Ancy-le-Franc and Tonnerre, the latter since
destroyed as we have found.

In the Chapel, dedicated to Sainte Cecile, are
a series of admirable painted panels of the apos-
tles and prophets, a favourite religious decora-
tive motif in these parts, as one readily recalls
by noting the Puits de Moise and the tomb of
the Burgundian dukes at Dijon, the inspiration
doubtless of all other similar works since.

The Grand Salon of to-day was once the
sleeping apartment of Louis XIV when one day
he honoured the chateau with his presence.

A dozen kilometres south from Ancy-le-
Franc is Xuits-sous-Eavieres. Xuits, curiously
enough, a name more frequently seen on the
wine-lists of first class restaurants than else-
where, here in the heart of Burgundy, is sup-
posedly of German origin. Its original inhab-
itants were Germans coming from Xeuss in
Prussia, whose inhabitants are called Xuych-
tons, whilst those of Nuits are known as Nui-
tons. Again, near Berne, in Switzerland, is a
region Imown as Xuitland, which would at least
add strength to the assertion of a Teuton ori-
gin for this smiling little wine-growing com-
munitv of the celebrated Cote d'Or.

100 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Nuits possesses a minor chateau which to all
intents and purposes fulfils, at a cursory glance,
its object admirably. It is a comfortably dis-
posed and not unelegant country house of the
sixteenth century, sitting in a fine, shady park
and looks as habitable as it really is, though it
possesses no historical souvenirs of note.

A fortified gateway leads from the north end
of the town towards Champagne, Nuits being
on the borderland between the possessions of
the Dues de Bourgogne and those of the Comtes
de Champagne.

CHAPTER VIII

IN OLD BURGUNDY

Burgundy has ever been known as a land of
opulence. Since the middle ages its richesse
has been sung by poets and people alike. There
is an old Burgundian proverb which runs as
follows :

" Riche de Chalon

Nohle de Vienne

Preux de Vergy

Fin de Neufchatel
Et la maison de Beaufremont
D'ou sont sortis les hauts barons.'

The Burgundians were first of all vandals,
but with their alliance with the Romans in the

101

102 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy-
fifth century they became a people distinct and
apart, and of a notable degree of civilization.
They established themselves first in Savoy, a
gift to them of the Emperor Valentinian, and
made Geneva the capital of their kingdom.

A new Burgundian kingdom of vast extent
came into being under the Frankish kings ; this
second dynasty of Burgundian rulers finally
came to the French throne itself. In the mean-
time they held, through their powerful line of
dukes, the governorship of the entire province
with a power that was absolute, — a power that
was only equalled by that of independent sov-
ereigns. The Burgundians were no vassal race.

The hereditary Dues de Bourgogne reigned
from 721 to 1361, during which period the duchy
rose to unwonted heights of richness and lux-
ury as well as esteem by its neighbours. Under
the Frankish line the career of the province
was no less brilliant, and when the King of
France gave the duchy to his third son Philippe,
that prince showed himself so superior in abil-
ity that he would treat with his suzerain father
only as an equal in power.

In the reign of Louis XIV the eldest son of
the house of France bore again the title Due
de Bourgogne, his grandson, born in 1751, be-
ing the last prince to be so acknowledged.

In Old Burgundy 103

Burgundy in 17S9 still formed one of the
great '' gouvernements " of the France of that
day, and in addition was recognized in its own
right as a Pays d'fitat. With the new portion-
ing out of old France under Revolutionary rule
the old Burgundian province became the mod-
ern Departements of the Cote d'Or, the Saone
et Loire and the Yonne.

The Burgundian nobles who made Dijon
their residence in Eenaissance times lived well,
one may be sure, with such a rich larder as the
heart of Burgundy was, and is, at their door.
There is no granary, no wine-cellar in France
to rival those of the Cote d'Or. The shop-
keepers of Dijon, the fournisseurs of the court,
supplied only the best. The same is true of the
shop-keepers of these parts to-day, whatever
may be their line of trade. Even the religious
institutions of old were, if not universal pro-
viders, at least purveyors of many of the good
things of the table. When the monks of Saint
Beninge sent out their lay brothers, sandalled
and cowled, to call in the streets of Dijon the
wines of the convent vineyards not a wine
dealer was allowed to compete with them. This
made for fair dealing, a fine quality of mer-
chandise and a full measure at other times, no
doubt. The monks who sold this product were

104 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

accompanied by a surpliced cleric who fan-
fared a crowd around him and announced his
wine by extolling its virtues as if he was chant-
ing a litany.

In Burgundy there has come down from feu-
dal times a series of sobriquets which, more
than in any other part of France, have endured
unto this time. There were the '' huveurs " of
Auxerre, the '' escuyers " of Burgundy and
the " moqueurs " of Dijon. All of these are
terms which are locally in use to-day.

The Bourgiiignons in the fifth century, by a
preordained custom, wore, suspended by cords
or chains from their belts, the keys of their
houses, the knives which served them at table
as well as for the hunt (forks were not then in-
vented, or at any rate not in common use), their
purse, more or less fat with silver and gold,
their sword and their ink-well and pens; all
this according to their respective stations in
life. When one was condemned for a civil con-
travention before a judge he was made to de- «
posit his belt and its dangling accessories as an
act of acknowledgment of his incapacity to
properly conduct his affairs. It was no sign
of infamy or lack of probity, but simply an in-
dication of a lack of business sagacity. It was
the same, even, with royalty and the noblesse

In Old Burgundy 105

as with the common people, and the act was
applied as well to women as men. The Du-
chesse de Bourgogne, widow of Philippe-le-
Hardi, who died covered with debts brought
about by his generosity, admitted also that she
was willing to share the responsibilities of his
faults by renouncing certain of her rights and
deposition on his tomb of his ceinture, his keys
and his purse.

Isabelle de Baviere, who owed so much to a
Due de Bourgogne of the seventeenth century,
was criticised exceedingly when she came
among his peoj^le because of the luxury of pos-
sessing two " chemises de toile," the women of
the court at the time — in Burgundy at all
events — dressing with the utmost simplicity.
"With what degree of simplicity one can only
imagine !

Another luxury in these parts in mediaeval
times was the use of candles. TVliat artificial
light was made use of in a domestic manner
came from resinous torches, and cires and can-
dles were used only in the churches, or perhaps
in the oratories, or private chapels, of the cha-
teaux.

The homes of the Burgundian bourgeoisie
were hardly as luxuriant or magnificent as
those of the nobles, nor were they as comfort-

106 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ably disposed in many instances as one would
expect to learn of this land of ease and plenty.
Frequently there was no board flooring, no
tiles, no iDaving of flag stones, even. A simple
hard-pounded clay floor served the humble
householder for his rez-de-cliaussee. In the
more splendid Renaissance town houses, or even
in many neighbouring chateaux, it was not in-
frequent that the same state of affairs existed,
but sheaves or bunches of straw were scattered
about, giving the same sort of warmth that
straw gives when spread in the bottom of an
omnibus. If a \dsitor of importance was ex-
pected fresh straw was laid down, but this was
about all that was done to make him comfort-
able. Otherwise the straw was generally of
the Augean stable variety, since it was usually
renewed but three times during the cold season,
which here lasts from three to five months out
of the twelve. In time a sort of woven or
plaited straw carpet came into use, then square
flags and tiles, and finally rugs, or tapis, which,
in part, covered the chilly flooring. Elsewhere,
as the rugs came into the more wealthy houses,
plain boards, sometimes polished, served their
purpose much as they do now.

Only the rich had glazed windows. The first
window glass used in France was imported

In Old Burgundy 107

from Englaud iu the twelfth century, at which
time it was reckoned as one of the greatest of
domestic luxuries.

Chimneys, too, were wanting from the houses
of the poor. Houses with windows without
ghiss, and entirely without chimneys, must have
lacked comfort to a very great degree. Such
indeed exist to-day, though, in many parts of
France. This is fact ! A sort of open grate in
a lean-to outside the house, and iron barred
open windows without even shutters are to be
found in many places throughout the Midi of
France. One such the writer knows in a town
of three thousand inhabitants, and it is occupied
by a prosperous " decorated " Frenchman.
What comfort, or discomfort!

The Burgundian householder of mediaeval
times sat with his family huddled around a
great brazier upon which burned wood or char-
coal. The rising smoke disappeared through
a hole in the centre of the roof in primitive red-
man's fashion.

As late as the fifteenth century there were no
individual chairs in any but the most prosper-
ous and pretentious homes. Their place was
taken by benches, and these mostly without
backs.

Chieflv the meaner houses were built of wood

108 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

and tliatched after the manner of such thatched
roofs as exist to-day, but with less symmetry,
one judges from the old prints.

All the world and his wife retired early.
This one learns from the Burgundian proverb
already old in the time of Louis XII.

"Lever a cinq, diner a neuf
Souper d cinq, coucher a neuf
Fait vivre d^ans nonante et neuf.'^

This is probably as true to-day as it was then
if one had the courage to live up to it and find
out.

The ancient reputation of the wine of Bur-
gundy dates back centuries and centuries before
the juice of the grape became the common drink
of the French. During the famous schism
which di^^ded the Church in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, the Due de Bourgogne, Phi-
lippe-le-Hardi, was deputed, in 1395, to present
to Pope Benoit XIII, then living at Avignon in
the Comtat, '* rich presents and twenty queues
of the wine of Beaune."

History and romance have been loud in their
praises of the rich red wines of Burgundy ever
since the dawn of gormandizing. Petrarch
has said that his best inspirations and senti-
ments came from the wine of Beaune, and the

In Old Burgundy 109

Avignon Popes lengthened their sojourn in
their Papal City on the banks of the Rhone
because of the easy transport and the low price
of the fine wines of Beaune. " There is not in
Italy, ' ' they said, * * the wine of Beaune nor the
means of getting it."

The heart of old Burgundy, that is, the Cote
d'Or of to-day, is the region of France the most
densely wooded after the Vosges. Great for-
ests exploited for their wood are everywhere,
oak and beech predominating. Only the co-
teaux, the low-lying hillsides, where the vines
are chiefly grown, are bare of forest growth.

Two great rivers cross the province from
north to south, and two from east to west, the
Aube, the Dheune, the Saone and the Vin-
geanne, and the Seine itself takes birth between
Saint Seine and Chanceaux, this last, like
most of the great rivers of Europe, being but
a humble ri\Tilet at the commencement. Two
canals furnish an economical means of com-
munication, and are really remarkable water-
ways. The Canal de Bourgogne joins up
the Saone and the Seine, and more impor-
tant still is that which joins the Ehone and
Rhine.

Eight '' Routes Royales " crossed the pro-
vince in old monarchical days, and where once

110 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy-
rolled princely corteges now wMz automobiles
without count.

In the seventeenth century from Paris to
Dijon was a journey of eight days in winter
and seven in sununer, by the malle-poste. One
departure a week served what traffic there was,
and the price was twenty-four livres (francs)
a head, with baggage charged at three sols a
pound. The departure from Paris was from
the old auberge '' Aux Quatre Fils Aymon,"
and more frequently than not the announce-
ments read that the coach would leave " as soon
as possible " after the appointed hour.

Whatever feudal reminiscence may linger in
the minds of the readers of old chronicles let
no one forget that France in general, and Bur-
gundy in particular, is no longer a land of pov-
erty where everybody but the capitalist has to
pick up fagots for fires. Far from it ; the peas-
ant here^abouts, the worker in the fields, may
lack many of the commonly accepted luxuries
of life, but he eats and drinks as abundantly as
the seemingly more prosperous dweller in the
towns, and if not of meat three times a day
(the worn-out, threadbare argument of the
English and American traveller who looks not
below the surface in continental Europe) it is
because he doesn't crave it. That he is the

In Old Burgundy 111

better in mind and body for the lack of it goes
without saying.

The valley of the Saone above Dijon is a
paradise of old fiefs of counts and dukes. Al-
most every kilometre of its ample course bears
a local name allied with some seigneur of feu-
dal days. The whole watershed is historic, ro-
mantic ground. Mantoche was the site of a
Cite Romain; Apremont gave birth to one of
the most prolific of romancers, Xavier de
Montepin, a litterateur who wrote mostly for
concierges and shop girls of a couple of genera-
tions ago, but a name famous in the annals of
French literature nevertheless.

Lea^^.ng the country of the minor counts the
Saone enters into Basse Bourgogne, taking on
at various stages of its career the name of
Petite Saone, Saone Superieur or Grande
Saone. All told it has a navigable length of
nearly four hundred kilometres, making it one
of France's mightiest chemins qui marclie, to
borrow Napoleon's phrase.

The entire heart of old Burgundy above Di-
jon, the plain that is, is most curiously sown
with cultures of a variety that one would hardly
expect to find.

Here and there a chateau de commerce, as
the French distinguish the '' iime-chateaicx "

112 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

from the purely domestic establishments and
the " monuments historiques " of which the
French government is so justly proud, crops
up surrounded by its vineyards, with its next
door neighbour, perhaps, an exploitation of
hops, the principal ingredient of beer, as the
grape is of wine. The paradox is as inexplic-
able, as is the fact that Dijon is famous for
mustard when not a grain of it is grown nearer
the Cote d'Or than India.

It is true that Dijon is noted quite as much
for its mustard and its gingerbread as for its
sculpture. The Ecole Dijonnais is supreme in
all three specialties. The historic figure, '^ mus-
tardmaker to the Pope," has caused many a
** rire hourguignon " ; nevertheless the pre-
paring of Dijon mustard is a good deal of a
secret still, as all who know the subtleness of
this particular condiment recognize full well.

The mustard pots of Dijon, even those of
commonest clay, are veritable works of art. It
would pay some one to collect them. The ' ' Fon-
taine de Jouvence," which one may buy for
thirty sous at the railway buffet, is indeed a
gem; another, blazoned with the arms of Bur-
gundy, and the legend '' Moult me tarde,"
followed by '* d'y gouster " is no less.

CHAPTER IX

DIJON, THE CITY OF THE DUKES

Of no city of
France are there
more splendid
ducal memories
than of Dijon.
To the French
historians it has
ever "been known
as " the city of
■VAuufiNG t^e glorious
TDijoA.^ dukes." It is
one of the cities which has best conserved its
picturesque panoramic silhouette in Europe.
Certainly no other of the cities of modern
France can approach it in this respect. Its
strikingly mediaeval skyline serrated with
spires, donjon and gables innumerable gives
it a cachet all its own. Its situation, too, is
remarkable, lying as it does snugly wrapped
between the mountain and the plain by the
flanks of the gently rolling coteaux round

113

114 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

about. Dijon is still a veritable reminder of
the moyen-age in spite of the fact that count-
less of its palaces, towers and clochers have dis-
appeared with the march of time and the insist-
ent movement of progress.

This was less true a generation or so ago.
Then the city's old ramparts were intact. To-
day not more than a scant area of house front
or garden wall suggests the one time part that
the same stones played in the glory of war and
siege. Nearby, too, the contemplation of Dijon
evokes the same emotions in spite of a monoto-
nous modernity to be seen in the new quarters
of the town, where all is a dull drab in strong
contrast to the liveliness of the colouring of the
older parts. Dijon, take it all in all, is indeed
a museum of architectural splendours.

" JVous alliona admirant clochers, portnils et tours,
Et les vielles maisons dans les arrierp cours."

Thus said Saint-Beauve, and any who come
this way to-day, and linger long enough in the
city of the dukes, may well take it for their
text.

After many and diverse fortunes Dijon be-
came the capital of the Duche de Bourgogne in
1015 under Due Robert, the first of the line of
Burgundian dukes, known as the dukes of the

Dijon, the City of the Dukes 115

premiere nice royale. This particular Robert
was the grandson of Ungues Capet. Twelve
princes in succession (until 1349) ruled the des-
tinies of the dukedom from the capital, and
showered upon its inhabitants benefits galore.
At this time Philippe de Rouvres came into the
control of the duchy, under the tutelage of his
mother, Jeanne de Bourgogne.

One reads in the *' Role des Depenses " of
1392 unmistakable facts which point to the
luxury which surrounded the court of Bur-
gundy in the fourteenth century. Particularly
is this so with regard to the garde-rohe of
Philippe-le-Hardi, wherein all his costumes, in-
cluding the trappings of his horses, were gar-
nished with real gold. Manj^ other attributes
went to make up the gorgeous properties of this
admirable stage setting. There was an elabor-
ate " chaine a porter reliques " and '' la bonne
ceinture de Monseigneur Saint Louis " to be
counted among the tresor of the court.

Amid all this sumptuousness there was a
notable regard for the conservation and safe-
guarding of governmental funds and property.
This is to be remarked the more because of the
fact that the overlord generally took for his
own, and that of his heirs, all that came within
his immediate presence. The Burgundian dukes

116 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

at Dijon administered their rule with prudence
and good judgment in all particulars until the
Duche and the neighbouring Comte (afterwards
the Franche Comte) stood almost alone among
the European states of their time in not being
obliged to own to a profligate hierarchy of
administrators.

In all phases of their history the Dijonnais
have ever been jealous of their personal liber-
ties. Frangois Premier, a prisoner at Madrid,
had ceded Burgundy as a part of unwillingly
given ransom to Charles Quint, who had al-
ready acquired the Franche Comte. The Dijon
parliament would hear nothing of such a pro-
ject, and energetically refused to ratify the
treaty, sending their deputies to Cognac, to
the convention which had been called, in pro-
test.

Dijon's chateau was first built by Louis XI
to hold in leash his " bonne ville de Dijon.'' ^
The edifice was only completed in 1572, under
Louis XII, It was in its prime, judging from
historical descriptions, a most curious example
of fifteenth century military architecture. The
Dijonnais of late years demanded the suppres-
sion, and the clearing away, of the debris of
this old royal chateau, believing (wrongly of
course) that the ducal palace was sufficient

Dijon, the City of the Dukes 117

to sustain the glory of their city. Accordingly,
there remains nothing to-day of the chateau of
the Louis but a scant funeral pile built up from
the stones of the former chateau merely as a
historical guide post, or rather, memorial of
what has once been. Historical enthusiasm and
much palavering on the part of a certain body
of local antiquarians against the popular wave
of feeling, could accomplish no more of a res-
toration. For the past fifty years the ruin has
been, it is true, something of an eye-sore, an
ill-kept, badly guarded, encumbering ruin, and
unless it maj^ be better taken care of, it would
be as well to have it removed.

In form this chateau was a perfectly rect-
angular tower, sustained at each corner by
a round tower of lesser proportions. As a
whole it was one of the most massive works of
its era in these parts. Its defence towards the
north was a great horse-shoe shaped redoubt,
a most unusual and most efficient rampart.
Towards the city it was defended by a moat
over which one entered the chateau proper by
the traditional drawbridge.

The vast monumental pile at Dijon which
bears the name of Hotel de Ville to-day has
been variously known as the Palais des Dues,
the Logis du Eoi and the Palais des fitats. It

118 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy-
has served all three purposes and served them
well and with becoming dignity.

The exact origin of the structure has been
left behind in the dim distance, but it is certain
that it was the outgrowth of some sort of a
foundation which existed as early as the tenth
century, a period long before the coming of the
so-called chateau.

In the twelfth century Hugues III built the
Sainte Chapelle, all vestiges of which, save cer-
tain decorative elements built into the eastern
wall of the Palais des Dues, have now disap-
peared.

Philippe-le-Hardi, in 1366, almost entirely
rebuilt the palace as it then existed, and Phi-
lippe-le-Bon actually did complete the work in
1420, when the great square Tour de la Ter-
rasse, of a height of nearly fifty metres, was
built. There is still existing another minor
tower, the Tour de Bar, so named from the fact
that for three years it was the prison of Eene
d'Anjou, the Due de Bar. In 1407 and 1502
this tower was nearly destroyed by fire, which
carried away as well a great part of the main
structure of that time.

The edifice is to-day occupied by many civic
departments, including the Musee, the Archives
and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, but the Salle des

Dijon, the City of the Dukes 119

Gardes and the *' Cuisines des Dues " still re-
main, as to their general outlines of walls and
ceilings, as they were when they served the
dukes themselves.

The present edifice, in spite of being known
as the Ducal Palace, was not inhabited by any
of the nobles of the first race ; there is no part
which dates from so early a period as that of

the end even of

their regime.

©

u

c

B

The

most ancient of

the elements ^„.„„^,
, . , . , CUI51NES

which formerly ^

made up the col- ^DHON
lective block of
buildings was the
Sainte Chapelle,
which was demol-
ished in 1802, and
the rez-de-chaussee of the Tour de Bar, which
still exists. The lower part of this tower dates
from the thirteenth century, the upper portions
from the fourteenth.

From the ducal account books it appears that
the portions known as the " Cuisines " — ac-
tually housing the Musee Lapidaire to-day —
were constructed in 1445, and it is this part of
the old palace which is the most interesting

120 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

because it best illustrates the manner of build-
ing hereabouts at that period.

The Burgundian court attached great impor-
tance to the service at table, and during the fif-
teenth century there was not in all of Europe
a line of princes who were better fed or got
more satisfaction from the joys of the table.
This is historic fact, not mere conjecture ! The
descriptions of the f est ins which were given by
the Dues de Bourgogne and described in the
*' Memoires d 'Olivier de la Marche " make in-
teresting reading to one who knows anything
of, and has any liking for, the chronicles of
gastronomy.

For such a bountiful serving at table as was
habitual with the dukes, kitchens of the most
ample proportions were demanded. It is re-
counted that on many occasions certain of the
mets were cooked in advance, but a prodigious
supply of soups, ragouts and sauces, of fish,
volaille, and rolls were of necessity to be pre-
pared at the moment of consumption. To pro-
duce these in their proper order and condition
was the work of an army of cooks supported
by a numerous '^ hatterie de cuisine; " neces-
sarily they required an ample room in which
to work. The modern French cook demands the

Dijon, the City of the Dukes 121

same thing to-day. Details in this line do not
change so rapidly in this " land of good cooks "
as elsewhere, for the French chef is still su-
preme and cares not for labour or time-saving
appliances.

The " Cuisines," as to their ground plan,
form a perfect square, the roof being borne
aloft by eight colmnns, which on three sides of
the apartment serve as supporters also for the
great twin-hooded chimneys. Two potagers, or
h raisers, where the pots might be kept simmer-
ing, were at B on the plan, and the oven, or
foyer ardente was at C. D was a well, and E
its means of access. The windows were at F
and G, and H was a great central smoke-pipe,
or opening in the roof, which served the same
functions as the hole in the roof of the Indian's
wigwam. K was a serving table, made also of
stone, to receive the dishes after being cooked ;
and. that they might not become literally stone
cold before being finally served, this table had
a sort of subterranean heating arrangement.

The conglomerate structure of to-day which
serves its civic functions so well is an out-
growth of all these varied components which
made up the ducal residence of old. It was
midway in its career that it became the Parlia-

122 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ment House of the Etats de Bourgogne, so it
took naturally to its new function when it came
to uphold merely civic dignity.

The apartment where sat the Burgundian
Parliament, the Salle des Etats, has been re-
cently restored and decorated with a series of
wall paintings depicting the glories of 'Bur-
gundy. It is a seemingly appropriate decora-
tion and in every way admirably executed,
though the name attached thereto may not be
as famous as that of an Abbey or a Sargent.

In general the character of the great pile of
buildings to-day, on account of the heterogene-
ous aspect of the mass, forbids any strict esti-
mate applicable to its artistic merits. The most
that can be ventured is to comment on that
which is definitely good.

At many times during its career it has been
remodelled and added to by many able hands.
As a result there are naturally many worthy
bits which may be discovered by close observa-
tion that in general run a fair chance of being
overlooked. Two pupils of Mansart worked
upon the remodelling of the structure, and Man-
sart himself designed the colonnade and the
vestibule of the Salle des Etats. Twelve prin-
cipal buildings surrounding the main courtyard
came into being from time to time, and in one-

Chateau des Dues, Dijon

Dijon, the City of the Dukes 123

form or another they are all there to-day,
though in the scantiest of fragments in some
instances. An old-time iron gateway, or grille,
still exists midway between the two principal
fagades of the Doric order. The effect of this
fagade is heavy, but ornate: frankly it is bad
architecture, but it is imposing. It is bad be-
cause it is a manifest Italian interpolation with
little or nothing in common with other decora-
tive details to be seen, details which are of the
transplanted French variety of Renaissance,
and that in ti-uth is far and away ahead of
anything in Italy or any rank copy of anything
of Italian origin.

The old Place Royale opened out fan-like
before the building and gave a certain spectac-
ular effect which saved it from ultra bad taste
at that period. The Place d'Armes, before the
present Hotel de Ville (which now occupies the
principal part of the old ducal palace), and the
Place des Dues, at the rear, lend the same ar-
tistic aid which was performed by the Place
Royale in its time.

Of the interior arrangements but little re-
mains as it was of old save a range of vaulted
rooms on the lower floor, the Salle des Gardes,
the apartments of the Tour de Bar and the
" Cuisines." The public functions which have

124 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

been performed by the structure in late years
have nearly swept away the old glamour of
romance and chivalry which might otherwise
have hung about the place for ages, so that to-
day it is, like many edifices of its class in
France, simply a hive of office-holders and little-
worked authorities of the state and civic ad-
ministrations. It is difficult to see any romance
in the visage of a modern town-clerk or a ser-
geant-at-arms.

This old palace of the dukes was chiefly the
work of Dijon craftsmen, at least those por-
tions which were built in the sixteenth century
or immediately after. This is the more to be
remarked because the gables and roof-tops are
not unlike that Flemish-Gothic of the Hospice
de Beaune which was built by alien hands.

At Dijon the northern portal was designed by
Brouhee and the roofing of the Grande Salle
was made from the plans of Sambin and
Chambrette, as was the doorway from the
street to the chapel. The Chambre Doree has
a most beautiful ceiling of the time of Frangois
Premier, and the boiseries and the grisaille of
the same apartment date from the period of
Louis XIII.

There are two other notable ceilings in the

Dijon, the City of the Dukes 125

edifice, those of the Bibliotheque and the Salle
d 'Assises.

Dijon has ever been noted down by those who
know as a city of a distinctly local and a really
great and celebrated art. The Ecole de Dijon
was a unique thing which had no counterpart
elsewhere. Under the liberally encouraging
patronage of the Dues de Bourgogne numerous
habile artists banded together and constituted
the local " £lcole de Dijon." It was a body of
artists and craftsmen whose careers burned
brilliantly throughout the best period of the
Eenaissance, indeed up to its end, for the Hotel
de Vogue at Dijon, of a very late period, shows
the distinct local manner of building at its best.

Hugues Sambin, who designed the Palace of
the Burgundian Parliament, was the best known
of these Dijon craftsmen — best known perhaps
because of his architectural writings (1572),
for his work was not indeed superior to that of
his fellows. His dwelling exists to-day at
Dijon, in the Eue de la Vannerie, somewhat dis-
figured and not at all reminiscent of the great
capabilities of his art which he so freely be-
stowed on the more magnificent structures of
his clients. A tower, presumably a part of the
house itself, rises close beside, and on its vault-

126 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ing one sees the devise " Tout par Compas,"
tlie same that may be seen in the Hotel de
Vogue, though it is declared that there is no
other connection between the two save that
Sambin had a hand in the construction of both.
The motto is undeniably a good one for an
architect.

The local Museum contains one of the most
important provincial collections in France. It
occupies the ancient Salle des Gardes of the
Palais and encloses the tombs of Jean-Sans-
Peur and Philippe-le-Hardi. As examples of
the sculptures of the Burgundian school of the
fifteenth century these ornate tombs are in the
very first category. They were brought from
the Chartreux de Dijon in 1795. How they es-
caped Revolutionary desecration is a marvel,
but here they are to-day in all the glory of
their admirable design and execution. If Sar-
gent's frieze of the prophets in the Boston Pub-
lic Library was not inspired by these cowled
figures surrounding the ducal tombs at Dijon,
it must be a dull critic indeed who will not at
least admit the suggestion of similarity.

The mausoleum of Philippe-le-Hardi has a
single recumbent effigy on the slab above, whilst
that of Jean-Sans-Peur is accompanied by an^
other, that of his wife, Marguerite de Baviere.

Dijon, the City of the Dukes 127

The tiny statuettes in the niches of the arcade
below, and surrounding each of the tombs, are
similar; finely chiselled, weeping, mourning
figures, most exquisitely sculptured and dis-
posed.

The tomb of Philippe-le-Hardi is the older,
and is the work of Claus Sluter and Claus do
"Werve; that of Jean-Sans-Peur was conceived
(half a century later) by Jehan de la Heurta
and Antoine Moiturier. A statue of Anne de
Bourgogne, the Duchess of Bedford, the daugh-
ter of Jean-Sans-Peur, stands between these
two royal tombs.

It is worthy to note that the robe of the statue
of Marguerite de Baviere is sown with that par-
ticular species of field daisy which we have
come to know as the marguerite, so named from
the predilection of the princess in question for
that humble flower,

Dijon's Maison de Saint Frangois-de-Sales
may well be given passing consideration for
reasons stated below. It dates from 1541 and
thus belongs to an epoch when the art of the
Renaissance was at its height. It is an elabor-
ately conceived edifice and, judging from the
escutcheons of its facade, was the habitation,
at one time or another, of some of the royal
family of France. In spite of this the author-

128 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ities have little definite to say with regard to
its founders.

On the svelt tourelle at the side one notes that
the lead epi, or weather-vane, is intact, a re-
markable fact when one considers that it has
endured for nearly five centuries. All things
considered, this dainty habitation is one of the
most pleasing and ornate structures of its class.
If it were at x\zay-le-Eideau in Touraine, or at
Beaugency on the Loire, it would be heralded
far and wide as one of the flowers of the Renais-
sance. To rank it in any place but as one of
the most charming hotels privees, or small
town chateaux, of Burgundy would be a grave
error.

Dijon possesses as well a most curious and
little known structure, at least not known to
the usual hurly burly world of tourists. It is
near the Palais de Justice, enclosed behind a
high protecting wall, through which easy access
is to be had by a gateway opened on request.
The edifice is mysteriously called the Hotel de
Venus, and is a diminutive edifice with its en-
tire outer wall garlanded with flowers and em-
blems cut deep into its rather crumbly stones.
Just what the significance of this strange build-
ing was, and who, or what, were its antecedents,
is in great doubt.

Dijon, the City of the Dukes 129

Dijon's Bibliotheque oc<;upies a part of the
great town house built by Odinet Godran in
1681. The Departmental Archives occupy the
restored city dwelling of Nicolas Rollin, the
Chancellor of the first Burgundian Parliament.
It is a reconstruction now of the eighteenth cen-
tury, but originally came into being in the fif-
teenth. The principal apartment owns to a
richly sculptured chimney-piece and an elabor-
ate plafond a caissons, each the work of Ran-
curelle, a seventeenth century sculptor of Dijon.

In the Eue des Forges are numerous old Re-
naissance houses, many of them of a grandeur
which entitles them to a higher rank than a
mere maison hourgeoise. Many of them indeed
bear the proud names of the old Burgundian
noblesse. One is called the Maison des Ambas-
sadeurs d'Espagne, though just why, history is
dark. One can readily surmise however, for it
certainly is a luxuriously appointed dwelling in
spite of the fact that it lacks a definite history.

Near the Eglise Notre Dame are the Maison
Milsand. the old Hotel des Ambassadeurs d'An-
gleterre; the Hotel du Vogue is in the Rue
Chaudronnerie, and also the Maison des Caria-
tides. All are admirable examples of the Bur-
gundian Renaissance, which tells its history in
its stones. And what historv !

130 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

The old Hotel des Ambassadeurs d'Angle-
terre was the residence of the Duke of Bedford
when he married, in 1423, Anne de Bourgogne.
The alleys and the *' park," supposedly de-
signed by the famous *' Le Notre, the man of
gardens," who was responsible for those of
Versailles and Vaux, are little changed to-day
from what they were in the century of Louis
XIV.

CHAPTER X

IN THE COTE D'oR: BEAUNE, LAEOCHEPOT AND
EPINAC

In the heart of the Cote d'Or are found first
of all the bonnes villes de hons vins of the
French, Beaune, Pommard, Nuits, etc. Here is
a region which was literally sown with great
country houses of wealthy seigneurs ; each an-
cient seigneurie of any importance whatever
had its own little fortress or block-house which
stood forth as an advance post at some distance
from the residence of the overlord. By this
means only could the seigneurs command re-
spect for their vineyards. One notes much the
same condition of affairs to-day. If there are
no forts nor block-houses any more, nor arrows
shot from bows, nor melted lead poured down
on one from some castle wall, there are at least
high stone barriers and big dogs and guardians
of all ranks to serve their masters as faithfully
as did the serfs and vilains of old. One is glad
to say, however, that the Cote d'Or of to-day
is not an inhospitable region.

131

132 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

The transformations of later years which
have taken place hereabouts have been very-
considerable, and the historic names one recog-
nizes best to-day are those used by the cha-
teaux de commerce, and found reproduced on
the labels on the bottles in the chic restaurants
and hotels throughout the world.

One can not, must not, pass these great en-
terprises by unnoted or with their praises un-
sung. Their histories are often as interesting
as those of the ^naisons de plaisance of the
seigneurs who despised trade and robbed and
grafted for a livelihood. Undoubtedly many of
them did take the wide road to riches, for the
feathering of political nests by the willing or
unwilling aid of one's constituents is no new
thing.

The gatherers of the grape under the Bur-
gundians and the Bourbons were not always the
happy contented crew that they have so fre-
quently been pictured on canvas. The novelists,
the playwrights and the painters have limned
the lily a little too strong at times. One judges
of this from a chanson which has come down
through centuries.

" Allans en vendagne pour gagner cinq sous
Coucher sur la paille, ramasser lex pnux
Manger du Jromage qui pue comme la rage.'

In the Cote d'Or 133

It was said in the good old days that the
grape-pickers were wont to eat as much as eight
kilos of the grapes a day, to say nothing of
drinking three litres of wine, — manifestly they
were not so badly off, even at a wage of only
five sous for a whole day's labour.

South from Dijon the itinera ly through the
core of the Cote d'Or passes in review a succes-
sion of names which one usually associates only
with a wine list. If one has studied the map of
France closely the surprise is not so great, but
for many it will come as something unexpected
to be able to breakfast at Chambertin, lunch at
Nuits, dine at Beaune and sleep at Mersault or
Nolay. First off, on leaving the capital of the
dukes, almost within sight of its palace towers,
one comes to the great wine district of Chenove,
and more than all others of this region it is to
be revered by the lover of the history and ro-
mance of feudal lords. Sheltered, and almost
enwrapped by the mountain background, it sits
on the edge of the sunny plain where once the
Dues de Bourgogne marshalled their armies
and their courtiers.

Not one of the very first wines of the Cote
d'Or Chenove comes from the bright particular
vineyards or doses of the Burgundian dukes.
Their ancient cellars and cuviers are still ex-

134 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

istent but the wines matured in them are to-day
the growth of American roots, planted in the
last dozen or twenty years to take the place of
those destroyed by the phylloxera, the grafted
stocks serving to give that classic body and
flavour which have made the Burgundian crus
famous. Thus the favourite axiom is proved
that it is the soil and not the grape wliich makes
fine wine.

Here at Chenove there is still to be seen the
wine vats and presses which served the minions
of Philippe-le-Hardi and Charles-le-Temeraire
as they pressed their masters' wines, handling
the great fifty foot levers and chanting much
as do sailors as they march around the capstan.
A block of stone weighing twenty-five tons was
alternately raised and lowered with the grapes
beneath in great hollowed-out troughs of stone
or wood in no far different fashion from the
methods of to-day.

Below Chenove is Fixin, glorious in memory
because of a striking monument to Napoleon,
placed there by one of his fanatical admirers,
Commandant Noisat. The Clos de la Perriere,
and the Clos du Chapitre, two of the grand
wines of the Cote d'Or, also help to give Fixin
its fame — how much, who shall say — al-
though this Napoleonic shrine is really a won-

In the Cote d'Or 135

der of statuesque sculpture. An alley of pines
leads up to a fountain behind whose basin rise
stone seats and a rustic shelter destined to pro-
tect the effigy of Napoleon, a bronze by the
Dijon sculptor, Eude. The whole ensemble is
most effective, far more so than the usual plas-
ter, or cast-iron statues of the '' Little Cor-
poral " with which France is peopled. To
carry the devotion still farther, Monsieur
Noisat built the guardian's house in the form
of the Fortress of Saint Helena.

Gevrey is near by, with an old ducal chateau,
still well preserved, and supported by an ivy-
grown square tower. Gevrey produces one of
the most celebrated wines to be found on the
lists of the restaurants mondaines throughout
the world. It is the " Chambertin of Yellow
Seal," coming from the Champs de Bertin, a
narrow strip of land sloping down the flank of
the hillside to the plain below. Another fa-
mous vineyard at Gevrey which festoons itself
between the height and the plain is that of
Crais-Billon, which takes its name from the
celebrated feudal fief of Crebillon.

The Clos Vougeot, the cradle of an equally
well known Burgundian wine, is scarce a half
dozen kilometres away and may be classed
among the historic chateaux of France. Still

136 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

enclosed with its rampart of whitewashed wall,
the great square of vineyard remains to-day as
it has been since first developed by the monks
of Citeaux.

The property has, it is true, been dismem-
bered and divided among many proprietors, but
the two great square pavilions joined together
originally gave the Clos that distinctive aspect
which, in no small measure, it retains unto this
day. Taken as a whole, it still possesses a
proud mediasval aspect, though the modern
porte-cochere, an iron gate which looks as
though it was manufactured yesterday in South
Chicago — and perhaps was — somewhat dis-
counts this. Years ago, when the Clos Vougeot
was the nucleus of the many Vougeots of to-
day, the grapes passed entirely through the
wine-presses of the monks, who reserved the
product entire to be used as presents to Popes
and Princes. Thus Clos Vougeot was the model
for all other ambitious, monastic \dneyards,
and those mediasval monks who excelled all
others of their time as wine-growers were the
logical inheritors of that Latin genius of an-
tiquity which gave so much attention to the
arts of agriculture.

Hard by Vougeot is Romanee-Conti, first cele-
brated under the ancient regime when the court-

In the Cote d*Or

137

138 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

physician, Fagon, ordered its wine as a stim-
ulant for the jaded forces of Louis XIV, a cir-
cumstance which practically developed a war
between the wine growers of Champagne and
Burgundy, with a victory for the Cote d'Or, as
was proper. To-day we are backsliders, and
'' champagne " has again become fashionable
with kings, emperors and the nouveau riclie.

The property known as Eomanee-Conti has
been thus known since the Eevolution, when
this princely family of royal blood came into
possession thereof. The old abbey is to-day, in
part, turned into a beet-sugar factory, its thou-
sand brothers and sisters now giving place to
working men and women of the twentieth cen-
tury, less picturesque and less faithful to their
vocation, without doubt.

Moulin-a-Vent was another of the near-by
properties of the Citeaux monks, and to-day
preserves the great colomhier, or pigeon-house,
as all may note who travel these parts by road.
It is the most conspicuous thing in the land-
scape for miles around, and looks as much like
the tower of a military chateau as it does a
dove-cote.

The Foret Nationale de Citeaux was once the
particular domain of the monastery, whose
monks preserved and enveloped it with the

In the Cote d'Or 139

same degree of devotion which they bestowed
upon their \dneyards, planting villages here
and there, of which the most notably pictur-
esque and unspoiled still alive is that of Saint
Nicholas-les-Citeaux, a red-roofed chimney-
potted little village in close proximity to the
uncouth fragments of the old conventual es-
tablishment.

" Nuits, not to be confounded with Nuits-sous-
Eavieres, is more famous for its wine crxis than
its monuments or its history. Besides a pic-
turesque belfry and hotel-de-ville, both ex-
cellent examples of the local architecture, it
has no monuments of remark, although a sort
of reflected glamour hangs over it by reason
of its proximity to the site of the ancient Cha-
teau de Vergy, when it was the capital of the
tiny province belonging to the celebrated Bur-
gundian family of this name.

The metropolis of these parts is Beaune. It
has been called a " vieille grande dayne qui s'est
faite ouvriere et marcliande." And Beaune is,
for a fact, all this. But by contrast with its
commercialism its mediaeval aspect is also well
preserved in spite of the fact that its manorial
magnificence is much depleted.

The contrastingly modem and mediaeval
aspect, and to some extent its military charac-

140 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ter, makes Beaune most interesting. The ram-
parts themselves have been turned into a series
of encircling boulevards, but here and there a
fragment of wall is left plunging sheer down to
the moat below, which has not yet been filled up.
This gives quite a suggestion of the part the
old walls once played, an effect heightened the
more by three or four massive towers and por-
tals flanking the entrances and exits of the
town. This at least gives a reminiscence of
what the former city must have been when it
was girded in its corselet of stone.

Here and there a sober and dignified maison
hourgeoise rears its Renaissance head above a
more humble and less appealing structure sug-
gestive of an ancient prosperity as great, per-
haps greater, than that which makes possible
the comfortable lives of the city's fourteen
thousand souls to-day.

Another civic monument of more than ordi-
nary remark is the watch-tower, or belfry, a
remainder of the cities of Flanders, a most un-
usual architectural accessory to find in these
parts, the only other neighbouring example
recalled being at Moulins in the Allier.

In spite of all this, Beaune 's historic tale has
little of blood and thunder in its make-up;
mostly its experiences have been of a peaceful

In the Cote d*Or 141

nature, and only because the dukes so fre-
quently took up their residence within its walls
was it so admirably defended.

Beaune was originally the seat of the Bur-
gundian Parliament. Henri IV, who was par-
ticularly wroth with all things Burgundian,
treated the city with great severity after the
revolt of Marechal de Biron, razing its castle,
one of the most imposing in the province, to the
ground. As a part of the penalty Biron was
put to death. On the scaffold he said to his
assistants '' Va t'en! Va t'en! Ne me louche
pas qu'il soit temps/' Five minutes later his
head fell into the basket and his king was
avenged.

Since this time Beaune has been little heard
of save in the arts of peace; there is no city
in France more calm to-day, nor '' plus bour-
geoise " than Beaune, and by the use of the
word hourgeoise one does not attempt irony.

The Hospice de Beaune is for all considera-
tions a remarkable edifice; its functions have
been many and various and its glories have
been great. Formerly the Hospice stood for
hospitality; to-day it is either a hospital, or a
matter-of-fact business proposition; you may
think of it as you like, according to your mood,
and how it strikes you.

142 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

The Benedictine Abbey de Fecamp, like
Dauphiny's Grande Chartreuse, is but a busi-
ness enterprise whose stocks and bonds in their
inflated values take rank with Calumet and
Hecla, Monte Carlo's Casino, or other specu-
lative projects. The same is true of the wine
exploitation of the monks of Citeaux at Clos
Vougeot, and of the famous wine cellars of the
Hospice de Beaune, We may like to think of
the old romantic glamour that hangs over these
shrines, but in truth it is but a pale reflected
light. This is true from a certain point of view
at any rate.

Beaune 's Hospice, with its queer melange of
churchly and heraldic symbols ranged along
with its Hispano-Gothic details, is '' more a
chateau-de-luxe than a poor-house," said a six-
teenth century vagabond traveller who was en-
tertained therein. And, taking our clue from
this, we will so consider it. ' ' It is worth being
poor all one's life to finally come to such a
refuge as this in which to end one's days," said
Louis XI.

The foundation of the Hospice dates from
1443, as the date on its carven portal shows.
It was started on its philanthropic and useful
career by Nicholas Rollin and his wife Gui-
gnonne de Salins. It was then accounted, as it

In the Cote d'Or 143

is to-day, " a superb foundation endowed with
great wealth. ' '

The desire of the founders was that the oc-
cupants should be surrounded with as much of
comfort and luxury as a thousand of livres of
income for each (a considerable sum for that
far-away epoch) should allow.

This fifteenth century Hospice de Beaune is
one of the most celebrated examples of the
wood-workers' manner of building of its time.
The role that it plays among similar contem-
porary structures wherever found is supreme.
It is only in Flanders that any considerable
number of suuilar architectural details of con-
struction are found.

The general view of the edifice from without
hardly does justice to the many architectural
excellencies which it possesses. The lieurtoir,
or door-knocker, in forged iron, still hanging
before the portal, is the same that was first
hung there in the fifteenth century, and which
has responded to countless appeals of wayfar-
ers. The iron work of the interior court is of
the same period.

With the inner courtyard the aspect changes.
On one side is the Flemish-Gothic, or Hispano-
Gothic, structure of old, one of the most ornate
and satisfying combinations of wooden gables

144 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

and pignons and covered galleries one can find
above ground to-day. Frankly it is an impor-
tation from alien soil, a transplantation from
the Low Countries, where the style was first
developed during the Spanish occupation in
Flanders.

Save for certain modifications in 1646, 1734
and 1784 this portion of the edifice remains
much as it was left by the passing of the good
old times when knights, and monks as well, were
bold. The Grande Salle, where the Chancelier
EoUin first instituted the annual wine sale
which still holds forth to-day, and the entrance
portal were again restored in 1879, but other-
wise the aspect is of the time of the birth of the
structure.

The Hospice de Beaune is properly enough
to be classed among the palaces and chateaux
of Burgundy, for its civic functions were many,
besides which it was the princely residence of
the chancellor of the Burgundian Parliament.

The old College de Beaune, now disappeared,
or transformed out of all semblance to its
former self, was a one-time residence of the
Dues de Bourgogne, and in addition the first
seat of the Burgundian Parliament when its
sittings were known as the Jours Generaux.

A near neighbour of Beaune is Corton.

^Zy^-^p i^^A

In the Cote d'Or 145

'' C'est le Chamhertin de la Cote de Beaune,"
said Monillefert, writing of its wine. Another
neighbouring vineyard is that which surrounds
the little village of Pernand. Its cru, called
Charlemagne, has considerably more than a
local reputation. Savigny-sous-Beaune is an-
other place-name which means little unless it
be on a wine-card. The little town is set about
with sumptuous hourgeoise houses, and a local
chateau bears the following inscription over its
portal, '' Les vins de Savigny sont nourrisants,
theologiqiies et morhifuges." They have been
drunk by countless hon vivants through the
ages, and the Dues de Bourgogne were ever
their greatest partisans. Mention of them ap-
pears frequently in the accounts written of
public and private fetes ; almost as frequently,
one may note, as the more celebrated '' vin du
Hospice/'

South from Beaune is Mersault, a tiny city
of the Cote de Beaune. All about its clean-
swept streets rise well-kept, pretentious dwell-
ings, many of them the gabled variety so like
the medieval chateaux, though indeed they may
date only from the last three-quarters of a
century, or since the Revolution.

An old feudal castle — the typical feudal
castle of romance — has been restored and re-

146 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

modelled, and now serves as Mersault's Hotel
de Ville. All about is the smell of wine; bar-
rels of it are on every curb, and running rivers
of the lees course through every gutter.

Nolay, a trifle to the west, is scarcely known
at all save as the name of a wine, and then it
is not seen on every wine list of the popuhir
restaurants. In the good old days it was the
seat of a marquisat and was of course endowed
with a seigneurial chateau. Nothing of suffi-
cient magnitude, seemingly, exists to-day, and
so one does not linger, but turns his attention
immediately to the magnificent Chateau de
La Eochepot, which virtually dominates the
landscape for leagues around.

In contrast with the vast array of chateaux
de commerce scattered all through the Cote
d 'Or — the " Golden Hillside " of the Eomans
— is the Chateau de La Eochepot, marvellous
as to its site and most appealing from all
points.

It was at Nolay that was bom Lazare Carnot.
It is the name of the grand homme who is al-
most alone Nolay 's sole claim to fame. His
ancestor has his statue on the little Place, and
his grandson — he who was President of the
French Eepublic — is also glorified by a fine,
but rather sentimentally conceived, monument.

In the Cote d'Or 147

Lazare Carnot was boru in a humble little
cottage of Nolay, and this cottage, after all, is
perhaps the town's most celebrated monument
to the glorious name.

The ancient home of the Sires de la Roche,
the Chateau de La Eochepot, to-day belongs to
Captaine Carnot, the son of the former Presi-
dent, who, thoroughly and consistently, has be-
gun its restoration on model lines.

The Sire de la Roche-Xolay, who planned the
work, hired one by the name of Pot, it is said,
to dig a well within the courtyard. The price
demanded was so high that he was obliged to
turn over the property itself in payment. It
was by this means, says historic fact or legend,
that the line of Pots, big and little, came into
possession. This Philippe Pot, by his mar-
riage, brought the property to the Montmoren-
cys and himself to the high office of Counsellor
of Anne de Beaujeau. He became seigneur of
the lands here in 1428, and was afterwards
better known as ambassador of the Due de
Bourgogne at London. His tomb was formerly
in the Abbey of Citeaux, but has been trans-
ported to the Louvre.

After the Rochepots' tenure the property
came to the Sullys, and in 1629 to the family De
Fargis. During the Revolution it was acquired

148 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

as a part of the Mens nationaux of the govern-
ment, and in 1799 the donjon of the chateau was
pulled down, the same which is to-day being
rebuilt stone by stone on the same site.

The present noble edifice is after all nothing
more than a completion of the admirably
planned reconstruction of the fifteenth century ;
the restoration, or rebuilding, of to-day being
but the following out of the plans of the orig-
inal architect, a procedure which has sel'^om
been attempted or accomplished elsewhere. It
was done with the sixteenth century fountain
of the Medicis in the Luxembourg Gardens
(whose sculptures according to the original de-
signs were only completed in 1839), but this is
perhaps the only instance of a great mediaeval
chateau being thus carried to completion. The
restorations of Carcassonne, Saint-Michel and
Pierrefonds are in quite another category.

The Chateau La Rochepot was a develop-
ment of the ancient Chastel-Eocca, which stood
on the same site in the twelfth century, and
which drew its name originally from its situa-
tion.

;£pinac, just to the west of La Rochepot, is in
the heart of a veritable ' ' black country ' ' ; not
the " black country " of the Midlands in Eng-
land, but a more picturesque region, where the

In the Cote d*Or 149

soot and grime of coal and its products mingle
by turns with the brilliancy of foliage green
and gold. In addition to drawing its fame from
the mines roundabout, fipinac owes not a little
of its distinction to its chateau, and a neigh-
bouring Chateau de Sully which dates from the
sixteenth century.

The Chateau de Sully is a magnificent edifice
built in 1567 for the Marechal de Saulx-
Tavannes, and is to-day classed by the French
government as a " monument historique." It
was built from the plans of Ribbonnier, a cele-
brated architect of Langres in the sixteenth
century, and terminated only in the reign of
Henri IV. It is an excellent type of the French
Renaissance of the latter half of the sixteenth
century. In form it is a vast rectangle with
square pavilions, or towers, at each angle set
diagonally. Though varied, its architecture is
sober to a degree, particularly with respect to
the rez-de-cliaussee.

The inner court of this admirable chateau is
surrounded by an arcaded gallery whose
rounded arches are separated by a double col-
onnette. The gardens are of the '' jardin an-
glais ' ' variety, so affected by the French at the
time of the completion of the chateau, and are
cut and crossed by many arms of the orna-

150 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

mental water which entirely surrounds the
property.

After the tenure of the family of Tavannes,
the property passed to those of Rabutin and
Montaigu, and, for the last centurj^, has been
owned by the MacMahons. There are some
fragments lying about which belong to another
edifice which dates from the thirteenth century,
but not enough to give the stones the distinction
of being called even a ruined chateau.

Epinac's chateau dates from at least two cen-
turies before the Chateau de Sully, and is a
resurrection of an old chateau-fort. Two great
heavy towers remain to-day as the chief archi-
tectural features, beside an extent of main
building through whose walls are cut a series
of splendid Gothic window frames. Tradition
has it that these towers were originally much
more lofty, but at the period when barons,
whether rightly or wrongly, held their sway
over their peers and anyone else who might be
around, if the local seigneur was beaten at a
tourney, the penalty he paid was to cut the tow-
ers of his castle down one-half. This seems a
good enough tale to tack to a mediaeval castle,
as good as a ghost tale, and as satisfactory as
if it were a recorded fact of history, instead of
mere legend.

Chateau de Sully

In the Cote d'Or 151

Originally these towers of the Chateau
d'Epinac were of such an overwhelming height
that they could be seen a hundred leagues
around — this is local tradition again, and this
time it is probably exaggeration. Three hun-
dred miles is a long bird's-eye view indeed!
Anyway a local couplet reads thus, and is
seemingly justifiable:

" Demene-toi, tourne toi, vire toi,
Tu ne trouveras pas plus beau que moi."

Epinac, too, is noted for its bottles, the fat-
bellied, ample litres in which ripe old Burgundy
is sold. '' Dame Jeans " and '* flacons '' are
here made by millions, which is only another
way of referring to demijohns and bottles. Of
their variety of shapes and sizes one may judge
by the song the workers sing as they ply their
trade :

" Messieurs, tnessieurs, laissez nous /aire
On vous en donnera de toutes les /aeons."

The glass industry of tCpinac, if not as old
as its chateau, at least dates from the very
earliest days of the art.

Retracing one's steps some forty kilometres
to Chalon-sur-Saone one comes midway to
Chagny. The railroad gnides chiefly make men-

152 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

tion of Chagny as a junction where one is
awakened at uncomfortable hours in the night
to change cars. Some of us who have passed
frequently that way can call attention to the
fact that Chagny possesses, among other won-
ders, certain architectural glories which are
worthy of consideration by even the hurried
twentieth century traveller.

Here is a fine twelfth century Eoman tower,
a former dependency of some civic establish-
ment, but now serving as the clocher of the
church, a svelt but all imposing square broad-
based tower of the local manor from which the
seigneur of other days, even though he was not
a ' * grand seigneur, ' ' stretched forth his velvet-
clad iron hand in mighty benediction over his
good men and true.

Besides this there is a monstrosity of a
cupola of the modern chateau which is hideous
and prominent enough to be remarked from
miles around.

Clearly, then, Chagny is much more than a
railway junction. No one who stops more than
a passing hour here will regret it, although its
historic shrines are not many nor beautiful to
any high degree.

CHAPTER XI

MACON, CLUNY AND THE CHAKOLLAIS

Macon is a name well known to travellers
across France, but its immediate environs are
scarcely known at all save as they are recog-
nized as a region devoted to the product of the
vine. For a fact the romantic and historic lore
which abounds within a short radius of the cap-
ital of the Maconnais makes it one of the most
interesting regions of mid-France.

Lying just to the westward is the Charollais,
whose capital, Charolles, the ancient fortress of
the Comtes de Charolles, is surrounded by a
veritable girdle of castles and donjons, the
nearest two kilometres beyond the town. They
formed in their prime an outer line of defence
behind which the counts lived in comparative
safety. Montersine, the nearest of these works,
a vast rectangular donjon with echauguettes ,
must certainly have been the most formidable.
"Within ten leagues are the chateaux of Lugny,
Rambeauteau and Corcheval — one of the most

153

154 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ancient of the Cliarollais. There are also Ter-
reaux-a-Verostres, the Eenaissance Chaumont
at Saint-Bonnet-de-Joux and, finally, the for-
tress of Commune-sur-Martigny-le-Comte.

Of these, that of Chaumont-la-Guiche, two
kilometres from Saint-Bonnet-de-Joux, is quite
the most splendid when it comes to best fulfilling
the mission of a luxurious Eenaissance maison
de campagne. It is to-day the magnificent twen-
tieth century residence of the Marquis de la
Guiche, but is a lineal descendant of the edifice
built in the reign of Francois Premier and ter-
minated by Philibert de Guiche, who died in
1607. At the time of the Saint Bartholomew
massacre he was Bailli de Macon, and, through-
out, the Maconnais and the Charollais took a
firm stand against the killing off of the Protes-
tants as an unholy means to a Christian end.

Before the chateau is an equestrian statue
of its sixteenth century chatelain, and the sta-
bles, a great vaulted hall whose ceiling is upheld
by more than fifty svelt colonnettes, are in no
small way reminiscent of the still more exten-
sive Ecuries at Chantilly. There is also, as a
dependency of the chateau, a remarkably beau-
tiful Gothic chapel with fine old glass in its
windows — Gothic of a late construction, be it
understood, but acceptable Gothic nevertheless.

Macon, Cluny and the Charollais 155

At Paray-le-Monail — a place of sainted pil-
grimage, because of the miracle of the Sacre
Coeur which took place here — is to be seen the
luxurious dwelling of a local seigneur who was
closely allied to the Comte de Charolles. It is a
palace in all but name, and were it on the well-
worn travel track in Touraine would be ac-
counted one of the marvels of the brilliant ar-
ray of Eenaissance dwellings there. It holds
this distinction to-day among the comparatively
few who know it, and, as it serves the public
functions of a Hotel de Ville, its future as a
** monument historique " worthy of preserva-
tion seems assured. Chateau or palace it may
not be ; it may be only a luxurious town house ;
who shall make the distinction after all? Let
the reader, or better yet, the visitor, to this
admirable Eenaissance wonder-work be assured
that it is more royally palatial than many which
have sheltered the heads and persons of the
most fastidious of monarchs.

South from Charolles, behind the hills of
the Brionnais, almost on the edge of the an-
cient Forez, in part only Burgundian, is the
coquette hourgade (a French expression abso-
lutely untranslatable) of Marcigny, all ochre
and brown after the local colouring. It
is a town of a great tree-bordered Place, or

156 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Square, with decrepit old houses overhanging
its narrow streets, made famous in the past by
a celebrated Benedictine priory which received
only the daughters of the nobility. Of this
monastery there remains only the prior's pal-
ace, a princely sort of abode which to-day has
been turned into a hotel. Here one may experi-
ence one of the greatest and most joyful sur-
prises of French travel, and pick up his histor-
ical lore on the spot.

Leaving Marcigny for Semur-en-Brionnais,
one passes a vestige of the feudal past in the
shape of an elaborately decorated feudal tower.
At a distance this decorative effect seems to be
produced by shot still clinging to the walls, an
effect that may be seen also at Arques in Nor-
mandy and at Tarascon in the Midi. Here this
is an illusion. As one approaches nearer it is
easy to see these round bosses transform them-
selves into mascarons, or sculptured decorative
details, like the escutcheons and plaques so fre-
quently seen stuck into the walls of so many
civic edifices in Italy. This old tower is of a
different species, but manifestly it is a memo-
rial of some sort. Its peaked head rises above
a sort of pavilion, or loft, like a gigantic pigeon-
house. There is a diminutive barbican on one
side, and on the other are narrow slits of Gothic

Hotel de Ville, Parav-le-Monail

Macon, Cluny and the Charollais 157

windows, as if for defence rather than as a
means of letting light and air within.

* ' This is some ancient historic monument, no
doubt"? " you query of some passing peasant.
And to be precise he answers: '' Yes, a tower."
That is all the information you can get beneath
its shadow, but you are content and go your
way. It fulfils exactly your idea of what a me-
dicTval donjon should be, and what it lacks in
apparent authenticated history can be readily
enough imagined by anyone with a predilection
for such musings.

Leaving the Charollais and the Brionnais,
one turns toward Macon by the gateway of
Cluny. Mediaevalism here is rampant in mem-
ory, song and story, though the monuments are
nnfamiliar ones. It is an echo of the days
when abbots and priors were often barons, and
barons were magistrates who held the keys of
life and death over other of mankind. These
were the days, too, when the Pope was the real
ruler of many a kingdom with another titular
head. Large parcels of land, from the Black
Sea to Brittany, fiefs, countships and even
dukedoms, were church property, and others
held their brief sway therein only by the toler-
ance of the Pontiff.

Seemingly exempt from this domination, the

158 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

powerful monks of Cluny knew no lord nor mas-
ter. On one occasion a Pope and a King of
France, with numberless prelates and nobles in
their train, took refuge in the old abbey, but not
a brother put himself out in the least to do them
honour.

By the fifteenth century, the hour of deca-
dence had rung out for Cluny ; no more was it
true

" En tout pays ou vent vente
L'Ahbe de Cluni a, rente."

It was at this time that the " arhitres des rois "
lost their power.

The great Abbey of Cluny may readily
enough be included in any contemplation of the
great civic and domestic establishments of these
parts. The only difference is that in some cases
the chatelains or chatelaines were princes or
princesses instead of abbes or abbesses.

Cluny 's destinies were presided over by an
abbe, but kings and cardinals and popes all, at
one time or another, came to dwell within its
walls.

"When Cluny was but a mere hamlet, in the
year 910 a. d., Guillaume, Due d'Aquitaine et
Comte d'Auvergne, founded this abbey, which
became one of the most celebrated in the uni-

Macon, Cluny and the Charollais 159

verse. From the first its abbes were cardinals
and princes of Cliurch and State.

In 1245 Pope Innocent IV. visited the abbey
with a train of twelve cardinals and scores of
minor churchmen. The Sainted Louis and the
queen, his mother, enjoyed hospitality within
its walls, and the Emperor of Constanti-
nople, and a throng of followers, all found a wel-
come here; and this without incommoding the
four hundred monks who were attached to the
foundation. Pope Gelasse II died at the abbey,
and the Archbishop Guy of Vienne was here
elected Pope, under the name of Calixtus II,
by a conclave assembled within its halls. To-day
the pride of the former powerful abbey rests
only on its laurels of other days. Its superb
basilica has practically disappeared. Only its
foundations, five hundred and fifty feet in
length, are to be traced. The extensive library
has disappeared, and only certain of the walls
and roofs and a few minor apartments of the
former palatial conventual buildings remain to
suggest the one time glory.

The rich plain of Cluny was, in 910 a. d., but
a forest called the '' Valle Noire " when the
Abbe Bernon with a dozen brothers founded the
celebrated Abbey of Cluny, called the " cradle
of modem civilization."

160 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Of the conventual buildings the most remark-
able features still standing are the south arm
of the great transept of the abbey church, the
massive octagonal tower, of a height of sixty
metres, another slighter octagonal cloclier, and
the Chapelle des Bourbons.

Cluny's old houses, or such of them as re-
main, have been to a large extent rebuilt and re-
modelled, but still enough remains to suggest
that the old monastic city was a place of lux-
ury-loving and worldly citizens as well as
monks. Here and there a flying stair, a bal-
cony, a loggia, or a rez-de-Chausee arcade sug-
gests a detail almost Italian in its motive.
Colonnettes divide a range of windows and pi-
lasters support stone balconies and terraces
here and there in a most pleasing manner, and
with a most surprising frequency, — a fre-
quency which is the more pleasing, since, as has
been said, scarcely anything of the sort is to be
seen here in more than fragmentary form,
though indeed all the architectural orders and
devices of the ingenious mediaeval builder are
to be noted. The Eevolution respected Cluny,
but the Empire and '' La Bande Noire " con-
demned it to destruction.

The Abbatial Palace, a palatial dependence
of the abbey, where lodged visiting potentates

Macon, Cluny and the Charollais 161

and prelates, escaped entire destruction, and is
to-day the chief ornament of the town. A na-
tional educational institution now occupies the
halls and apartments of this great building
where lords and seigneurs and churchmen once
held their conclaves.

A fine Gothic portal leads to the inner court
of this magnificent edifice, which was erected
by two abbes, Jean de Bourbon and Jacques
d'Amboise. Each had built a separate dwelling
on either side of the great portal. That of the
Cardinal de Bourbon is unlovely enough, as such
edifices go, but has an air of a certain sumptu-
ousness notwithstanding. That of Jacques
d'Amboise is a highly ornate work of the Re-
naissance, and now serves as the Hotel de Ville,
whilst the other houses a local museum and
library.

A garden of the formal order surrounds the
two edifices and covers a goodly bit of the
ground formerly occupied by the other build-
ings attached to the abbey. Entrance to this
garden, and its Palais Abbatial, as the en-
semble is officially known, is through a double
Romanesque portal, as much a militant note as
the rest is religious.

Cluny 's Hotel Dieu is another remarkable
souvenir of old. Within are various monu-

162 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ments and statues of churchmen and nobles
which give it at once a lien on one's regard.
There is a luxurious monument to one of the
Abbes of Cluny; another, that the Cardinal de
Bouillon erected to his father, Maurice de la
Tour d'Auvergne, Due Souverain de Bouillon,
Prince Souverain de Sedan.

Here and there about the town an old feudal
tower or house-front juts out in close com-
munion with some banal modern fagade, but the
whole aspect of the city of some four thousand
inhabitants to-day is, when viewed from a dis-
tant approach, as of a feudal city with no mod-
ernities whatever. Near acquaintance dis-
abuses one of this idea, but, regardless of this,
the aspect of Cluny, the monastery and the city,
is one of imposing and harmonious grandeur,
hardly to be likened to any similar ensemble in
France or beyond the frontiers.

Near Cluny, in the heart of the '' Black Val-
ley," is the Chateau de Cormatin, belonging to
a M. Gunsbourg, and containing an important
collection of pictures and furniture, all of them
antique, which are cordially submitted to the
gaze of the curious upon a diplomatic re-
quest.

Eising from the plain, on the road to Tour-
nus, is the Chateau de BrauQion, a feudal relic

Macon, Cluny and the CharoUais 163

and not much more, but proclaiming its former
military glory as if its history had been epoch-
making, which it probably was not, as there is
but scant reference to it in local annals.

As one approaches Macon by road from the
north or west, great villas and " chateaux de
commerce " line every kilometre of the way.
Some are ancient and historic, though in no
really great sense ; others are modern and ban-
ally, painfully, well-kept and whitewashed —
only the badigeon is pink or blue or green,
painted one can readily believe by the artist
(sic) descendants of the Italians who once in-
habited the region in large numbers. There are
overhanging balconies on all sides; balus-
trades, terraces and loggias relieve the mo-
notony of most of the facades, and indeed, it is
as if a comer of Italy had been transported to
mid-France.

Macon is a picturesque ensemble of much
that is ancient, but the smugness of the place,
its undeniable air of modernity and prosperity,
have done much to discount what few well con-
served architectural charms it still possesses.
This is true of great churches and palatial
dwellings alike, though there are many unde-
niably fine bits here and there which, if one
only knew, perhaps possess a history as thrill-

164 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ing as that enjoyed by many more noble edi-
fices.

For one of the best impressions of Macon it
is possible to have, there is nothing better than
Turner's jDainting " Macon," or a photographic
copy thereof. It is a drawing which until re-
cently was never engraved. Turner and his en-
gravers never dared attempt it, so complex was
the light and shadow of the vintage sun shining
on the hillsides and valleys of the Cote d'Or.
Recently Frank Short made a mezzotint of it,
and it stands to-day as one of the most express-
ive topographical drawings extant.

Macon was originally the capital of a petit
pays, the Maconnais, and is to-day, in local par-
lance. In former times it was the governmental
seat of a line of petty sovereigns, from the day
of Louis-le-Debonnaire until the country passed
into the hands of the ducal Burgundians. From
this time forth, though forming a component
part of the great duchy, the region was settled
frequently upon various members of the parent
house as a vassal state where the younger
branch might wield a little power of its own
without complicating the affairs of the greater
government.

In Revolutionary times Macon was consid-
ered by the Republicans as '' a hateful aristo-

Macon, Cluny and the Charollais 165

cratic hole." This being so, one wonders that
more souvenirs of roj-alty have not remained.

In feudal times the city was enclosed by an
enceinte cut with six great gates, supported by
an inner citadel. These walls and bastions
were demolished later, and the city was almost
alone among those of Burgundy to freely open
its doors to the Ligueurs and Henri IV. From
this time on important historical events seem
to have avoided ]\[acon.

The site of Macon's ancient citadel is now
occupied by the Prefecture. It was formerly
the Episcopal Palace, a regal dwelling which
the bishops of other days must have found
greatly to their liking. It is the nearest thing
to a chateau which Macon possesses to-day.

The Hotel de Ville is a banal structure of the
eighteenth century, the gift of the Comte de
Montreval, fonnerly his family residence. The
Palais de Justice is also a made-over hotel-
privee and has some architectural distinctions,
but there is nothing here to take rank among
the castles and chateaux of the rest of the Bur-
gundian countryside.

Southwest from Mticon, scarce thirty kilo-
metres away, is a romantic little corner of old
France known to the French themselves —
those who know it at all — as the Pays de La-

166 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

martine. The little townlets of Milly and Saint-
Pont were the cradle and the refuge of Lamar-
tine, who so loved this part of France extend-
ing from the Loire to Lac Leman and the Alps.

The political world of the capital, into whose
vortex the great litterateur was irresistibly
drawn, had not a tithe of the effect upon his
character as compared with that evoked by the
solitudes of his Burgundian patrie and his
Alpes de Chambery.

Milly, here in the midst of the opulent plains
and hillsides of Bm'gundy, is a spot so calm
and so simply environed that one can not but
feel somewhat of the inspiration of the man
who called it his " chere maisony

A half a dozen kilometres from Milly is
Saint-Pont surrounded by a magnificent fra-
ming of rounded summits forming one of those
grandiose landscapes of which Lamartine so
often wrote:

" Oui, VTiomme est trop petit, ce spectacle Vecrase."

Here is the Chateau de Lamartine, not a
tourist sight by any means, at least not an
over-done one, but a shrine as worthy of con-
templation and admiration as many another
more grand and more popular.

Seated snugly at the foot of a wooded slope,

Macon, Cluny and the Charollais 167

the chateau, flanked with two great towers,
hfts its serrated sky-Une proudly above the
reddish, ochre- washed walls (a colour dear to
the folk of the Maconnais) high above the level
of the roofs of the town below.

A more massive square tower sets further to
the rear, and a toureUe, with a pointed candle-
snuffer roof, accentuates the militant aspect of
the edifice, though indeed its claims rest en-
tirely on the arts of peace to the exclusion of
those of war.

Here, in the family chateau, Alphonse-Marie-
Louis-de-Lamartine passed the happiest years
of his life. This was at a time when the pomp
of power which he afterwards tasted as ^linis-
ter of Foreign Affairs, after the abdication of
Louis Philippe, had no attraction for him.

" II est sur la colline
Une blanche maison,
Une tour la domine,
Un buisxon d'aubepine
Est tout son horizon."

As Lamartine himself wrote: '' Nothing here
will remind one of luxury; it is simply the
aspect of a great farm where the owners live
the simple life in a great block of a silent dwell-
ing." These words describe the Chateau de
Lamartine very well to-day.

168 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Saint-Pont and the Chateau de Lamartine
are well worth half a day of anyone who is
found at Macon and not hard pressed to move
on.

Near Saint-Pont is the ancient Chateau de
Noble, belonging, in 1558, to Nicolas de Pisa,
and, in 1789, to Claude de la Beaune. It is not
a splendid structure in any architectural sense,
but a most curious and appealing one. Its chief
distinction comes from its two pointed coiffed
towers, one at either end of a high sloping
gable.

Repairs and restorations made since the Rev-
olution have deprived it of the ancient ram-
parts which once entirely surrounded it, but
the romantic and curious aspect of the main
body of the structure, and those all-impressive,
svelt, sky-piercing towers, make it seem too
quaint to be real. Certainly no more remark-
able use of such adjuncts to a seigneurial cha-
teau has ever been made than these towers.
Here they are not massive, nor particularly tall,
but their proportions are seemingly just what
they ought to be. They are, at any rate, en-
tirely in accord with the rest of the structure,
and that is what much modern architecture
lacks.

Macon, Cluny and the Charollais 169

"33 L»N c^jL Tvl O^ti'VtaS

CHAPTEE XII

IN THE BEAUJOLAIS AND LYONNAIS

South from Chalon, by the banks of the
Saone, lies the Beaujolais, a wine-growing
region which partakes of many of the character-
istics of the Cote d'Or itself. Further south,
beyond Macon, the aspect of the Lyonnais is
something quite different. All is of a bustle
and hustle of the feverish life of to-day, whilst
in the Beaujolais pursuits are agricultural.
Each of these regions is profoundly wealthy
and prosperous, an outgrowth, naturally
enough, of the opulent times of old, for here,
as in the heart of Burgundy, the conditions of
life were ever ample and easy.

Throughout the countryside of the Beaujo-
lais and the Maconnais one notes a manner of
building with respect to the meaner dwellings
which, to say the least, is most curious. These
small houses are built of a species of sun-dried
bricks or lumps of clay. It seems satisfactory ;
as satisfactory as would be an adobe dwelling

170

Beaujolais and Lyonnais 171

— in a dry climate. But here in times of flood
those built in the river bottoms have been
known to melt away like the sand castles of
children at the seashore.

The present Departement of the Saone-et-
Loire was evolved from the very midst of the
Burgundian kingdom, and comprises chiefly the
mediaeval Comtes of the Autunnois, Chalonnais,
Maconnais and Charollais. The Komans were
the real exploiters of all this region, and only
with the pillage of the Normans, and the
successive civil and religious wars, did the
break-up of Burgundy really come to be an as-
sured fact.

Chalon-sur-Saone itself is most attractive —
in parts. As a whole it is disappointing, Fran-
cois Premier built the fortifications of Chalon
in 1521, and half a century later Charles IX
constructed the citadel — "to hold the town
in subjection, and the inhabitants in igno-
rance. ' '

Dijon was the city of the media?val counts;
Chalon was a city of churchmen. Nevertheless
the bishops of the episcopal city bore the title
of Counts, and of its churches which remain
none is more typical of the best of Eomanesque
in France than the nave and side aisles of
Chalon 's Cathedral de Saint Vincent.

172 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Chalon's monuments of the feudality are few
indeed to-day; they and their histories have
been well nigh forgotten, but here and there
some fine old gable or portico springs into view
unannounced, and one readily enough pictures
again the life of the lords and ladies who lived
within their walls, whilst to-day they are given
over to matter of fact, work-a-day uses with
little or no sentimental or romantic atmosphere
about them.

There is no distinct official edifice at Chalon
which takes up its position as a chateau, or
manoir, at least none of great renown, though
a rebuilt old church now transformed into a
hotel of the second or third rate order is one
of the most curiously adapted edifices of its
class anywhere to be seen.

What a great family the Chalonnais were is
recalled by the fact that in the sixteenth century
all the folk of the city were regarded as cousins.
This is taking the situation by and large, but
certain it was that a community of family liens
as well as interests did tend to make this rela-
tionship notable. Furthermore each of the
trades and metiers herded by themselves in real
clansman fashion, the nail-makers in the Eue
des Cloutiers, the boiler-makers in the Rue des
Chandronniers and the barrel-makers in the

Beaujolais and Lyonnais 173

Kue des Tonneliers. And there was a quarter,
or faubourg, devoted to the priests and monks,
as well as another where none but the nobility,
were allowed to be abroad.

To the west of Chalon are two famous vine-
yards, Touches and Mercurey, surrounded by
mere hamlets, there being no populous centres
nearer than Givry or Chalon. One remarks
these two famous vineyards because of their
repute, and because of the neighbouring superb
ruin of the mediaeval Chateau de Montaigu
which crowns a hill lying between the two
properties.

In the neighbourhood of Chalon are numerous
little towns of no rank whatever as historic or
artistic shrines, but bearing the suffix of Royal.
It is most curious to note that many have
changed their nomenclature — as it was before
the Revolution. Saint Gengoux-le-Eoyal and
ten other parishes all dropped the Royal, and
became known as Saint Gengoux-le-National,
etc. Donzy-le-Royal was not so fortunate in
its position. Saint Gengoux has gained noth-
ing by its spasm of republicanism. It is not
more national to-day than Cavaillon or Car-
pentras, whereas the suffix Royal meant, if it
meant anything, that it was an indication of
its ancient rank when it belonged directly to

174 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

the crown of France. Eepublicanism did not
change its allegiance, only its name.

The diligence from Paris stopped at Chalon-
sur-Saone in the old days and passengers made
their way to Lyons by the river. Colbert it was
who sought to develop the service of caches
d'eau on the Saone between Chalon and Lyons.
He carried the thing so far, in 1669, that he sup-
pressed the public diligence by land which had
formerly made the journey between the two
capitals. This was not accomplished without
a live protestation from the residents of the ter-
minal cities.

In the last days of the malle-poste, when
Chalon was the end of the journey from Paris,
four steamboats of a primitive order competed
for the privilege of carrying passengers from
Chalon to Lyons.

To-day the service has been suppressed ; the
'' piroscliapes," as they were called, have gone
the way of the mail coaches. Travel to-day is
accomplished with more comfort and more ex-
pedition.

Below Chalon, following down the Saone,
within a league, one comes to Toise, with a cele-
brated chateau, almost wholly ignored to-day
when checking off the historical monuments of
France. And this is true in spite of the fact

Beaujolais and Lyonnais 175

that it was here within the walls of the Chateau
de Toise that was signed the famous treaty be-
tween Henri IV and the Due de Mayenne. The
chateau is simply an admirable Kenaissance
monument of its time with no very remarkable
features or history save that noted above. This
is enough to make it better known and more
often visited, if only glanced at in passing.
The author hopes the suggestion may be taken
in earnest by those interested.

Midway between Macon and Chalon is Tour-
nus, the site of a chateau-fort built by the
Franks, and also of an abbey founded by
Charles-le-Chauve in 875 a. d. This monarch
gave the abbey a charter as proprietor of the
city of Tournus in consideration of the monks
putting it and its inhabitants under the protec-
tion of the Virgin and Saint Philibert. He also
made the congregation of monks of the order
of Saint Benoit '^ fermiers " of this '' celestial
doynain."

The Abbes of Tournus were a powerful race,
rivalling the princes and dukes of other fiefs,
and owning allegiance only to the king and
Pope, more often to the latter than to the for-
mer. Among them were numbered no less than
eight cardinals in the fifty-nine who ruled the
city and the " domain."

176 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

The monastery itself has become a sort of
institution, a secular lodging house, but its fine
church still remains as one of the most famous
Komanesque-Burgundian examples of its time.

Above Tournus, high on the hill back of the
town, sits a disused ancient fabric, a former
Benedictine abbey. Its abbes had the right to
wear the pontifical vestments, and to administer
justice to the city and its neighbouring depend-
encies. More like an antique fortress than a
religious foundation, it is the most ambitious
and striking edifice now to be seen in Tournus.

Tournus has an artistic shrine of great mo-
ment and interest, although its architectural de-
tails comport little with the really dignified
examples of mediaeval architecture. It is the
birthplace of the painter Greuze, and before its
arcades rises a monument to his memory. The
great painter of the idealist school was born
here. In the local museum are nearly five hun-
dred designs from his hand.

Opposite Tournus, in mid-Saone, is a strip of
flat island known as the Ile-de-la-Palme, a mor-
sel of alluvial soil respected by centuries of
spring floods which have passed it by on either
side, and indeed, often over its surface. The
Helvetians, quitting their country in ancient
times, invaded Gaul and made use of the Ile-de-

Beaujolais and Lyonnais 177

la-Palme to cross the Saone, aided by either
pontoons or rafts. Centuries later, after the
bloody battle of Fontenay, the son of Louis-
le-Debonnaire held a conference on this isle
with regard to the division of the conquered
territory. Thus it is that the Ile-de-la-Palme
in the Saone has something in common with,
that other historic island in the Bidassoa
where France and Spain played a game of
give and take in the sixteenth century.

A short distance from the east bank of the
Saone is Romenay in the heart of the Cha-
lonnais. It is a relic of an ancient fortified
city, a townlet to-day of less than six hundred
inhabitants, though once, judging from the
remains of its oldtime ramparts, much more
extensive and influential.

Saint Trivier-de-Courtes, like Romenay,
has little more than a bare half a thousand
of population to-day, though it was once a
noble outpost planted by the Dues de Savoie,
the masters of Bresse, against the possible
invasion of the Burgundians and the French
from the north.

At Bage-le-Chatel, between Macon and
Bourg, rises a grim reminder of the feudal-
ity. It is the silhouette of the fine old castle
of the ancient Seigneurs de Bage.

178 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Passing Macon by, and still following the
Saone, one comes in a dozen or twenty kilo-
metres to Thoissey, a town which has not been
greatly in evidence these latter days. It is a
somnolent little city of the ancient Principality
of Dombes, that disputed ground of the Bur-
gundians and the Savoyards in the middle ages.
Only from the fact that it was the birthplace of
Commandant Marchand of the ill-fated Fas-
choda expedition would it ever have been men-
tioned in the public prints of the last genera-
tion.

In good old monarchial days it was different.
Then Thoissey set an aristocratic example to
many a neighbour more prosjDerous and better
known to-day. The Princes de Dombes had a
chateau here, and they embellished the local
Hospice in a way that made it almost a rival of
that other establishment of its class at Beaune.
Throughout Thoissey there were, and are still,
many admirable examples of the town houses
of the nobles and courtiers of the little State of
Dombes. Thoissey was the miniature capital
of a miniature kingdom. The local " college "
still shows evidences of a luxuriant conception
of architectural decoration with its finely sculp-
tured window frames and doorways.

The most striking incident of Thoissey 's ca-

Beaujolais and Lyonnais 179

reer was when the Seigneur de Bage attacked
the Seigneur de Thoissey, who was at the time
the Sire de Beaujeaii, in his stronghold. The
latter called the Due de Bourbon to his aid and
thus brought about an inter-province imbroglio
which necessitated the intervention of the King
of France as mediator, though without immedi-
ate success. The litigation finally went before
Pope Clement VII (a French Pope, by the
way), and only in 1408, a quarter of a century
after the feud began, did the Due de Bourbon,
who meantime had become also the Sire de
Beaujeau, succeed in throwing off his adver-
saries.

Thoissey during the time of the Ligue, or
more particularly its Seigneur, threw in its
lot with Mayenne, who ultimately, when he
finally went over to his royal master, caused
the Chateau de Thoissey to be razed to earth.
This is why to-day one sees only the heap of
stones, locally called " the chateau," which, to
be appreciated, require a healthy imagination
and some knowledge of the situation.

At Belleville-sur-Saone is a little strip of the
earth's surface called by the French the finest
panorama in the world and " le plus bel lieu
de Prance." It is beautiful, even beyond
words, a smiling radiant river valley with

180 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

nearly all the artistic attributes which go to
make up the ideal landscape. Just how near it
comes to being the finest view in the world is
a matter of opinion. The New Zealander thinks
that he has that little corner of God's green
earth, and so does many a down-east farmer,
to say nothing of the man from the Missouri
Valley and the occasional Scotch Highlander.

The tiny little city of Anse has few recollec-
tions for most travellers, but it possesses an ad-
mirable ruin of a chateau-fortress, with two
towers bronzed by time and still proudly erect.
This ruin, together with the memory that Au-
gustus once had a palace here in the ancient
Anita of the Romans, and the neighbouring
ruin of the chateau of the Sires de Villars over
towards Trevoux, are all that Anse has to-day
for the curious save its delightful situation in
a bend of the Saone.

Opposite Belleville-sur-Saone is Montmerle.
In the middle ages it was one of the sentinel
cities which guarded the Principality of
Dombes. Sieges and assaults without number
were its portion, from the Bourguignons, the
troops of the Sire de Beaujeau, the Dauphinois
and the Counts and Dukes of Savoy.

The imposing ruins of the former chateau-

Beaujolais and Lyonnais 181

fortress tell the story of its mighty struggle
which endured for nearly a century. For the
most part the bulk of the material of which it
was built has disappeared, or at least has been
built up into other works, but the massive signal
tower which once bolstered up the main portal
still rises high above the waters of the Saone.
The tower supposedly dates from the twelfth
century — the period to which belonged the
chateau — and is distinguished by its hardiness
and height rather than for its solidity and
massiveness.

At Farcins, near-by, is a magnificent and still
habitable chateau of the end of the reign of
Henri IV, built by Jean de Seve, Conseiller du
Roi, on the plans of Baptiste Androuet du
Cerceau. From Montmerle one may see the
towers and roofs of half a dozen other minor
chateaux of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies scattered here and there through the
Beaujolais, but nothing distinctive arrests one's
attention until Villefranche and Trevoux are
reached.

The Sires de Beaujeau, from motives of pol-
icy if from no other, ever respected the privilege
of Villefranche (founded by Humbert TV).
The traditions of Villefranche 's old Auberge du

182 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Mouton are classic, and have been used time
and again by playwright and novelist without
even acknowledgment to history. It was here
in the ' ' Free City ' ' beside the Rhone that Ed-
ward IT swore to observe the city's claims of
municipal liberty.

Villefranche has no other notable monuments
save the Hotel de Ville of to-day, which is an
admirable Eenaissance town house, and another
equally striking in the Rue Nationale. The lat-
ter is almost palatial in its proportions.

Just below Villefranche is Trevoux, the an-
cient capital of the Principality of Dombes. It
comes into the lime-light here only because of
its ruined castle on a height above the town
which travellers by road or rail cannot fail to
remark even if they do not think it worth while
to become intimately acquainted.

The old castle is situated on the summit of a
hill to the west of the town, its two black-
banded towers of the middle ages proclaiming
loudly the era of its birth. The octagonal don-
jon is a master- work of its kind and dates from
the twelfth century. Since the Revolution this
remarkable donjon has been shorn of a good
two-thirds of its former height, and the effect
is now rather stubby. With another twenty
metres to its credit it must indeed have been

Beaujolais and Lyonnais 183

imposing, as well by its coustruction as its situ-
ation. It is no wonder that this powerful de-
fence was able to resist the attack of the Sire
de Varambon, who, after capturing the city,
sought vainly to take the chateau in 1431. It
was a cruel victory indeed, for the wilful sei-
gneur, not content with capturing the city, drove
out all its wealthy and comfortably rich inhabit-
ants and charged them a price of admission to
get in again, mutilating their persons in a shock-
ing manner if they did not disgorge all of their
treasure as the price of this privilege.

The local seigneur, his family and immediate
retainers, were meanwhile huddled within the
walls of the chateau and only escaped starva-
tion at the hands of the victor by his having
tired of the game of siege and by his with-
drawal, carrying with him all the loot which
he could gather together and transport.

It was at Trevoux that the Jesuits compiled
the celebrated Dictionary and Journal which
made such a furor in the literary annals of the
eighteenth century.

With the exception of Francois Premier all
of the French monarchs from Philippe- Auguste
down to Louis XIV acknowledged the independ-
ence of the Principality of Dombes, and owed
them the allegiance of supplying men and

184 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

money in case they were attacked. The Parlia-
ment met at Trevoux and the Principality was
one of the earliest and smallest political divi-
sions of France to coin its own money.

CHAPTER XIII

THE FRANCHE COMTE : ATJXONNE AND BESANgON

East of Dijon, from the centre of which radi-
ated Burgundian influence and power, was a
proud and independent political di\'ision which,
until 1330, never allied itself intimately with
the royal domain of the French kings nor with
Burgundy. From this time, as a part of the
Burgundian dukedom, it retained the right to
be known as the Franche Comte, and was even
then exempted from many impositions and du-
ties demanded of other allied fiefs: '' Bur gun-
dice Comitatus, Liber ComitaUis," was its of-
ficial title.

It is characteristic of the independent spirit
of the people of these parts that they should tell
Henri IV, who praised the wine they offered
him, when he was making a stay among them,
and was being entertained in Besancon's cita-
del, that they had a much better one in the
cellar which they were saving for a more au-
gust occasion.

186

186 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

The Franche Comte is in no sense a tourist
region; its varied topography has not been
given even a glance of the eye by most conven-
tional tourists, and its historical souvenirs have
been almost entirely ignored by the makers of
romances and stage-plays. Switzerland-bound
travellers have an excellent opportunity to be-
come acquainted with this comparatively little
known corner of old France as they rush across
it by express train via Pontarlier, but few avail
themselves thereof. For this reason, if no
other, the architectural monuments of the
Franche Comte come upon one as genuine sur-
prises.

From Dijon our way lay through Genlis and
Auxonne to Besancon, and there is no better
way of approaching the heart of things, though
it will require some courage on the part of
travellers by train to accommodate themselves
to the inconvenient hours of departure and ar-
rival. The traveller by road will have a much
easier and a much more enjoyable time of it;
and right here is a suggestion of a new ground
for touring automobilists who may be tired of
well-worn roads. It is just as enjoyable to hunt
out historic monuments with an automobile as
with a Cook's ticket and a railway train — more
so, some of us think. It would certainlv not

The Franche Comte 187

have been possible for the makers of this book
to have otherwise got over the ground covered
herein, so let not the ultra-sentimentalist decry
the modern mode of locomotion.

Winding its way between the confines of Bur-
gundy and the Comte the highroad from Paris
to Pontarlier and Switzerland led us first to
Auxonne. Genlis we jDassed en route and al-
most had a thrill over it by recalling the notori-
ous Comtesse de Genlis. TTe racked our brains
a moment and then remembered that the cele-
brated " has bleu " hailed from somewhere in
Picardy, so, then, this particular Genlis had no
further interest for us, above all in that there
was no chateau in sight.

Auxonne (the old Ad Sonam of the Eomans,
afterwards corrupted into Assona, then Asso-
nium and finally as it is to-day) was but a dozen
kilometres beyond Genlis, and, sitting astride
the great highway from Paris to Geneva, was
early a fortified place of great strategic im-
portance. Vauban traced its last ramparts and
it was thought likely to hold its rank for all
time, but now the fortifications have disap-
peared and the city no longer takes its place
as a frontier outpost, that honour having been
usurped by Besangon in the Jura.

Of the military and feudal past there are still

188 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

vivid memories at Auxonne. The chateau-fort
is still there, built in different epochs by-
Louis XI, Charles VIII and Louis XII, and
these works combined to make an edifice seem-
ingly all-resistant, or at least formidable to a
high degree. The chateau is still there, in part
at least — not much has actually been despoiled,
but actually the railway station is more mili-
tant in aspect. The stranger coming to Aux-
onne for the first time — unless he be prepared
beforehand — will have grave doubts at first as
to which is the chateau and which is the gare.
The latter has a crenelated cornice, meurtrieres
pierced in its walls, and the vague appearance
of bastions, all of which are also found in the
real in the old chateau grimly overlooking the
swift-flowing Saone. The enormous flanking
towers of the real chateau, in spite of the city
having been shorn of its prime military rank,
are still kept in condition for the service of
long-range guns, for the French are ever in a
state of preparedness for the invasion which
may never come. The lesson of '' 71 " was well
learned.

On the great entrance portal of the chateau
is blazoned a stone-sculptured hedgehog, the
devise of Louis XII, and in opposing niches are
two carven angels holding aloft an escutcheon.

The Franche Comte 189

Another doorway is hardly less impressive,
though somewhat vague as to the purport oi"
its ornament, which stands for nothing military
or even civic.

This introduction to the militant glory of the
Auxouue of other days is a ripe indication of
the dignity with which the place was one day
enhanced. Of a population to-day of something
less than five thousand souls, the city shelters
nearly three thousand soldiers of all arms. Its
warlike aspect can hardly be said to have
changed much from what it was of old in spite
of the fact that its importance is lower down
in the scale.

Another warlike reminder is ■''he statue which
rises proudly in the Place d'Armes. It is that
of the Sous-Lieutenant Bonaparte as he was
upon his arrival at Auxonne, a pallid youth just
out of the military school of Brienne.

In the plain neighbouring upon Auxonne, a
sort of mid-France Flanders, is a populous
town with a momentous and romantic history,
albeit its architectural monuments, save in frag-
ments, are practically nil. The Revolutionaiy
authorities took away its old name and called
it *' Belle Defense," in memory of a heroic re-
sistance opposed by the place to the invading
Due de Lorraine in 1616. Gallas had freed the

190 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Saone with thirty thousand men, and with Car-
dinal La Valette at the head of his army (a
cardinal whom Eichelieu had made a general)
found Dijon so well guarded that he turned on
his steps and attacked what is to-day Saint
Jean-de-Losne. Fifty thousand soldiers in all
finally besieged the place, and less than fifteen
hundred of the inhabitants, and a garrison of
but a hundred and fifty, held them at bay. The
Due d'Enghien, the future Grand Conde, then
Governor of Burgundy, was able to send a fee-
ble body of reinforcements and thus turn the
tide in favour of the besieged.

For this great defence Louis XIII exonerated
the city from all future taxes, and the grand
cross of the Legion d'Honneur was allowed to
be incorporated into the city arms, as indeed
it endures unto to-day. The tracings of the
former fortifications are plainly marked,
though the walls themselves have disappeared.

Dole is commonly thought of as but a great
railway junction. Besangon and Montbeliard
are the real objectives of this itinerary through
the Franche Comte and the half-way houses are
apt to be neglected. For fear of this we
" stopped over " at Dole.

Dole's historic souvenirs are many and have
in more than one instance left behind their

The Tranche Comte 191

stories writ large in stoue. The present Hotel
de Ville was the old Palais du Parlement, built
in the sixteenth century, from the designs of
Boyvin, who was himself President of the
Chambre at the time. Within the courtyard of
this old Parliament House is an impressive don-
jon of a century earlier, the Tour de Vergy,
which offers as choice a lot of underground
cells, or oubliettes, as one may see outside the
Chateau d'lf or the Castle of Loches. The
Palais de Justice at Dole, with a magnificently
carved portal, was formerly the Couvent des
Cordeliers and dates from 1572.

The memory of Besangon in the minds of
most folk — provided they have any memory of
it at all — will be recalled by the opening lines
of Stendhal's " Eouge et Noir." '' Besangon
n'est pas seulement une des plus jolies villes de
France, elle ahonde en gens de coeur et d' es-
prit.''

The flowing Doubs nearly surrounds the
** Roc " of Besangon with a great horse-shoe
loop which gives a natural isolation and makes
its citadel more nearly redoubtable than was
ever imagined by Vauban, its builder.

From an artistic point of view Besan§on's
monuments are not many or varied if one ex-
cepts the Palais Granvelle and the military de-

192 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

fences, which are made up in part of a number
of mediaeval towers and Vauban's citadel.
There are four great sentinel towers surround-
ing the city, all dating from the period of
Charles Quint, but the city gates, piercing the
fortification walls, were built also by Vauban
between 1668-1711, and are by no means as
ancient as they look.

The Palais Granvelle, of the sixteenth cen-
tury, has a fine dignified monumental aspect
wholly impressive regardless of its lack of
magnitude and the absence of a strict regard
for the architectural orders. Liberties have
been taken here and there with its outlines
which place it beyond the pale of a thoroughly
consistent structure, but for all that it undeni-
ably pleases the eye, and more. And what else
has one a right to demand unless he is a
pedant! In general the civic and domestic
architecture of the Franche Comte are of a
sobriety which gives them a distinction all their
own; the opposite is true of the churches, tak-
ing that at Pont-a-Mousson as a concrete ex-
ample.

The street facade of the Palais Granvelle is
undeniably fine, with a dignity born of simplic-
ity. Its interior facade, that giving on the
courtyard, is freer in treatment, but still not

Palais Granvelle, Besancon

The Tranche Comte 193

violent, and its colonnaded cloister forms a
quiet retreat in strong contrast with the bustle
and noise which push by the portal scarce
twenty feet away.

The Palais Granvelle actually serves to-day
the purpose of headquarters of BesauQon's
Societe Savante.

Nicolas Perrenot, Seigneur de Granvelle, its
builder (1533-1540) was the chancellor of
Charles Quint, and brother of the Cardinal de
Granvelle, minister of Charles Quint and Phi-
lippe II. He was descended from a noble Bur-
gundian family, not from a blacksmith as has
faultily been given by more than one historian.

Charles Quint, in writing to his son, after the
death of his chancellor — ' ' in his palace at
Besangon," said: '' My son, I am extremely
touched by the death of Granvelle. In him you
and I have lost a firm staff upon which to lean."

The centre of the admirable town house of
the sixteenth century is occupied by a vast
courtyard surrounded by a series of Doric col-
umns in marble, supporting a range of low ar-
cades. The principal fagade is built of " mar-
bre du pays," which is not marble or anything
like it, but a very suitable stone for building
nevertheless. It might be called '' near-mar-
ble " by an enterprising modern contractor,

194 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

and a fortune made off it by skilful advertising.
It is better, at any rate, than armoured cement.

The structure rises but two stories above the
rez-de-cliaussee, but is topped off with an '' at-
tique " (a word we all recognize even though
it be French) and three great stone lucarnes.
ornamented with light open-work consoles a
jour.

Each story is decorated at equal intervals by
a superimposed series of columns. The first is
Doric, the second Ionic and the third Corin-
thian, and each divides its particular story into
five travees.

The entrance portal is particularly to be re-
marked for its elegance. It is flanked on either
side by a Corinthian column and is surmounted
by a pair of angel heads in bronze.

Drawing closer and closer to the frontier, the
face of everything growing more and more war-
like the while, one comes to Montbeliard, prac-
tically a militant outpost of modern France,
though actually its importance in this respect
is overshadowed by neighbouring Belfort. At
Belfort Bartholdi's famous lion — a better
stone lion by the way than Thorwaldsen's at
Luzerne — crouches in his carven cradle in
the hillside ready to spring at the first rumours
of war. If France is ever invaded again it will

The Franche Comte

195

not be by way of the gateway which is defended
by Belfort and Montbeliard, that is certain!

Montbeliard is a little fragment of Germany
that has become French. Rudely grouped
around the walls of the old chateau of the Wur-
temburgs, the town remains to-day an anomaly
in France, more so than the gi'eater Strass-

bourg and Metz are to Germany, because they
have become thoroughly Germanized since " la
guerre " and the " annexation," which are the
half whispered words in which the natives still
discuss the late unpleasantness.

How did this little German stronghold be-
come French? One may learn the story from
** Le Marechal de Luxembourg et Le Prince
d'Orange," by Pierre de Segur, better even

196 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

than he may from the history books. The tale
is too long to retell here but it is undeniably
thrilling and good reading. The town, the cha-
teau and the local duke were, it seems, all cap-
tured at one fell swoop. There was no defence,
so it was not a very glorious \T.ctory, but it came
to pass as a heroic episode and a Wurtemburg
castle thus came to be a French chateau.

The Chateau de Montbeliard has all the
marks of a heavy German castle. It has little
indeed of the suggestion of the French manner
of building in these parts or elsewhere. To-
day it serves as a barracks for French soldiers,
but its alien origin is manifest by its cut and
trim.

The history of Montbeliard has been most
curious. Its name was derived from the Latin
Mons Peligardi (in German Munpelgard) and
the principality, as it once was, had a council of
nine maitres -bourgeois, as the city councilmen
were called. The principality comprised the
seigneuries of Hericourt. Blamont, Cliatelet and
Clemont. For a time it was a part of the Duchy
of Lorraine, then it passed to the house of
Montfaucon, and then to the Wurtemburgs,
who built the castle. The Treaties of Luneville
and Paris made it possible for the tricolor to fly
above the castle walls, otherwise it might have

The Franche Comte 197

remained a German town with a burgomaster
instead of a French ville with a maire.

The Tour Neuve of the chateau dates from
1594 and the Tour Bossue from 1425. The main
fabric was restored in such a manner that it
would seem to have been practically remodelled,
if not actually rebuilt, in 1751. It preserves
nevertheless the cachet that one expects to see
in a castle of its time, albeit that an alien fla-
vour hovers around it still.

It is worth continuing in this direction a step
farther to Belfort in the *' territory," although
it is actually beyond the confines of Burgundy's
" Free County." Belfort is worth seeing for
the sake of its " Lion," though if one is pressed
for time he may take a ride in Paris over to
the Rive Gauche and see the same thing in
the Place de Belfort, or at least a miniature
replica of it.

In the midst of the great entrenched camp of
Belfort rises " La Chateau," as Belfort 's cita-
del is known. It sets broad on its base nearly
five hundred metres above sea-level. The cha-
teau and the *' Roc " were first fortified in the
sixteenth century, since which time each year
has added to the strength of the defences until
to-day it is perhaps the most strongly fortified
of all the frontier posts of France.

198 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

It is at the base of the massive ' ' Eoc ' ' which
bears aloft the chateau that is sculptured Bar-
tholdi's celebrated lion. Its proportions are
immense, at least seventy-five feet in length and
perhaps forty in height.

The ancient Tour de la Miotte is all that re-
mains of a fortress of the middle ages, so Bel-
fort's claims rest on something more than its
artistic monumental remains, though the sil-
houette and sky-line of the grouping of its cha-
teau and citadel are imposingly effective and
undeniably artistic.

CHAPTER XIV

ON" THE SWISS BOEDER: BUGEY AND BRESSE

*' La Bresse, le Bugey, le Val-Eomey et la
Principaute de Dombes " was the high-sounding
way in which that hinterland between Burgundy
and Savoy was known in old monarchial days.
Of a common destiny with the two dukedoms, it
was allied first with one and then with the
other until the principality was nothing more
than a name; independence was a myth, and
allegiance, and perhaps something more, was
demanded by the rulers of the neighbouring
states.

In Roman times these four provinces were al-
lied with the I-Lyonnais, but by the Burgundian
conquerors forcibly became allied with the
stronger power.

Bresse of itself belonged to the Sires de
Bage and in 1272 became a countship allied
with the house of Savoy, which in 1601 ceded it
to the king of France.

Local diction perpetuates the following qua-

199

200 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

train which well explains the relations of
Bresse with the surrounding provinces.

" Pont-de-Veyle et Pont-de-Vaux,
Sair^t Trivier at Romeno
Sont quat' villes Men renommo ;
Alias viv' Macon pour beir
Et Bourg pour mangi."

Bresse, more than any other of the subdivi-
sions of mediaeval and modern France, is en-
dowed with renown for the sobriety and purity
of the life of its people; and family ties are
'' respectable and respected," as the saying
goes. Above all has this been notably true of
the nobility, who were ever looked up to with
love and pride by those of lower stations.
Among the common people never has one been
found to willingly ally himself, or herself, with
another family who might have a blot on its
escutcheon. The marriage vow and its usages
are simple but devout, and in addition to the
usual observations the peasant husband grants,
as a part of the marriage contract, a black
dress to be worn at Toussaint and the Jour des
Mortes, and to all family mourning celebra-
tions. If a widow or widower seeks another
partner the event is celebrated by a ball — for
which the doubly wedded party pays.

Womoi oj J>n

On the Swiss Border 201

The village fetes of Bresse, still continued in
many an out-of-the-way little town, are the
usual drinking and dancing festins of the comic
opera merry-making variety. They are simple
and proper enough exhibitions, and never de-
scend to the freedom of speech and manners
that such exhibitions often do in the Midi.

None more than Brillat-Savarin has carried
the fame of Bresse abroad. A one-time mem-
ber of the Cour de Cassation, he perhaps was
better known to the world at large as the father
of gastronomy in France. His '' Psychologie
de Gout, ' ' if nothing else, would warrant giving
him this title.

Val-Eomey — the Vallis Romana of the Em-
perors— and Bugey had for overlords the
Sires de Thoire et Villars. It, too, came in time
to the Dues de Savoie, by gift and by heritage,
and also was ceded in 1601 to Henri IV, by vir-
tue of the Treaty of Lyons.

Dombes, principality in little, although at
first a part of the kingdom of Burgundy, later
fell by favour of circumstances to the Sires of
Beauge and afterwards to the Sire de Beau-
jeau. Finally it turned its fortunes into the
hands of the Bourbons, when Mademoiselle de
Montpensier came to rule its destinies. She
turned it over to Louis XIV as payment for his

202 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

authorization for her marriage with Monsieur
de Lauzun.

The princess made this sacrifice of love in
vain, and Dombes fell to the Due de Maine,
while Lauzun languished in the prison Pigne-
rolo, for the king did not abide by his back-
handed favouritism.

On the border between the mediaeval dukedom
and the principality of Dombes, to-day the De-
partements of the Saone et Loire and the Ain,
is a race apart from other mankind hereabouts.
In numerous little villages, notably at Boz and
Huchisi, one may still observe the dark Saracen
features of the ancients mingled with those of
to-day. A monograph has recently appeared
which defines these peoples as something quite
unlike the other varied races now welded into
the citizens of twentieth century France.

Modern vogue, style, fashion, or whatever
you may choose to call it, is everywhere fast
changing the old picturesque costume into
something of the ready-made, big-store order,
but to stroll about the highways and byways in
these parts and see men in baggy Turkish trou-
sers with their coats and waistcoats tied to-
gether by strings or ribbons in place of conven-
tional buttons, is as a whiff of the Ofient, or at
least a reminder of the long ago.

On the Swiss Border 203

The women dress in a distinct, but perhaps
not otherwise veiy remarkable, manner, save
that an occasional " Turk's-Head " turban is
seen, quite as Oriental as the culotte of the men.
A blend of Spain, of Arabia, of Persia and of
Turkey could not present a costume more droll
than that of the '' Chizerots/' as these people
are known.

Another petit pays, and one of the most re-
markably disposed, politically, of all the old
provinces which go to make up modern France,
is what is known even to-day as the Pays de
Gex. It belonged successively to the house of
Joinville, to the Comte de Savoie and to the
States of Berne and Geneva. The Due de Sa-
voie, by the treaty of 1601, ceded it to France,
but a strip is still neutral ground for both
Switzerland and France, which by common ac-
cord allows Geneva full access to the territory
in order to establish its communications with
Swiss territory on the west and south shores of
Lac Leman, particularly to that region beyond
Saint-Gingolphe.

The name Gex is evolved from the Latin
Gesium. the capital of a kingdom owning but
a length of six leagues and a width of about
half as much. The Bernese and the Genevois
conquered it in turn, and to-day its personality

204 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

is nil except that one recalls it as the head cen-
tre for the trade in Gruyere cheese, the kind
which we commonly call Swiss cheese. It is
in the Pays de Gex, on the railway line from
Gex to Geneva, that one notes the name of Fer-
nay and endeavours to recall for just what it
stands. At last it comes to one. Fernay pos-
sesses a literary shrine of note that all who
pass this way may well remember. The wonder
is that one did riot recall it with less effort.

The whole town is virtually a monument to
Voltaire. It was he who built the town, prac-
tically; that is, he furnished the land and the
means to erect many of the meaner houses
which surround the chateau which he came him-
self to inhabit, and from which, for a time, the
rays of his brilliant wit were shed over the
whole literary world of the eighteenth century.

After his flight from Berlin, Voltaire, the
Seigneur de Fernay, founded Fernay, within
six kilometres of the frontier and Geneva, and
sought to attract Swiss watch-makers thither
that a similar industry might there be estab-
lished on French soil. Surely Voltaire was
more of a benefactor of his race than he is
usually considered.

The Voltaire manor, or chateau, albeit that it
is nothing grandly monumental, still exists with

^•#ivl

?N

o

On the Swiss Border 205

furniture and portraits of the time of the satir-
ist. At the entrance to the chateau is a tiny
chapel, built also by Voltaire when he was in
that particular mood. Over its portal it bears
the following words, " Deo Erexit Voltaire
MDCCLXI." Arsene Houssaye called the
words an impertinence, and, admitting Vol-
taire's genius, one is inclined to assent to the
dictum. " My church," said Voltaire, " is
erected to God, the only one throughout Chris-
tendom; there are thousands to Saint Jean, to
Saint Paul and to all the rest of the calendar,
but not another in all the world to God."

Such a romantically storied region as this
might naturally be expected to abound in his-
toric souvenirs and monuments almost without
end. To an extent this is true, but such sou-
venirs and recollections of the past more fre-
quently present themselves than do actual cas-
tle walls, be they ruined or well-preserved.

The antique lore of ancient Bresse goes back
to Druidical days. Stone axes, Celtic tombs and
medals, skeletons wearing bracelets and anklets
of iron and copper have been found in great
numbers, and from these have been built up a
vague history of the earliest times.

Of Roman remains there are still evident
many outlines of the camps of the legionaries,

206 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

innuinerable evidences and tracings of old
Roman highroads, with here and there frag-
ments of aqueducts, baths and temples. Near
Bourg have been discovered various medals of
the ancient colony of Massilia, on the shores of
the Mediterranean, and one wonders what were
the relations of the Ostragoth peoples of Bresse
with the Phoceans of Marseilles. History is
non-committal.

There are no magnificent monumental re-
mains of Roman times left in these parts save
occasional fragments and towers which presum-
ably served for signalling jourposes as a part
of the fortifications of the Saracens. For any
architectural monuments of note one can not
with certainty go back to a period earlier than
that in which the Burgundian power was at its
height, or to the time of Charles-le-Chauve in
the ninth century.

The feudal memories of Bresse are chiefly the
ruins of the seigneurial chateau at Chateauneuf,
the chief -town of the Val-Romey. Built high
on the summit of a peak of rock and surrounded
by deep-cut fosses, and walls which drop down
sheer like the sides of a precipice, this chief
feudal residence of the Val-Romey was more a
fortress than a delectable domestic establish-
ment, though it served the functions of both, as

On the Swiss Border 207

was frequently the case with the feudal edifice
of its class. T\Tiat it lacked in actual luxury or
comfort it made up for in the added protection
offered by its sturdy walls. This was notably
true of all seigneurial residences which occupied
isolated positions in the feudal epoch. Its walls
to-day, shorn of any esthetic beauty which they
may once have possessed, and crumbling and
moss-grown on every side, still rise a hundred
or more feet in air above their rocky founda-
tions, and in many places have a thickness of a
dozen or fifteen feet. They built well in those
old days, before the era of armoured cement
covered with stucco. Modern builders make
great claims for their product, but will it last?
No man knows, and, from the fact that masonry
cannot be built even to-day so as to stand up
against shot and shell, one doubts if modern
work is really as durable as that of a thousand
years ago. The military architecture of feudal
France, so often closely allied with that of the
civic and domestic varieties, was preeminent in
its time.

The religious architecture, the monasteries
and churches, of these parts have certainly
more ornate reminders of the undeniable opu-
lence of the region than the secular examples
still existing.

208 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Connecting Bresse and tlie Franche Comte is
a curious little battery of townlets that have
never been mentioned in the guide-books, nor
ever will be. A motor flight from Bourg-en-
Bresse to Besangon evolved the following : First
came a smug little town named briefly Pierre.
It possesses a chateau, too, reckoned as one of
the really remarkable examples of the style of
Burgundian building. It certainly looks all that
is claimed for it, though we saw it only in the
dim twilight of a May evening. The impression
was all-satisfying, and, that being what one
really travels for, one should be content.

For a neighbour there was Champdivers,
which recalled a memory of Odette de Champ-
divers, the one time companion of the poor
Charles VI. during his latter unhappy days.
Truly this was proving for us a most romantic
region, a region utterly neglected by the great
world of tourists who pick out the big-type
names on the map and make up their itineraries
accordingly.

On the banks of the Doubs, near the border
of Bresse and the Comte, lies Molay, whose sei-
gneur, Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of
the Templars, died at the stake in Paris during
the playing of the great drama of 1314.

After Molay a succession of dwellings con-

On the Swiss Border 209

tinues to the important frontier town and for-
tress of Dole, a decayed county-town whose of-
ficial importance, even, has been absorbed by
the fortified city and watch-making metropolis
of BesanQon. Dole will never be reckoned a city
of celebrated art, but regardless of this its fine
old Renaissance houses and Parliamentary
Palace of other days all follow the architectural
scheme which makes the civic and secular edi-
fices of mid-France the most luxurious of their
epoch.

Bourg, the capital of Bresse, has ever been
one of the most important towns of France ly-
ing near the eastern frontier, though indeed as
a fortified place the modern French military
authorities give it scant value from a strategic
point of view. Six great national highways
cross and recross the city, and many of the nar-
row streets of the days of the dukes have lately
given way to avenues and boulevards. From
this one puts Bourg down as something very
modem — which it is, in parts.

Built on the site of the ancient Forum Sebu-
sianorum, the city came in time under the sway
of Burgundy, of the Empire of the States of
Savoy, and finally definitely allied itself with
France in 1601.

Bourg is in the heart of Bresse. Its inhab-

210 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

itants are known as Bressans de Bresse, in con-
tradistinction to those who live on the borders
of the old province. " Viv Macon pour heir et
Bourg pour mangi " — Macon for drinkmg and
Bourg for eating — say the Bressans of
Bresse, and with good reason.

The Bressan costume is most peculiar, at
least so far as that of the women is concerned ;
the men might be of Normandy or Poiton.
Only on a fete day will one see the real costume
of the women of Bresse, but on such occasions
the mere sight of the triple-decked, steeple-like
coiffe — a good replica of an ornamental foun-
tain in miniature — will suggest nothing so
much as the costume of a masquerade.

The only palatial domestic or civic edifice
notable in Bourg to-day is the Parliament Build-
ing of the ancient ]£tats de la Bresse. Of the
many princely dwellings of the time of the
Seigneurs de Bage, and of the Savoyan princes
of the sixteenth century, not a fragment re-
mains, though the records tell of a splendid
chateau-fort and an episcopal residence of like
luxurious proportions which existed at the time
of the union of Bresse with France. This
may be the edifice of the Etats which now shel-
ters the Musee Lorin. The longbeards disagree
as to this, but the casual observer will be quite

On the Swiss Border 211

willing to accept tlie suggestion. The monu-
ment is certainly a splendid one, even if its his-
tory is vague.

The famous Eglise de Brou at Bourg is in-
timately bound with the life of the nobles of
mediaeval times, as closely indeed as if it had
been a secular establishment where lived lords
and ladies and their courts. A description of
this classic wonder of architectural art can have
no extended place here. It must suffice to recall
that it was erected by Philibert le Beau in com-
pletion of a vow made by his mother Margue-
rite de Bourbon. Within are the magnificently
sculptured tombs of the two royalties and
another of Marguerite d'Autriche. The sculp-
ture of these famous tombs has been the sub-
ject of more than one monograph, and indeed
the whole ornate structure — church, tombs and
sculpture — is a never-ceasing source of sup-
ply to critics and archaeologists.

The Italian style, in the most gracious of its
flowering forms, is here united with the flam-
boyant Flemish school in a profligate profusion.
The figlise de Brou is one of the greatest mar-
vels of Eenaissance architecture in all the
world.

North of Bourg, on the road to Louhans,
through the heart of the Bresse so dear to gas-

212 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

tronomes, are the well conserved remains of the
Chateau de Monteony, and those of more ruin-
ous aspect which represent the departed glories
of Duretal.

Cuiseaux' monumental remains are even
more scant, and the town itself hardly resem-
bles a town of Burgundy. It is more like a
place in Switzerland or the Jura ; indeed, to the
latter region it once belonged, and only came to
be Burgundian when the princes of the house,
through some petty quarrel, took it for their
own by force, as was the way in those gallant,
profligate days.

Cuiseaux does possess, however, a ruined
aspect of wall and rampart which suggests that
it must have been one of the most admirably
defended places of the neighbourhood, judging
from an old fifteenth century plan preserved in
the Bibliotheque Nationale. Then it was proud
of its ramparts which possessed thirty-six pro-
tecting towers. To-day but two of these senti-
nels remain, and it were vainglorious to claim
too much for them, particularly since the mod-
ern plan of the town makes it look as conven-
tionally dull and uninteresting as an Arab
gliourhi in the Atlas, or an adobe village in
Arizona.
At Pont-de-Vaux, between Bourg and Lou-

On the Swiss Border 213

hans, one comes to a trim little town, an out-
growth of the ancient village of Vaux, belong-
ing at one time to the Sires de Bauge, and later
to the Due de Savoie, Charles III, who made it
a Comte in 1623. It afterwards grew to the
dignity of a Duche, so made by Louis XIII.
Much is preserved to-day of the ancient manner
of building, and, all in all, it is quite as satisfac-
tory an example of a mediaeval town as has been
left untouched by the mature hand of progress
of these late days.

Nantua is known to the traveller in modern
France only as another of those lakeside re-
sorts which are such delightful places of so-
journ for those who would avoid for a time the
strife of great cities. It is a gem of a town, set
in a diadem of beauty which surrounds the tiny
lake of the same name, but it has no historic
monuments, if we except the tomb of Charles le
Chauve in the church. This at least entitles it
to a passing comment here, this and the memory
of a happy afternoon we passed by the crystal
waters of this brilliant lake.

Midway between Bourg and Macon is Pont-
de-Veyle. This old feudal town was once the
particular possession of a brilliant line of sei-
gneurs of France and Savoy, the last, under
FranQois I, being the Comte de Furstemburg,

214 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

who acquired it as a pa^Tnent for certain levies
of Germans that he had furnished the French
monarch.

The ancient manor of the Furstemburgs still
exists, but it is hardly of a proportion or archi-
tectural merit to have distinction. Here, too,
are the reconstructed remains of the eighteenth
century of a family chateau of the Marechal de
Lesdiguieres, whose fortunes were more inti-
mately bound up with Gap and Vizille than with
this less accessible property. Like Vizille it
has been ' ' put into condition ' ' in recent years,
and, while lacking the mossy, romantic air of
mediaevalism, fulfils most of the demands of the
worshipper at historic shrines.

There is still standing here an old city gate
dating from the thirteenth century, and this in
turn is surmounted by a belfry of the sixteenth.
The ensemble suggests that it was once a part
of a more noble fortress-chateau. The Maison
des Savoyards was probably a princely rest-
house when the nobles of its era passed this
way. Beyond its name, and the elaborate deco-
rations of its facade, there is nothing else to
support the conjecture. Its history, whatever
it may have been, is lost in the confusion with
which many ancient records are covered to-day.

Turning southwest on the highroad, from

On the Swiss Border 215

Burgundy into Savoy through the heart of
Dombes, one soon reaches Chatillon-les-Dombes.
As its name indicates, it is a descendant of the
town "u-hich grew up around an ancient sei-
gneurial residence here of the fourteenth cen-
tury. Chiefly this is memory only, for the frag-
mentary debris takes on no distinction to-day
beyond that of any other indiscriminate pile of
stones and mortar.

Montluel, near-by, is in much the same cate-
gory. It is famous only for the fact that it was
here that Ame VII was presented the Duche de
Savoie by Sigismond in 1496, and that in
troublous, mediaeval days it was the safe haven
for many political refugees from Geneva and
Florence. Montluel, in Latin Mons Lupelli, was
the capital of the fief of Valbonne. The re-
mains existing to-day, and locally called '' le
chateau," are those of an edifice which had an
existence and a career of sorts in the eleventh
century, but which since that date has no re-
corded history.

To Pont d'Ain and Belley is still on the di-
rect road to Savoy. On the great '^ route in-
terna tionale " from Paris to Turin sits the
ancient chateau of Pont d'Ain, which owes its
name to the old bridge which once spanned the
A in at this point.

216 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

On an eminence high above the river is the
old chateau built by the Sires de Coligny in
1590, the ancestors of the great admirah Pre-
viously it had been the residence of the rulers
of Savoy, and to this luxurious dwelling the
princesses of the house invariably came to give
birth to the inheritors to the throne. Louise de
Savoie, the mother of Frangois Premier, was
born here in 1476, and here died Philibert II,
Due de Savoie, in 1504, he whose death gave
impetus to the erection of that magnificent mau-
soleum, the Eglise de Brou.

Belley, a matter of fifty kilometres further
on, is a veritable gateway through which passed
the ancient Eoute de Savoie along which trotted
the palfreys and rolled the coaches of Eenais-
sance days.

Lacking entirely mediaeval monuments of
note, Belley ranks, judging from positive docu-
mentary evidence, as one of the most ancient
towns of the border province lying between
Burgundy and Savoy. Its episcopate dates
from the year 412 a. d., and, if its feudal monu-
ments have disappeared, its great episcopal pal-
ace of later centuries is certainly entitled to be
considered an example of domestic architecture
quite as appealing as many a feudal chateau
of more warlike aspect.

On the Swiss Border 217

So strong a centre of the church as Belley
was bound to be prominent politically, and its
bishops bore as well the title of Princes of the
Empire.

Herein has been given an epitome of a round
of travel in this forgotten and neglected border
country lying between old Burgundy, Switzer-
land and Savoy. AMiat it lacks in elaborate
examples of feudal and Renaissance architec-
ture it makes up for in storied facts of history,
which though too extensive to be more than
hinted at here are as thrilling and appealing
as any chapter of the history of old France.
For that reason, and the fact that some ac-
quaintance with these tiny border provinces is
necessary for a proper appreciation of the ex-
terior relations of both Burgundy and Savoy,
the detour has been made.

CHAPTER XV

GRENOBLE AND VIZILLE : THE CAPITAL OF THE DAU-
PHINS

Dauphin Y owes its name as a province to the
rightful name of the eldest sons of the French
kings down to the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury. The actual origin of the application of
the name seems to have been lost, though the
Comtes de Vienne bore a dolphin on their bla-
zon from the eleventh century to the fourteenth,
when Comte Humbert, the last Dauphin, made
over his rights to the eldest son of Philippe de
Valois, who acquired the country in 1343, be-
stowing it upon his offspring as his patrimony.
Thus is logically explained the absorption of
the title and its relations with the province,
for it was then that it came first to be applied
to that glorious mountain region of France ly-
ing between the high Alpine valleys and the
shores of the Mediterranean.

The Dauphin, Humbert II, first established
the Parlement du Dauphine at Saint Marcellin
in 1337, but within three years it was trans-

218

Grenoble and Vizille

219

f erred to Grenoble, where it held rank as third
among the provincial parliaments of France.

Saint Laurent, the Grenoble suburb, not the
mountain town hidden away in the fastness of
the mountain
massif of the
Chartreuse, oc-
cupies the site
of an ancient
Gaulish founda-
tion called Cu-
laro. Its name
was later
changed to Gra-
tianopolis, out
of compliment
to the Emperor
Gratian, which
in time evolved
itself into Gren-
oble, the capital
of '' the good
province of our
most loyal Dauphin."

Grenoble's chief architectural treasure is its
present Palais de Justice, the ancient buildings
of the old Parliament of Dauphiny and its
Cour des Comptes. Virtually it is a chateau of

iiilP'

220 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

state and is, moreover, the most important
monument of the French Renaissance existing
in the Rhone valley. Begun under Louis XI,
it was terminated under FrauQois Premier,
when, following upon the Italian wars, it was
a place of sojourn for the kings of France.

On entering the portal at the right one comes
directly to the Chambre du Tribunal of to-day,
its walls panelled with a wonderful series of
wood-carvings coming from the ancient Cour
des Comptes, the work of a German sculptor,
Paul Jude, in 1520.

The portal to the left leads to the Cour
d'Appel — the Chambres des Audiences Solen-
nelles — whose ceiling was designed in 1660 by
Jean Lepautre, a great decorative artist of the
court of Louis XIV, and carved by one Guille-
baud, a native of Grenoble. The ancient chapel,
or such of it as remains, where the parliament
heard mass, is reached through this room. The
ancient Chambre des Comptes dates from the
reign of Charles VIII.

The Grande Salle on the upper floor is one
of the notable works of its epoch with respect
to its decorations, though the noble glass of its
numerous windows was destroyed long years
ago, leaving behind onl}'- a record of its magnif-
icently designed armoiries and inscriptions.

Grenoble and Vizille 221

The chief, out-of-the-ordinary, decorations still
to be observed are the sculptured fronts of
tliirty-eight cupboard doors which enclose the
provincial archives. From an artistic, no less
tlian a utilitarian, point of view, they are cer-
tainly to be admired, even preferred, before the
" elastic " book cases of to-day.

Much of the old Palais des Dauphins' former
magnificent attributes in the shape of decora-
tive details remain to charm the eye and senses
to-day, but of the extensive range of apart-
ments of former times only a bare three or four
suggest by their groinings, carvings and chim-
ney-pieces the splendour with which the elder
sons of the kings of France were wont to sur-
round themselves.

A remarkably successful work of restoration
of the fagade was accomplished within a dozen
years on the model of the best of Eenaissance
details in other parts of the edifice, until to-day
the whole presents a most effective ensemble.

In Grenoble's museum is a room devoted to
portraits of the good and great of Dauphiny.
There are a dozen busts in marble of as many
Dauphins, a portrait of Marie Vignon, the wife
of Lesdiguieres, and a crayon sketch of Bayard,
which is the earliest portrait of the '' Cheva-
lier " extant. In the figlise Saint Andre is the

222 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

tomb of Bayard. The funeral monument sur-
mounting it was erected only in the seventeenth
century. The official chapel of the Dauphins
has a great rectangular clocher remaining to
suggest its former proportions. This fine tower
is surmounted by an octagonal upper story and
is flanked at each corner with a cloclieton rising
hardily into the rarefied atmosphere. The grim
tower braves the tempests of winter to-day as
it has since 1230.

Grenoble's Hotel des Trois Dauphins is an
historic monument as replete with interest as
many of more splendour. It was here that
Napoleon lodged, with General Bertrand, on
the night when he passed through the city on
that eventful return from Elba when he sought
to kindle the European war-flame anew.

Grenoble's sole vestige of ancient castle or
chateau architecture, aside from the temporary
royal abode of the French kings and the Dau-
phins, is a round tower — La Grosse Tour
Eonde — now built into the Hotel de Ville, the
only existing relic of a still earlier Palais des
Dauphins which in its time stood upon the site
of the ancient Eoman remains of a structure
built in the days of Diocletian.

Grenoble's citadel possesses to-day only a
square tower with machicoulis to give it the dis-

Grenoble and Vizille 223

tinction of a militant spirit. It was built in
1409, but to-day lias been reduced to a mere
barrack's accessory of not the slightest military
strength, a *' colomhier militaire," the authori-
ties themselves cynically call it.

Vauban's ancient ramparts have now been
turned into a series of those tree-planted prom-
enades so common in France, but the militant
aspect of Grenoble is not allowed to be lost
sight of, as a mere glance of the eye upward to
the hillsides and mountain crests roundabout
plainly indicates.

Grenoble, with its fort-crowned hill of "La
Bastille," has been called the Ehrenbreitstein
of the Isere, a river which has played a momen-
tous part in the history of Savoy and Dauphiny,
but which is little known or recognized by
those who follow the main lines of French
travel.

Mont Rachet forms the underpinning of " La
Bastille " and gives a foothold to an old feudal
fortress now built around by a more modern
work. Below is the juncture of the Isere and
the Drac, and the great plain in the midst of
which rests the proud old capital of the Dau-
phins. The site is truly remarkable and the
strategic importance of the fortress was well
enough made use of in mediaeval times as a

224 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

feudal stronghold. ^Tiat its value for military
purposes may actually be to-day is another
story. The walls of the fortress certainly look
grim enough, but it is probable that even the
puniest of Alpine mountain batteries could re-
duce it in short order.

Grenoble, as might be expected of a wealthy
provincial capital, is surounded by a near-by
battery of palatial country houses which may
well take rank as chateaux de marque. Some
are modem and some are remodelled from
more ancient foundations, but all are of the
imposing order which one associates with a
mountain retreat. These of course are of a
class quite distinct from the countless forts,
fortresses, towers and donjons with which the
whole countryside is strewn.

Uriage, a near neighbour, is a popular resort
in little, in fact, a ville d'eau, as the French
aptly name such places. The Chateau d 'Uriage
will for most folkhave vastly more sympathetic
interest than the semi-invalid attractions of the
spa itself. It is at present the property of the
Saint Ferreol family, and though not strictly
to be reckoned as a sight, since it is not open
to the public, it still remains one of the most
striking residential chateaux of these parts.
It was built by the Seigneurs d'Allemon under

G-renoble and Vizille 225

the old regime. Its architecture is frankly of
the nondescript order, a melange of much that
is good and some that is bad, but all of it ef-
fective when judged from a more or less dis-
tant view-point. "With respect to its details it
is a livid mass of non-contemporary elements
to which the purist would give scant considera-
tion, but the effect, always the most desirable
quality after all, is undeniably satisfying.
The situation heightens this effect, no doubt,
but what would you? The high sloped roof,
in place of the mansards one usually sees,
may be considered an innovation in a structure
of its epoch. It was so built, without question,
that it might better shed the snows of winter,
which here come early and stay late.

The Chateau de Vizille, in a wooded park
bordering upon the little industrial suburb of
Grenoble bearing the same name, is a most im-
posing pile, and is fairly reminiscent of its
eighteenth century contemporaries in Touraine
and elsewhere in mid-France. It was the place
of meeting of the £tats Generaux of Dauphiny
in 1788, one of the momentous preambles to the
French Revolution, a chapter of the gi-eat
drama which was vigorously spoken and acted.

It was on July 21, 1788, under the presidency
of the Comte de Marges, that were voted the

226 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

preliminary paragraphs of the famous ' ' Decla-
ration des Droits de THomme et du Citoyen."
The occasion is perpetuated in memory by a
monument erected in the town to "La Gloire
de I'Assemblee de Vizille . . . et prepare la
Kevolution Francaise."

This was the first parliamentary vote against
the sustaining of aristocratic hereditary gov-
ernment in favour of popular representation —
really the general signal for revolution, a year
before the convention at Versailles.

The massive pile, ornate but not burdensome,
with its mansards, its towers and terraces, com-
poses with its environment in a most agreeable
manner.

Known originally as the Chateau des Les-
diguieres, for it was built originally by that
celebrated Constable, Vice-Eoi du Dauphine,
the Chateau de Vizille was formerly the prop-
erty of the family of Casimir Perier, that
which gave a president to the later Eepublic.

In the early part of the seventeenth century
a German traveller, Abraham Goelnitz,
** greatly admired " the chateau, and compared
it to that of the Due d'Epernon at Cadillac,
which contained seventy rooms. That of the
Marechal Lesdiguieres had a hundred and
twenty-five, among them (at that time) a pic-

Grenoble and Vizille 227

ture gallery, an arsenal with six hundred suits
of armour, two thousand pikes and ten thou-
sand muskets, as the inventory read. No won-
der Kichelieu would have reduced the power
of the local seigneurs when they could get, and
keep together, such a store as that.

Vizille abounds in historical memories the
most exciting; the very fact that it was the
home of Lesdiguieres, the terrible companion
of the Baron des Adrets — a Dauphinese ty-
rant, a warrior-pillager and much more that
history vouches for — explains this.

*' Viendrez ou je b rider ai," Lesdiguieres
wrote to the recalcitrant vassals of his king
who originally had a castle on the same site.
And when they stepped out, lea\^ng the edifice
unhanned, he stepped in and threw it to the
ground and built the less militant chateau
which one sees to-day. This edifice as it now
stands was practically the work of Lesdiguieres.
The Protestant governor of Dauphiny was
reckoned a "sly fox " by the Due de Savoie,
and doubtless with reason. It is a recorded
fact of history that the governor built his cha-
teau with the unpaid labour of the neighbouring
peasants. This was in conformity with an old
custom by which a governor of the Crown could
release his subject from taxes by the payment

228 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

of a corvee, that is, labour for the State. He
took it to mean that as the representative of the
state the peasants were bound to work for him.
And so they did. The charge goes home never-
theless that it was a case of official sinning.

This " Berceau de la Liberte " is in form
an elegant pavilion of the style current with
Louis XIII. Originally it possessed certain
decorative features, statues and bas reliefs, all
more or less mutilated to-day. What is left
gives an aspect of magnificence, but after all
these features are of no very high artistic order.
Within, the decoration of the apartments and
their furnishings rise to a considerably higher
plane. Everywhere may be seen the arms of
the Constable, three roses and a lion, the latter
rampant, naturally, as becomes the device of
a warrior.

The later career of the Chateau de Vizille has
been most ignoble. Twice in the last century
it suffered by fire, in 1825 and 1865, and finally
it was rented as a store-house for a manufac-
turing concern, later to become a boarding
house controlled by a Societe Anglaise. Noth-
ing good came of the last project and the enter-
prise failed, as might have been anticipated at
the commencement. To-day the property is on
the market, or was until very recently.

CHAPTER XVI

CHAMBERY AND THE LAC DU BOURGET

One comes to Cliambery to see the chateau
of the Dues de Savoie, the modest villa '' Les
Charmettes," celebrated by the sojourn of Jean
Jacques Eousseau and Madame de Warens.
and the Fontaine des Elephants. That is all
Chambery has for those who would worship at
picturesque or romantic shrines, save its acces-
sibility to all Savoy.

To begin with the last mentioned attraction
first, one may dispose of the Fontaine des Ele-
phants in a word. It has absolutely no artistic
or sentimental appeal, though the town resi-
dents worship before it as a Buddhist does be-
fore Buddha. The ducal splendour of the cha-.
teau and of ''La Sainte Chapelle," which to-
gether form the mass commonly referred to as
" the chateau," is indeed the first of Cham-
bery's attractions. Restorations of various
epochs have made of the fabric something that
will stand the changes of the seasons for gener-

229

230 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ations yet to come and still preserve its mediae-
val characteristics. This is saying that the res-
toration of the Chateau de Chambery has been
intelligently conceived and well executed.

The great portal, preceded by an ornate ter-
race, with a statue of the Freres de Maistre, is
the chief and most splendid architectural detail.
A good second is the old portal of the Eglise
Saint Dominique, which has been incorporated
into the chateau as has been the Sainte Cha-
pelle. Its chevet and its deep-set windows form
the most striking externals of this conglomerate
structure.

One of the old towers forms another domi-
nant note when viewed from without, but let
no one who climbs to its upper platform for
a view of the classic panorama of the city and
its surroundings think that he, or she, treads
the stones where trod lords and ladies of ro-
mantic times, for the stairway is a poor modern
thing bolstered up by iron rods, as unlovely as
a fire-escape ladder on an apartment house, and
no more romantic.

It was in the Chateau de Chambery that was
consummated the final ceremony by which
Savoy was made an independent duchy in
1416. Historians of all ranks have described
the magnificence of the event in no sparing

Portal oj the Chateau de Ch a mbery

Chambery

231

Ported St. Dominique, Chambery

232 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

terms. It was the most gorgeous spectacle ever
played upon the stage of which this fine old
mediaeval castle was the theatre.

The final act of the ceremony took place be-
fore a throng of princes, prelates and various
seigneurs and minor vassals of all the neigh-
bouring kingdoms and principalities. The Em-
peror Sigismond, Amadee VIII, who was to
be the new duke, dined alone upon a raised dais
in the Grande Salle, and the service was made
by ''a richly dressed throng of seigneurs
mounted on brilliantly caparisoned chargers."
This is quoted from a historical chronicle, which
however neglects to state the quality of the
service. It is quite possible that it may not
have been above reproach.

Here, a couple of centuries later, another
Victor-Amadee married the Princesse Henri-
ette, Duchesse d 'Orleans. The bride to be had
never met her future husband until they came
together at a little village near-by, as she was
journeying to the Savoyan castle for the cere-
mony. Says the chronicle : ' ' When the prin-
cess saw the pageant, at the head of which
marched Victor-Amadee, the fair young man of
distinguished and martial bearing, without a
moment's hesitation, casting to the winds all
her jDrevious instruction in matters of etiquette,

■,^pk^:iJSw^^ie*e--

Chateau dc Chamber \

l!

Chambery 233

she flew down the stairs and into the street and
finally into the arms of the duke. ' '

The marriage was not, however, a happy one.
The duke became disloyal to his vows and left
his wife to pine and inoau away her days in the
ducal chateau whilst he went off campaigning
for other hearts and lands. He acquired Sicily,
and became the first King of Sicily and Sar-
dinia, and paved the way for the future great-
ness of his house, but this was not accomplished
by adherence to the code of marital constancy.

The Chateau de Chambery was finally aban-
doned definitely by the Savoyan dukes, who,
when they became also monarchs of Sardinia,
took up their residence at Turin. The " beaux
jours " had passed never to return. Hence-
forth its career was to be less brilliant, for it
but rarely received even passing visits from its
masters. In 1745 it was considerably damaged
by fire ; in 1775 it was, in a way, furbished up
and put in order for the marriage of Charles
Emmanuel and Madame Clotilde of France, but
again, in 1798, it was ravaged by fire.

From 1793 to 1810 the chateau was the head-
quarters of the officialdom of the newly formed
Departement du Mont Blanc, and in 1860 it was
used as the Prefecture of the Departement de la
Savoie. Napoleon III, journeying this way in

234 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

1860, decided to make it an imperial residence
and certain transformations to that end were
undertaken, but it never came to real distinc-
tion again, save that it exists as an admirable
example of a '' monument historiqne " of the
old regime.

It was on the esplanade, beneath the windows
of the chateau, that Amadee Yl won the title
of the Comte Vert, because of the preponderant
colours of his arms and costume in a tourna-
ment which was held here in 1348.

The third of Chambery's classic sights, " Les
Oharmettes," is the " delicious habitation "
rendered so celebrated by Eousseau. One ar-
rives at " Les Charmettes " by a discreet and
shady by-path. It has been preserved quite in
its primitive state and is devoid of any pre-
tence whatever. Its charm is idealistic, roman-
tic and intimate. Nothing grandiose has place
here. It is a simple two-story, sloping tiled-
roof habitation of the countryside. As the
" Confessions " puts it, '^ Les Charmettes '*
was discovered thus: " Apres avoir un peu
cherche nous nous fixdmes an Charmettes . . .
a la porte de Cliarnhery, mats retiree et soli-
taire, comem si Von en etait a cent lieusV

This dwelling where Jean Jacques passed so
many of his '' rares hons jours *' of his adven-

Chambery

235

turous life has been bought by the city, and
will henceforth be guarded as a public monu-

ment, a tourist shrine like the Chateau des Dues
and La Grande Chartreuse. Here Madame de

236 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Warens will reign again in the effigy of a repro-
duction of Quentin de la Tour's famous por-
trait, possessed of that '^ air caressant et
tendre " and '' sourire angelique " which so
captured the author of the '' Confessions."
Arthur Young, that observant English agricul-
turalist, who travelled so extensively in France,
paid a warm tribute to Rousseau's good fairy
when he wrote : '' There was something so ami-
able in her character that in spite of her frail-
ties her name rests among those few memories
connected with us by ties more easily felt than
described."

In one of his stories Alphonse Daudet tells
us of a bourgeois who had purchased an old
chateau, and was driven away from it by the
ghosts of the family which had preceded him
as proprietors. Surely something of the same
kind might have happened to that citizen of the
United States who proposed to transport '^ Les
Charmettes " to Chicago. The offer was de-
clined and that is how the city of Chambery
came to possess it for all time. It is well that
this took place, for there is hardly a house in
Europe in which one would imagine that the
ghosts of history would so persistently survive.

Not only was " Les Charmettes " and
Madame de Warens connected so intimately,

Chambery 237

but they were also associated with another
name less known in the world of letters. Hear
what the " Confessions " has to say:

*' He was a young man from Viaud; his
father, named Vintzinried, was a self-styled
captain of the Cliateau de Chillon on Lac
Leman. The son was a hair-dresser's assistant
and was running about the world in that quality
when he came to present himself to Madame de
Warens, who received him well, as she did all
travellers, and especially those from her own
country. He was a big, dull blond, well-made
enough, his face insipid, his intelligence the
same, speaking like a beautiful Leander . . .
vain, stupid, ignorant, insolent." For the rest
one is referred to the " Confessions."

Within a radius of fifty kilometres of Cham-
bery there are more than thirty historic cha-
teaux or fortresses of the middle ages and the
Renaissance. Many are in an admirable, if not
perfect, state of preservation, and all offer
something of historic and artistic interest,
though manifestly not all can be included in a
rush across France. This fact is patent; that a
picturesquely disposed and imposing castle or
chateau adds much to the pleasing aspect of a
landscape, and here in this land of mountain
peaks and smiling valleys the prospect is as

238 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

varied as one could hope to find.^ Built often on
a mountain slope — and as often on a mountain
peak — frequently within sight of one another,
the dwellers therein would have been glad of
some means of " wireless " communication be-
tween their houses, for not always were the
seigneurs at war with their neighbours.

Off to the southward, towards Saint Michel
de Maurienne, is one of the most conspicuous
of these hill-top chateaux. Chignin is still the
proud relic of an ancient chateau which is a
land-mark for miles around. It has no history
worth recounting, but is as much like the con-
ventional Ehine castle of reality and imagina-
tion as any to be seen away from the banks of
that turgid stream. On a lofty eminence are
four great towers to remind one of the more
extensive structure to which they were once
connected. These ruins, and another rebuilt
tower of the old chateau of the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, are now practically all devoted
to the religious usages of the Chartreux, but in
spite of this they present a militant aspect such
as one usually associates with things secular.

The round of Lac Bourget, which environs
Chambery on the north, suggests many historic
souvenirs of the dukes and the days when they
held their court at the Chateau de Chambery.

Chateau de Ch'r^iiin

I

Chambery 239

Between Chambery and Aix-les-Bains, just
beside that wide dusty road along which scorch
the twentieth century nouveau riche, who wiih
their villas and gigantic hotels have all but
spoiled this idyllic corner of old Europe, rise
the walls of the Chateau de Montagny, captured
in 1814 by the allied armies marching against
France, and which still conserves, embedded in
its portal, a great shot, one of a broadside which
finally battered in its door. If one would see
war-like souvenirs still more barbarous, a cast
of the eye off towards Montmelian and Miolans
will awaken even more bloody ones. Their
story is told elsewhere in these pages.

At Bourget du Lac, a dozen kilometres out,
are the ruins of the Chateau de Bourget, within
sight of the ancient Lacus Castilion, and a near
neighbour of the celebrated Abbey of Haute-
combe.

Comte Ame V was bom in the Chateau de
Bourget in 1249. It had previously belonged to
the Seigneur de la Eochette, and during the
thirteenth century was occupied continually by
the princes of the house of Savoy. As may be
judged by all who \^ew, its site was most ravish-
ing, and though one may not even imagine
what its architectural display may actually
have been it is known that Ame V bestowed

240 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

mucli care and wealth upon it when he came to
man's estate. A pupil of Giotto's was brought
from Italy to superintend the decorations, and
evidences have been found in the ruined tower
at the right of the present heap of ruins which
suggest some of the decorative splendour which
the building one day possessed. In spite of its
fragmentary condition the ruin of the Chateau
de Bourget is one of the most romantically dis-
posed souvenirs of its era in Savoy, and one
may well echo the words of a local poet who has
praised it with all sincerity.

" 0 lac, te ^ouvient-il . . . des heaux jours du vieux castel."

The chronicles, too, have much to say of the
brilliant succession of seigneurs who came to
visit the Comtes de Savoie here in their wild-
wood retreat, *' a line of counts as noble, rich
and powerful as sovereigns of kingdoms."

The sepulchre of the Savoyan counts in the
old Abbey of Hautecombe must naturally form
a part of any pilgrimage to the neighbouring
chateau. For no reason whatever can it be neg-
lected by the visitor to these parts, the less so
by the chateau-worshipper just because it is a
religious foundation. It is in fact the mauso-
leum of the princes of the house of Savoy.
Within its walls are buried various members

Abbey of ITaiitccombe

9

Chambery 241

of the d^Tiasty who would have made of it the
Valhalla of their time.

" H est un coin de terre, au pied d'une montagne
Que haigne le lac du Bourget

Hauiecombe ! port calme ! 0 royal monastere !
Abri des Jils de Saint Bernard."

At the extreme northerly end of the Lac du
Bourget is the ancient Manoir de Chatillon, sit-
ting high on an isolated and wooded hillside
above the gently lapjDing waters, and in full
view of the snow-capped mountains of the Al-
pine chain to the eastward.

Here was bom, towards the end of the twelfth
century, Geoffroi de Chatillon, son of Jean de
Chatillon and Cassandra Cribelli, sister of Pope
Urban III. In every way the edifice is an
ideally picturesque one, as much so because of
its site and its historical foundation. As an
architectural glory it is a melange of many
sorts, with scarce a definite fpsthetic attribute.
It is as an historical guide-post that it appears
in its best light. Its chief deity, Geoffroi, be-
came a canon and chancellor of the chapter at
!Milan ; later he entered the religious retreat of
Hautecombe, from which Gregory IX finally
drew him forth to make him a cardinal-bishop.

242 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

He ultimately succeeded to the pontifical robes
and tiara himself as Celestin IV (1241). He
died eighteen days later, poisoned, it is said, so
his reign at the head of Christendom was per-
haps the briefest on record.

Bordeau, another ruined memory of mediae-
valism, also overlooks the Lac du Bourget from
near-by.

Aix-les-Bains is of course the lode-stone
which draws the majority of travellers to this
corner of the world. It is but a city of pleasure,
a modern '' Spa," the outgrowth of another of
Roman times when they took '^ cures " more
seriously. It has the reputation to-day, among
those who are really in the whirl of things, as
being the gayest, if not the most profligate —
and there is some suspicion of that — watering
place in Europe. Judging from prices alone,
and admitting the disposition or willingness of
those who would be gay to pay high prices with-
out a murmur, this is probably so.

The site of Aix-les-Bains is lovely, and its
waters really beneficial — so the doctors say,
and probably with truth. Its Casino is only
second to that of Monte Carlo.

The chief charm of Aix-les-Bains after all is,
or ought to be, its accessibility to the historic
masterpieces roundabout, and its delightful sit-

Chambery 243

uation by the shores of the " lac bleu " whose
praises were so loudly sung by Lamartine in
'' Eaphael."

North from Chambeiy and east from Aix-les-
Bains, is a mountain region known as Les
Bauges, a little known and less exploited region.
It is a charming isolated corner of Savoy,
where once roamed the gorgeous equipages of
the Dues de Savoie, who here hunted the wild
boar, the deer and the bears and foxes to their
hearts* content. To-day pretty much all game
of this nature has disajDpeared, save an occa-
sional sanglier, or wild boar, which, when met
with, usually turns tail and runs.

Midway in this mountain land between Aix-
les-Bains and Albertville is Le Chatelard, a tiny
townlet on the banks of a mountain torrent, the
Cheran. On a hill above the town, at a
height of nearly three thousand feet above the
sea level, are the insignificant remains of the
chateau of Thomas de Savoie. Scant remains
they are to be sure, endowed with a history as
scant, since little written word is to be met with
concerning them.

Otherwise the chateau is a very satisfactory
historical monument.

After climbing a tortuous winding path one
comes suddenly upon a great walled barrier

244 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

through which opens a door on which is to be
read ;

ox EST PRIE
DE FERMER LES
PORTES

(J'exige).

The last line is delicious. Of course one
would close the doors after the mere intimation
that it was desired that they should be closed.
The proprietor says that he demands it, but he
takes no measures to see that his demands are
carried out. AYhat pretence ! All the same the
pilgrimage is worth the making, but it's not an
easy jaunt.

CHAPTER XVII

IN" THE SHADOW OF LA GRANDE CHARTREUSE

One may leave Rousseau's smiling valley
above Cliambery and journey to Grenoble via
La Grande Chartreuse, or by the valley of the
Isere, as fancy dictates. In either case one
should double back and cover the other route or
much will otherwise be missed that will be re-
gretted.

Grenoble is militant from heel to toe. Its
garrison is of vast numbers, soldiers of all
ranks and all arms are everj^where, and every
hill round-about bristles with a fortification
or a battery of masked guns.

Every foot of the region is historic ground,
and whether one crosses from Savoy to Dau-
phiny or from Dauphiny to Savoy the border-
land is at all times reminiscent of the historic
past.

The cradle of the Dauphin princes of France
is not only a region of mountains and valleys,
but it is a land where a numerous and warlike

245

246 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

nobility was able to withstand invaders and op-
pressors to the last. Like Scotland, Dauphiny
was never conquered ; at least it lost no meas-
ure of its original independence by its alliances
until it was cut up into the present-day depart-
ments of modern France.

Dauphiny is possessed of multiple aspects.
It has the sun-burnt character of Provence in
the south, with Montelimar and Grignan as its
chief centres; it has its coteaux and falaises,
like those of Normandy, around Crest and Die ;
and its '* Petite Hollande " neighbouring upon
Tour-de-Pin where the Dauphins once had a
gem of a little rest-house which still exists to-
day. The mountains of Dauphiny rival the
Alps of Switzerland — the famous Barre des
Serins is only a shade less dominant than Mont
Blanc itself.

The chief singer of the praises of Dauphiny
has ever been Lamartine. No one has pictured
its varied aspects better.

" L'oeil embrasse au matin I'horizon qu'il domine
Et regarde, a travers les branches de noyer,
Les eaux bleuir au loin et la plaine ondoyer.

On voit a mille pieds au dessous de leurs branches
La grande plaine bleue avec ses routes blanches
Les moissons jaunes d'or, les bois comme un point noir,
L'Isere renvoyant le ciel comme un miroir."

Maison des Dauphins, Tour-de-Pin

La Grande Chartreuse 247

The very topographical aspect of Dauphiny
has bespoken romance and chivalry at all times.
The mass of La Grande Chartreuse was dedi-
cated to religious devotion, but those of other
mountain chains, and the plains and valleys
lying between, were strewn with castle towers
and donjons almost to the total exclusion of
church spires.

Coming south from Chambery by the valley
of the Graisivaudan, by the side of the rushing
waters of the Isere hurrying on its way to join
the greater Ehone at Valence, the point of view
is manifestly one which suggests feudalism in
all its militant glory, rather than the recogni-
tion of the fact that it is overshadowed by the
height of La Grande Chartreuse, whose influ-
ences were wholly dissimilar.

It was the valley of Graisivaudan that Louis
XII rather impulsively called the most beauti-
ful garden of France: ^' cliarme par la divi-
nite de ses plantements et les tours en serpen-
tant qu'i/ fait la riviere Isere."

Stendhal, too, compared it to the finest val-
leys of Piedmont. One may differ, but it is a
very beautiful prospect indeed which opens out
from Barraux or Pontcharra, midway between
Grenoble and Chambery.

Near Pontcharra is the Chateau Bayard,

248 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

where was born and lived the famous " Cheva-
lier, sans peur et sans reproche." As an his-
toric monument of rank its position is pre-
eminent, though not much can be said of its
architectural pretence. Still here it is, on the
route from Grenoble to Gap by the famous Col.
Bayard, also celebrated in history, almost as
much so as the famous Breche de Roland in the
Pyrenees.

It was through this cleft in the mountain that
Napoleon marched on that eventful journey
from Golfe Jouan to Paris in the attempt to
rise again to power. It was not far from the
crest, the pass between the two principal val-
leys of the French Alps, that Napoleon made
the first important additions to the few fol-
lowers who had gathered around him on his
doubtful journey. The troops sent out from
Grenoble opposed his progress, whereupon he
advanced towards them, bareheaded and alone,
and demanded to know if they, his former fel-
lows in arms, would kill their leader. Not one
of them would fire, though the order was actu-
ally given. "With one common inspiration they
went over to him en masse, with the classic cry
of '' Vive VEmpereur! " and continued their
way towards the capital, where, just before
Grenoble, they were also joined by the forces

La Grande Chartreuse 249

of Labedoyere, witli their colonel at their head,
sent out to stop them.

On the shores of the Grand Lac de Laffrey,
as the marvellous mountain road swings by on
its corniche, one notes a marble tablet on which
is carven the following words, which are quite
worth copying down. Xo further explanatory
inscription is to be seen, simply the words:

" Soldats .' Je suis votre Empereur. Ne me reconnaissez
vous pas ! S'il en est un parmi vous qui veuille tuer son general,
mevoila!" (7 Mars 1815.)

In spite of the significance of the words the
driver of a cart going the same way as our-
selves professed an utter ignorance of their
meaning. Passing strange, this, but true! Is
it for this that history is written?

The ruins of the Chateau de Bayard sit im-
posingly on a height commanding a wide-spread
panorama of the valley below, and the distant
barrier of mountain peaks on every side. The
walls and turrets are mouldering to-day, as
they have been for generations, but local his-
torians and antiquarians have on more than one
occasion written of the rooms and gardens
where strolled and played the youthful warrior,
and acquired the principles which afterwards
led to so great a fame.

250 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Of the ancient chateau of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, where (1476-1524) was
born the Chevalier Bayard, but a crumbling
portal and tower remain sufficiently well pre-
served to suggest the dignity it once had. They
attach themselves to two minor structures, one
of which was probably the chapel, and the
other, perhaps, the Salle des Gardes. "Within
the walls which enclose the latter are also the
apartments which were occupied by the war-
rior-knight in his youth, doubtless the same as
that in which his mother, Helene AUeman, gave
him birth. The guardian claims all this, and,
since this is what you come to see, you accept
the assertion gratefully, though history itself
vouches for nothing so precise.

A bridge which crosses the river Breda at
this point has on its parapet an equestrian
statue representing the infant Bayard. The
" bon chevalier " was descended from a local
lord who bore the name of Bayart, but some
careless chronicler changed the final consonant
of Aymon Ter rail's title (Seigneur de Bay-
art) , and the name of his better known progeny
has thus gone to history.

The family was of antique extraction; " of a
noble and antique chivalry," as one learns
from the old historians of Dauphiny. " The

La Grande Chartreuse 251

prowess of a Terrail " lias passed into a local
proverb. So the infant Terrail who was to
become the future Bayard came to his glorious
calling by good right. At the age of six or
seven the young Terrail went to live with his
uncle, Bishop of Grenoble, but at twelve re-
turned to the paternal chateau, where his in-
clinations became the ^' plus belliqueuses,"
whereas, before, his infant predilections were
of a studious kind. Henceforth he was for war,
and he came rightly enough by his liking, for
one of his ancestors, Philippe Terrail, died glo-
riously at Fjjitiers, another at Crecy, another at
Verneuil and another, already known as ' ' Epee
Terrail " to the English, died at the side of
Louis XL

Young Pierre was asked by his father (1487)
what profession he would adopt, and it was
then that he replied that the war spirit was
bred in him and that he would never renounce
it. His uncle, the bishop, presented him to the
Due Charles de Savoie, who was holding court
at the moment at Chambery, and by his mere
riding up on his horse before the duke, he was
immediately accepted as a page of his suite.

Opposite Pontcharra, on the opposite bank of
the Isere, is the comparatively modern Fort
Barraux, which looks far more ideally pictur-

252 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

esque tlian the historic castle of the Bayards.
History has not been silent with regard to the
fortifying of these mountain peaks of Dauphiny
and Savoy. The fortress was first built on this
site by Charles Emmanuel, Due de Savoie,
though an opposing army was drawn up before
him under the command of the celebrated Con-
netable Lesdigiiieres. Being reproved by his
king, Henri IV, for his dilatoriness in allowing
the enemy to so entrench itself whilst he and
his men stood idly by, the Connetable saga-
ciously and brilliantly replied, " Your ^Majesty
has need of a fortress on the Savoyan side to
hold in check that of Montmelian, and since
Charles Emmanuel has been good enough to
commence the building of one, let us wait until
it is finished." The wait was not long, and the
completed fortress, after a very slight struggle,
came to the French king.

The remarkable feudal Chateau de Eoche-
fort-en-Montagne, above Pontcharra, is a ruin
scarcely equalled, as a ruin, by any other above
ground to-day. It has a majestic sadness and
appeal, crumbled and dishonoured though it
is.

To paint the picture one must hold the brush
himself. Little satisfaction can be got from the
contemplation of another's sketch of this noble

La Grande Chartreuse 253

ruin. Grand and imposing it is, however,
though but a mere echo of the splendid edifices
of the Renaissance in the Loire valley, and yet
its firm, flat ground plan, its massive portal
and its massive round tower are all reminiscent
of the best of the Renaissance castle builder's
art. The point should be recognized neverthe-
less that it is of the mountain and not of the
plain. This will account for many of its vaga-
ries of detail as compared with the more famil-
iar chateaux of the Loire.

The surroundings are varied and beautiful,
and the grim gaunt drabness of the proud old
walls give at once a note of melancholy memory
which sounds perhaps the stronger because this
fine old feudal monument is but a shell as
compared contrastingly with the better pre-
served examples of its era to be seen in mid-
France.

The property belongs to-day to the Roche-
fort-Lucay family, of which Henri Rochefort,
tlie publicist, is best known. It is not, however,
habitable in any sense, but it could be made so
with a more reasonable expenditure than one
usually puts into a great country house, so let
us hope that its fortunes will some day come
into their own again.

Just below Grenoble are Sassenage and Saint

254 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Donat, quite unknown and unwor shipped. They
deserve a better fame. Sassenage, but six kilo-
metres from Grrenoble, is what the French call
" propre, riant " and '^ aise." It is all this,
as a round of a fortnight's excursions in differ-
ent directions, in and out of Grenoble, proved
to us. There is nothing else quite in its class,
and its chateau is a wonderfully chiselled ser-
mon in stone, as its portal and fagade demon-
strate readily enough to the most casual ob-
server. A most curious emblem is here to be
noted. It is worthy of being added to those
carved porcupines and salamanders of Louis
XII and FrauQois Premier. In this case it is
a mythological, or traditional, figure, half
woman and half snake, and possessed of two
tails. It is a most unpleasant architectural
decoration and perpetuates the mythical char-
acter of a local legend. One is glad to know
that it is not an emblem personal to the family
of the present owner.

Some kilometres to the south is the Tour
Sans Venin, one of the ancient wonders of
Dauphiny, though it is little more than a single
flank of wall to-day. The natives, skeptical
when they first heard the tale of Roland the
Paladin, built the edifice of which this wall
formed a part, and built it of wonderful stone,

La Grande Chartreuse

255

256 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

or earth, warranted to chase away reptiles and
vermin. Imagination, no doubt, played its i3art,
but one can readily enough accept the proper-
ties as desirable ones for a building material
to possess.

Saint Donat, still further down the valley,
has hardly a memory for one save that he re-
members having heard of it in connection with
the rather merry life of Diane de Poitiers. To-
day it is nothing but a no-account little Dau-
phinese village. It is not even a railway junc-
tion. It has however an old mill built up out
of an old rendezvous de chasse where the fickle
Diane had more than one escapade. Like many
another old ruin of Dauphiny the Chateau de
Saint Donat is reminiscent of the local manner
of building. It is nothing luxurious, but mass-
ive, and, withal, a seemingly efficient stronghold
for the time in which it was built, or would have
been had it ever been called upon to serve its
purpose to the full. It seems a fatal destiny
that a chateau should be no longer a chateau,
for here in Dauphiny no inconsiderable number
of mediaeval dwellings of this class have been
turned into factories of one sort or another.
Here in the salles and chamhres, as the apart-
ments are still named on the spot, are machines
and workmen spinning silk and weaving ribbons

La Grande Chartreuse 257

for the great Paris department stores. The
Chambre de Diane, however, is still preserved
as a show-place in much the same manner in
which it was originally conceived. It is a cir-
cular apartment, rather daringly attached to
the main building. A sort of alcove, or addi-
tion, is built out into the open still further, and
one only reaches it by three steps up from the
floor. Three secret doors separate the sleeping
apartment itself from the connecting corridor.
If there is anything of the sentiment of the en-
chanting huntress Diane hanging about the
apartment to-day one quite forgets it by reason
of its being drowned out by the noise of the
whirring mill-wheels below.

The twentieth century is far from the time
when romance dwelt in purling brooks or
stalked through marble halls. '^ Other days,
other ways " is a trite saying which applies as
well to chateaux as other things. To-day, in
Dauphiny in particular, a purling brook or a
mountain torrent is more valued for its " force
motrice " than for any other virtues, and a cha-
teau that can be readily transformed into a silk-
mill is a better business proposition than would
be its value as a ruin. This is the practical, if
sad, point of view.

There are no coal mines in Dauphiny, but the

258 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

houille blanche, as the French call water-power,
is a product highly valued. Sentiment and
romance are apt to be little valued in compar-
ison.

i

CHAPTER XVni

ANNECY AND LAC LEMAN"

The immediate environs of the Lac du Bour-
get, the Lac d'Annecy and the French shores of
Lac Leman, — more popularly known to the
world of tourism as the Lake of Geneva — offer
a succession of picturesque sights and scenes,
presented always with a historic accompaniment
that few who have come within the spell of their
charms will ever forget.

It is not that these Savoyan lakes are more
beautiful than any others; it is not that they
are grander ; nor is it that they are particularly
*' unspoiled," considering them from a certain
point of view, for in the season they are very
much visited by the French themselves and
loved accordingly. The charm which makes
them so attractive lies in the blend of the his-
toric past with the modernity of the twentieth
century. The melange is less offensive here
than in most other places, and their contrasting
of the old and the new, the historic and the ro-

259

260 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

mantic, with the modern ways and means of
travel and accessibility, gives this mountain
lakeland an unusual appeal.

On almost every side are the modern appoint-
ments of great hotels; there are " good roads "
everywhere for the automobilist, and the main
lines of railway crossing France to Italy give
an accessibility and comfortable manner of
approach which is not excelled by the region of
the Swiss and Italian lakes themselves.

Annecy, the metropolis of these parts, has an
old chateau that is much better conserved than
that of Chambery so far as the presentation of
it as a whole is concerned. It is more nearly a
perfect unit, and less of a conglomerate restora-
tion than the former.

The Chateau d'Annecy was the ancient resi-
dence of the Comtes de Genevois, but in 1401
the seigniory passed to the house of Savoy.
Robert de Geneve, known to ecclesiastical his-
tory as Pope Clement VII, the first of the Avi-
gnon Popes, was born here in 134:2.

The military history of the Chateau d'An-
necy is intimately bound up with that of the
town because of the fact that as a matter of pro-
tection the first settlement grouped itself con-
fidingly around the walls which sheltered the
seigneurial presence. Populace and the guar-

Annecy and Lac Leman 261

dians of the chateau together were thus enabled
to throw off the troops which turned back on
Annecy after the defeat at Conflans in 1537, but
no resistance whatever was made to Henri IV
and his followers, who entered without a blow
being dealt, and " found the inhabitants agi'ee-
able and warm of welcome." This was perhaps
a matter of mood; it might not have so hap-
pened the day before or the day after, but
their cordiality was certainly to the credit of all
concerned from a humane point of view, what-
ever devotees of the war-game may think.

In 1630 Comte Louis de Sales commanded the
chateau when the Marechal de Chatillon
marched against it. The besieged made a stiff
fight and only capitulated after being able to
make such terms as practically turned defeat
into victory. On the morrow the Oomte de
Sales escorted his troops to the Chateau de
Conflans, " with all the honours of war."

After a brilliant career of centuries the an-
cient residence of the Comtes de Genevois, and
the Princes de Savoie-Xemours who came after,
has become a barracks for a battalion of Chas-
seurs Alpins. Fortunately for the aesthetic pro-
prieties, it has lost nothing of its seigneurial
aspect of old as have so many of its contempo-
raries when put to a similar use.

262 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Eeally, Annecy's chateau, its well lined walls,
its ramparts and towers, and above all, its situ-
ation, close to the water's edge, where the en-
semble of its fabric mingles so well with artis-
tically disposed foreground, has an appeal pos-
sessed by but few structures of its class.

If one would see the town and lake of Annecy
at their best they should be viewed of a Sep-
tember afternoon, when the oblique rays of the
autumn sun first begin to gild the heavy square
towers of the ancient chateau of the Dues de
Nemours. Behind rise the roofs and spires of
the town set off with the reddish golden leaves
of the chestnuts of La Puya. All is a blend of
the warm colouring of the southland with the
sterner, more angular outlines of the north.
The contrasting effect is to be remarked. To
the left, regarding the town from the water's
edge, or better yet from a boat upon the lake,
rises the Villa de la Tour, where died Eugene
Sue ; and farther away the Grange du Hameau
de Chavoires, where lingered for a time Jean
Jacques Rousseau. All around, through the
chestnut woods, are scattered glistening villas
and manoirs and granges, with, away off in the
distance, the towering walls of the feudal Cha-
teau de Saint Bernard.

Another marvellous silhouette to be had from

Annecy and Lac Leman 263

the bosom of the lake is midway along the west-
ern shore, where the ramparts of Tournette and
the crenelated walls of the Dents du Lanfont
and Charbonne are, after midday, lighted up
as with yellow fire. The brown and yellow roof
and fagade of an old Benedictine convent, now
become a hotel, rise above the verdure of the
foreshore, and the whole is as tranquil as if the
twentieth century were yet to be born.

On the opposite shore of the lake is the Cha-
teau de Duingt, with its white towers piercing
the sky in quite the idyllic manner.

The Chateau de Duingt is a pretentious coun-
try residence belonging to the Genevois family
which in the seventeenth century gave a bishop
to the neighbourhood, a bishop, it is true, who
was excommunicated and shorn of all his rights
by the Comte de Savoie, Amadee V, but a
bishop nevertheless.

The environs of the Lac d 'Annecy have ever
been a retreat for litterateurs and artist folk.
Ernest Eenan lodged here in the hotellerie of
the famous Abbey, where he occupied a chamhre
de prieur. Jose-Maria Heredia came here in
company with Taine ; Ferdinand Fabre passed
many months here in an isolated little house on
the very shores of the lake; Albert Besnard,
the painter, has recently built a studio here,

264 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

and a quaint and altogether charming viUa;
Paul Chabas, too, has resorted hither recently
for the same purpose, and indeed scores have
found out this accessible but tranquil little
corner of Savoy. Another Parisian, a Mon-
sieur Noblemaire, has acquired the picturesque
Savoyard Manoir de Thoron, built sometime
during the seventeenth century, and lives in-
deed the life of a noble under the old regime
amid the very same luxuriant and agreeable
surroundings.

Faverges, at the lower end of the Lac d'An-
necy, backed up by the sombre Foret de Dous-
sard, and in plain view of the snowy top of
Mont Blanc off to the eastward, is at once a
ville industrielle and a reminiscent old feudal
town. Its interest is the more entrancing be-
cause of the contrasting elements which go to
make up its architectural aspect and the life
of its present day inhabitants. A mediaeval cha-
teau elbows a modern silk factory, and the idle
gossip of the workers as they take their little
walks abroad on the little Place blends
strangely enough with the amorous escapades
of Henri IV which still live in local legend.

On the road from Faverges to Thone, by the
switch-back mountain road, following the valley
of the Fier, is the Manoir de la Tour, where

I

Annecy and Lac Leman 2G5

on a fine mid-suumier morning in 1730 Jean
Jacques Rousseau climbed a cherry tree and
bombarded the coquettish Mademoiselle Graf-
feny and Mademoiselle Galley with the rich,
ripe — not overripe — fruit. We know this be-
cause Jean Jacques himself said so, and for
that reason this little human note makes a pil-
grimage hither the pleasurable occuiDation that
it is. The fine old manor is still intact. But
the cherry tree? No one knows. May be it
was a mythical cherry tree like that of the
George TTashington legend. In spite of this the
guardian will show visitors many cherry trees,
and one may take his choice.

Lac Leman is commonly thought a Swiss
lake, as is Mont Blanc usually referred to as a
Swiss mountain — which it isn't. A good third
of the shore line of Lac Leman is French —
" Leman Frangais," it is called.

Practically the whole southern, or French,
shore of the Lake of Geneva — or Lake Leman,
as we had best think of it since it is thus known
to European geographers — is replete with a
fascinating appeal which the Swiss shore en-
tirely lacks. It is difficult to explain this, but
it is a fact.

The region literally bristles with old castle
walls and donjons, though their histories have

266 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

not in every instance been preserved, nor have
they always been so momentous as to have im-
pressed themselves vividly in the minds of the
general reader or the conventional traveller.
Perhaps they are all the more charming for
that. The writer thinks they are.

Mont Blanc dominates the entire region on
the east, and may be considered the good genius
of Savoy and Upper Dauphiny, as it is of
French-speaking Switzerland and the high Al-
pine valleys of Italy.

The French shore of Lac Leman, the Departe-
ment of Haute-Savoie, is cut off from Geneva
by the neutral Pays de Gex, and from Switzer-
land on the east by the torrent of the Morge,
just beyond Saint Gingolph. For fifty-two kilo-
metres stretches this French shore, or the
'' Cote de la Savoie " as the Swiss call it, and
its whole extent is as romantic and fair a land
as it is possible to conceive.

One may come from Geneva by boat; that
indeed is the ideal way to make one's entrance
to Haute Savoie, unless one rolls in over the
superb roads comfortably ensconced on the soft
cushions of a luxurious automobile, a procedure
which is commonly thought to be unromantic,
but which, it is the belief of the writer, is the
only way of knowing well the highways and

Annecy and Lac Leman 267

byways of a beloved laud, always excepting,
of course, the ideal method of walkiug. Not
mauy will undertake the latter, least of all the
stranger tourist, who, perforce, is hurried on
his way by insistent conditions over which he
really has but little control. Walkiug tours
have been made with pleasure and profit in
Switzerland before now ; the suggestion is made
that the thing be attempted on the " Cote de
la Savoie " sometime and see what happens.

One should leave the Geneva boat at Her-
mance, the last Swiss station on the west. Af-
ter that, one is on French soil. Touges is a
simple landing place, but rising high above the
greenswarded banks are the donjon and im-
posing gables of the Chateau de Beauregard
belonging to the Marquis Leon Costa. It is in
a perfect state of conservation. It was here
that was born, in 1752, Marquis Joseph Costa,
a celebrated historian, whose fame rests prin-
cipally on a work entitled '' Comment I'Educa-
tion des Femmes Peut-elle Eendre les Hommes
Meilleurs? " This is considered an all-absorb-
ing question even to-day.

At Nernier is a charming souvenir of La-
martine. It was here he lodged in 1815, in a
humble thatched cottage — one of the few in
France, one fancies, as they are seldom seen —

268 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

at a franc a day, '' la table et le convert com-
pris." There are some artists and literary folk
living cheaply in France to-day, but the pension
is not nearly as ban marche as that.

A little farther on, beyond the green hillside
of Boisy, is the tiny Savoyan city of Yvoire,
with a great square mass of an old chateau, now
moss-grown and more or less crumbled with
age.

Near-by are Excevenex, Sciez and the mag-
nificently environed Chateau de Coudree, sur-
rounded by a leafy park, a veritable royal do-
main in aspect.

Back a few kilometres from the shore of the
lake is Douvaine, about midway between Ge-
neva and Thonon. Here is the ancient Chateau
de Troches, on the very limits of the Comte de
Genevois, to the seigneurs of which house it for-
merly belonged. It served many times as the
meeting place of the Princes of Savoy, and has
been frequently cited in the historical chron-
icles.

In 1682 Victor Amadee II made Troches and
Douvaine a barony in favour of Frangois
Marie Antoine Passerat, whose family were
originally of Lucca in Italy. The descendants
of the same family have held the property until
very recent times, perhaps hold it to-day.

Annecy and Lac Leman 269

Throughout this region of the Chablais, as
it is known, on towards Thonon, and beyond,
are numerous well preserved chateaux {cha-
teaux debout the French appropriately call
them in distinction to the ruined chateaux which
abound in even greater nmnbers), and others,
here and there arising a crumbled wall or tower
above the dense foliage of the hillsides round
about. Certain of these old manors and cha-
teaux of the Genevois, the Chablais and Fau-
cigny have, in recent years, after centuries of
comparative ruin, taken on new life as country
houses and '' villas " of commoners — as sad a
fall for a proud chateau as to become a barracks
or a poorhouse if the transformations have not
been undertaken in good taste. Still others
remain at least as undefiled memories of the
chateaux orgueilleux of other days. A remod-
elled, restored chateau of the middle ages may
be sympathetic and appealing, but the work
must be well done and all art nouveau instincts
suppressed.

There are other examples which have been
allowed to tumble to actual ruin, mere heaps
of stones without form or outline, and others,
like Allinges. La Rochette, De la Roche and
Faucigny, possessing only a crumbling tower
perched upon a height which dominates the

270 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

valley and the plain below and tell only the
story of their former greatness by suggestion.
Chiefly however these can be classed as notliing
more pretentious than ruins.

Thonon-les-Bains, midway along the extent
of the French shore, is renowned as a '' ville
cVeau." In all ways it quite rivals many of
the Swiss stations on the opposite shore. It sits
high on a sheaf of rock, the first buttresses of
the Alps, and enjoys a wide- spread view extend-
ing to the other shore, and beyond to the Swiss
Jura and the Bernese Oberland.

A dainty esj^lanade shaded with lindens is
the chief thoroughfare and centre of life of this
attractive little lakeside resort. Here once
stood an old chateau of the Dues de Savoie.
The court frequently repaired thither because
of the purity of the air and the altogether de-
lightful surroundings. It was one of the later
line of dukes who exploited the mineral springs
which have given Thonon its latter-day renown.

Back of Thonon rises a curiously disposed
table-land known as the Colline des Allinges. It
alternates bare rock with a heather-like vege-
tation in a colouring as wonderful as any ar-
tist's palette could conceive. The ruins of two
fortress-chateaux crown the height of the pla-
teau, one coming down from a period of great

Annecy and Lac Leman 271

antiquity, whilst the other is of more recent
date, with a well preserved portal and a draw-
bridge. Within the precincts of this latter are
still to be seen the ruins of a chapel rich in
memories of Saint FrauQois-de-Sales, who
spent a considerable part of his apostleship
here in the Chablais. To-day, the old chateau
and its chapel are a place of pious pilgrimage,
but with the piety left out it is the chief and
most popular excursion for mere sight-seers
coming out from Tlionon. This mere fact does
not, however, detract from its historic, religious
and romantic significance, so let no one omit it
for that reason.

The Chateau de Ripaille, beyond Thonon
towards Evian, is a grander shrine by far. It
was the retreat of a Due de Savoie who was
finally withdrawn from his hiding place that
he might be crowned with the papal tiara. The
incident is historically authenticated, and the-
very substantial remains of the old chateau
to-day — monumental even — make it one of
the most interesting shrines of its class in all
France.

The Chateau de Eipaille was originally built
by Amadee VIII as a rendez-vous de cliasse.
*' N'ear the Couvent des Augustins he built him-
self a chateau of seven rooms and seven towers,

272 Casties and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

after the death of his wife, Marie de Bour-
gogne, in 1434," say the chronicles.

Here Amadee shut himself up with six
fellowmen, either widowers or celibates, who
formed his sole counsellors and society. The
Council of Bale of 1439 sent the Cardinal
d 'Aries and twenty-five prelates to offer the
self-deposed monarch the papal crown. The
attractions of the position, or the inducements
offered, were seemingly too great to be resisted,
and, as Felix V, he was made Pontiff in the
Eglise de Eipaille in the same year.

Soon the cramped quarters of the chateau
and all the town were filled with a splendid
pageant of ambassadors, prelates and digni-
taries. All were anxious to salute in person
the new head of the Church. France, England,
Castile, the Swiss Cantons, Austria, Bohemia,
Savoy and Piedmont recognized the new Pope,
but the rest of Christendom remained faithful
to Eugene IV. Eipaille and Thonon received
such an influx of celebrities as it had never
known before, nor since.

The towered and buttressed walls remain in
evidence to-day, but within all is hollow as a
sepulchre. The great portal by which one
passed from the chapel to the dwelling is mon-
umental from every point of view. "What it

Annecy and Lac Leman 273

lacks in architectural excellence it makes up
in its imposing proportions, and moreover pos-
sesses an individual note which is rare in mod-
ern works of a similar nature.

The chief centre after Thonon, going east,
is Vivian, with which most travellers in France
are familiar only as a name on the label on the
bottle of the most excellent mineral water on
sale in the hotels and restaurants. The " Eau
d'fivian " is about the only table water uni-
versally sold in Europe that isn't *' fizzy," and
is accordingly popular — and expensive.

]£vian, sitting snug under the flank of Mont
Benant, a four thousand foot peak, its shore
front dotted with little latteen-rigged, swallow-
sailed boats is the '' Biarritz de Lac Leman,"
but a Biarritz framed with a luxuriant vegeta-
tion, whereas its Basque prototype is, in this
respect, its antithesis.

Twenty thousand visitors come to fivian
'* for the waters " each year now, but in 1840,
when the delightful Tapffer wrote his '* Voy-
ages en Zig Zag," it was difficult for his joyous
band of students to find the change for a hun-
dred franc note. Aside from its fame as a
watering-place fivian has no little architectural
charm.

The waters of fivian and their medicinal

274 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

properties were discovered by a local hermit
of the fifteenth century who loved the daughter
of the neighbouring Baron de la Rochette. This
daughter, Beatrix, also loved the hermit, all in
quite conventional fashion, as real love affairs
go, but the obscure origin of the young man
was no passport to the good graces of the young
lady's noble father, who had fallen ill with the
gout or some other malady of high living and
was more irascible than stern parents usually
are.

So acute was the old man's malady that he
caused it to be heralded afar that he would give
his daughter in marriage to him who would
effect a cure. This was a new phase of the
marriage market up to that time, but the her-
mit, Arnold, at a venture, suggested to the
baron that he had but to bathe in the alkaline
waters of £}vian to be cured of all his real or
imaginary ills. The miraculous, or curative,
properties of the waters, or whatever it was,
did their work, and the lovers were united, and
the smiling little city of Evian on the shores of
Lac Leman has progressed and prospered ever
since.

The origin of Evian is lost in the darkness of
time, though its nomenclature is supposed to
have descended from the ancient patois Evoua

Annecy and Lac Leman 275

(water), which the Komaus, who came loug be-
fore the present crop of flighty tourists, trans-
hited as Aquianum. From this one gathers that
£vian is historic. And it is, as much so as most
cities who claim an antique ancestry. From the
thirteenth century £vian possessed its chateau-
fort, surrounded by its sturdy bulwarks and a
moat. Some vestiges still remain of this first
fortification, but the wars between the Dauphin
of the Viennois and the Comtes de Genevois
necessitated still stronger ones, which were
built under Amadee V and Amadee VI.

Within the confines of the town are three dis-
tinctly defined structures which may be classed
as mediaeval chateaux : the Chateau de Blonay,
the Tour de Fonbonne, and the Manoir Gribaldi,
belonging to the Archbishops of Vienne. This
last has been stuccoed and whitewashed in out-
rageous fashion, so that unless the rigours of a
hard winter have softened its violent colour-
ing, it is to-day as crude and unlovely as a stage
setting seen in broad daylight. It has more-
over been incorporated into the great palatial
hotel which, next to the more splendid Hotel
Splendid on the height, is the chief landmark
seen from afar. Sic transit!

]£\aan's parish church, capped with an enor-
mous tower, is most curious. A gi*eat Place,

276 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

or Square, lias been formed out of the ancient
lands of the Seigneurie of Blonay, which be-
longed to Baron Louis de Blonay, Yice-Eoi de
Sardaigne. The seigneurial residence itself has
been transformed, basely enough, one thinks,
into a casino and theatre, with an art nouveau
fagade. Xot often does such a debasement of
a historic shrine take place in France to-day.
Sometimes a fine old Gothic or Renaissance
house will disappear altogether, and sometimes
a chateau, a donjon or even a church may be
turned to unlikely public uses, such as a hos-
pital, a prison or a barracks. This is bad
enough, but for an historic monument to be
turned into a music hall and a gambling room
seems the basest of desecration. That's a great
deal against Evian, but it must stand.

Another property once belonging to the same
proprietor, and known as the Manoir de Blonay,
a name continually recurring in the annals of
the Chablais, is to be noted beyond the town,
near the little village of Maxilly.

Beyond Evian is "La Tour Eonde," a name
given to a structure on the edge of the lake.
The nomenclature explains itself. A disman-
tled donjon of the conventional build rises grim
and militant among a serried row of coquettish
villas, chalets and hotels, but uncouth as it is,

Annecy and Lac Leman 277

using the word in a liberal sense, it forms a
contrasting note which redounds to its benefit
as compared with the latest craze for fantastic
building which has been incorporated into many
of the houses which line the shores of the lake.
Your modern tourist often cares as much for
an armoured cement, green tiled villa with a
plaster cat on its ridge pole as he does for a
great square manoir of classic outline, or a
donjon with a cliemin de rond at its sky line
and a half-lowered portcullis at its entrance.

Meillerie, just beyond the Tour Ronde, is ever
under the glamour cast over it by Jean Jacques
Eousseau. A souvenir of the hero of '* La
Xouvelle Heloise " is here, the vestiges of the
grotto where Saint Preux sought a refuge. As
a sight it may compare favourably with other
grottos of its class, but that is not saying that
it is ami;hing remarkable.

CHAPTER XIX

THE MOUNTAIN BACKGKOUXD OF SAVOY

** La Savoie," say the French, is '' La Suisse
Frangaise," and indeed it is, as anyone can see
and appreciate. With respect to topography,
climate and nearly all else this is true. And
its historic souvenirs, if sometimes less roman-
tic, are more definite and far more interesting,
in spite of the fact that the sentimentally in-
clined have not as yet overrun the region; it
may with confidence be said that they have not
even discovered it.

The amalgamation of Savoy with France was
fortunate for all concerned. As President
Carnot said, when on a speech-making tour
through the region in 1892 : ' ' Can any of us
without emotion recall those memorable days
when the Convention received the people of this
province with the welcome: ' Generous Savoy-
ards ! In you we cherish friends and brothers ;
never more shall you be separated from us.' "
Savoy was ever more French in spirit than
Italian in spite of its variable alliances.

278

Mountain Background of Savoy 279

Leaving the resorts like Aix-les-Bains, An-
uecy aud Evian behind, and following the tur-
bulent Isere to its icy cradle beneath the
haunches of Mont Saint Bernard, one may lit-
erally leave the well-worn travel track behind,
the railway itself striking off Italy-wards via a
gap in the mountain chain to the southeast,

f;^ >Scur?sr

LES BAUGES

* ; i . . > . 1 1

where it ultimately burrows through the massif
of the chain of which Mont Cenis forms the
most notable peak.

Just at the confines of Dauphiny and Savoy
the Isere sweeps majestically around the fore-
foot of the fortress of Montmelian, which
guards the mountain gateway to the snowbound
upper valleys. Montmelian can be seen from a
great distance; from a great distance even one
mav imagine that he hears the echoes of the

280 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

cries of the victims of the cruel Seigneurs de
Montmelian who once hved within its walls.
Their barbarous acts were many, and historic
facts, not merely legendary tales, perpetuate
them. It is the knowledge that such things once
existed that makes the suggestion of course, but
these are the emotions one usually likes to have
nourished when viewing a mediaeval castle.

Montmelian 's chateau- fort played a very im-
portant role in the history of Savoy. It was
one of the finest fortresses of the States of Sa-
voy, and was the chief point of attack of Fran-
cois Premier, who, in 1535, succeeded finally in
taking it, but by treason from within. The
French from the moment of their occupation
gave it a heav}^ garrison, and Henri II still
further strengthened its massive walls, as did

Mountain Background of Savoy 281

also Henri IV later ou. He called it " a mar-
vellously strong place; a stronger one has
never yet been seen. ' '

In Montmelian's proud fortress-chateau, also,
were born Amadee III and Aniadee IV, Princes
of Savoy. Once it was considered, and with
reason apparently, the strongest fortress of
Savoy, and was for ages the wall against which
the Viennois Dauphins battled vainly. Treason
opened its doors to Frangois Premier and trea-
son delivered it to Henri IV. This last giving
over of the chateau was brought about by the
wife of Sully, who by " sweet insinuations "
got into the good graces of the wife of Brandes,
the governor, and between them planned to win
him over.

In 1690 it was again attacked and taken by
the French, costing them the bagatelle of eight
thousand men, for lives were cheap in those
days compared to castles. It was a hollow vic-
tory, too, for the French, for they marched out
again after the Peace of Kyswick.

In the early years of the eighteenth century
the French again came into possession and im-
mediately began the work of demolishing the
defensive walls, leaving only the residential
chateau, that which in its emasculated form
exists to-day. Thus disappeared from the

282 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

scene, said the celebrated historian, Leon Mena-
brea, a fortress to whose annals are attached
the names most grand and the events most im-
portant in Savoyan history.

The Montmayeurs, the feudal family which
first made Montmelian its stronghold, have left
a vivid and imperishable memory in the annals
of Savoy. They were a warlike race to begin
with, and bore the eagle and the motto
UxGriBus ET EosTEO in their family arms.

Legend recounts that the last of the sei-
gneurs, having lost a case at law, invited the
president of the court, one Fesigny, to din-
ner. Either before, or after, he cut off the
judge's head, enclosed it in a sack bearing a
label which read: " Here is a new piece of
evidence for the court to digest, ' ' and deposited
it on the public highway circling below the
rocky foundations of Montmelian. This epi-
sode took place in 1465, and the ignoble seigneur
naturally fled the country immediately. His
reputation has ever lived after him in the re-
gion where the historic fact, or legend, of the
^' Dernier des Montmayeurs " is still current.

Near the rock-cradled chateau of Montme-
lian is La Eochette; there one sees the vast
remains of a chateau which was overthrown by
Louis XIIL This chateau, called also the Cha-

Mountain Background of Savoy 283

teau des Hulls, occupies one of the most stri-
kingly imposing sites imaginable, and only in
a lesser degree than Montmelian presents all
the qualities which one would naturally suppose
to be necessary in order to make such a work
impregnable. It was heroically defended by
Pierre de la Chambre, but the defence availed
nothing, and now what is left has been built up
into — of all things — a silk-mill. Its outlines
might well be that of a mediaeval chateau even
now; site and silhouette each have this stamp,
and it will take little exercise of the imagination
to picture the smoke from its chimneys as com-
ing from the fires which may have been lighted
at some epoch before the invention of the steam
engine. There is nothing, from a distant point
of \^ew, to suggest that the old Chateau des
Hulls is the murky, work-a-day hive of industry
that it is.

Above Montmelian is Saint Pierre d'Albigny,
where rises the ancient and formidable chateau
of the Sires de Miolans. In the eighteenth cen-
tury it was a prison of state incarcerating many
famous personages, among them the celebrated
Marquis de Sade, the story of whose escape
would make as thrilling a chapter as was ever
read in a romance of the cloak and sword
variety. Another famous, or infamous, pris-

284 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

oner was the unfortunate Lavin, the minister
of finance of Charles-Emmanuel III, who was
imprisoned because of his fine, but unappre-
ciated, talent for copying bank-notes. For
twenty-four years Lavin languished in the dun-
geons of Miolans; indeed it was within these
walls that he passed the greater part of his life
after becoming of age. For this reason Mio-
lans may be called the Bastille of Savoy.

Miolans is typical of the middle ages. It can
be seen, it is said, fifty kilometres away, either
up or down the Isere. This one can well believe.
It can only be compared to a castled burg of
the Ehine or Meuse: it is like nothing else in
modern France. The great moats surround it
as of old, its drawbridge, its chemin-de-ronde,
its cachets, dungeons and oubliettes are quite
undespoiled, and its chapel as bright and inspir-
ing as if its functions served to-day as in the
time of the seigneurs of the joint house of Mio-
lans and Montmayeur, a family one of the most
ancient in Savoy, but which became extinct in
1523.

The Sardinian "government in 1856 — when
Savoy belonged still to the Crown of Sardinia
— sold the edifice for the paltry sum of five
thousand francs, scarcely more than the price
of a first rate piano. The buyer preserved and

Mountain Background of Savoy 285

made habitable, in a way, the mediaeval fabric,
but not without considerably lessening its
genuine old-time flavour. This is not apparent
from afar, and only to the expert near at hand,
so the castle lives to-day as one of the most
thrillingly romantic piles of its class in all the
mountain background of Savoy. To-day the
castle, for it is more a feudal castle than a mod-
ern chateau after all, is still in private hands,
but no incongruous details have been further
incorporated and the chatelain as lovingly cares
for it as does that of Langeais in Touraine,
perhaps the best restored, and the best kept,
of all the habitable mediaeval castles in the
pleasant land of France.

In the time of the Savoyan dukes each of
these upper valleys was deprived of communi-
cation with its neighbours, because of either
the utter lack of roads, or of their abominable
up-keep. A sort of petty state or kingdom
grew up in many of these shut-in localities, each
possessing its individual life, and, above all,
ecclesiastical independence.

The sovereigns of each had their own par-
ticular lands and ruled with velvet glove or
iron hand as the mood might strike them or the
case might demand.

Still higher up above Montmelian, which may

286 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

properly be considered the barrier between the
lower and the upper valleys of the Tarentaise
and the Maurienne, are scores of these cha-
teaux, as appealing, and with reason, as many
more noble in outline and record elsewhere.
At Grresy is one of these; at Bathie is a fine
feudal ruin with a round and square tower of
most imposing presence; Blay has another,
with a wall surmounted by a range of tripled
tourelles ; Feisons has yet another, and a castle
wall or an isolated tower is ever in view which-
ever way one turns the head.

The roadway through Albertville and Mou-
tiers leads into Italy over the Petit Saint Ber-
nard ; that by the valley of the Maurienne over
the Mont Cenis. Here, just as Lans-le-Bourg
is reached, you may still see the signboards
along the road reading: '' Route Imperiale
No. 16 : Frontiere Sarde a 10 kilom. ' ' It would
seem as though Lans-le-Bourg had not yet
heard that the Empire had fallen, nor of the
creation of the unified Italian Kingdom.

Still penetrating toward the heart of the Sa-
voyan Alps one soon reaches Albertville, pri-
marily a place of war, secondly a centre for
excursions in upper Savoy. This gives the
modern note. For that of mediaevalism one has
to go outside the town to Conflans, where sits

Mountain Background of Savoy 287

the old town high on a rocky promontory, with
a picturesque citadel-fortress filled with sou-
venirs of warlike times.

The Chateau du Manuel flanks the old for-
tress on one side, and the garrison barracks of
to-day was at one time an old convent of Ber-
nardins. This structure of itself is enough, and
more, to attract one thither. It is built of red
brick, with a range of curiously patterned twin
windows. Besides these attributes the fau-
bourg has also the Chateau Rouge, another of
the resting places of the Savoyan dukes.

The historic souvenirs of Conflans and its
chateau are many and momentous. It defended
the entrance to the Tarentaise, and was able to
resist the terrible battering sieges of the troops
of FrauQois Premier and Henri IV, which was
more than Miolans could do, in spite of the fact
that it was supposedly a more efficient strong-
hold.

The town itself was erected into a Principal-
ity in favour of the Archbishops of the Taren-
taise, and in 1814, following upon the Treaty
of Paris, which gave back to Sardinia a part of
its estates, the administrative authorities of Sa-
voy took up their seat here.

All around are modem forts and batteries
only to be arrived at by military roads climbing

288 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

the mountain-side in perilous fashion, but they
have nothing of sentiment or romance about
them and so one can only marvel that such
things be.

The neighbouring Fort Barraux is one of the
marvels of modern fortresses, rebuilt out of an
old chateau-fort. This fortress was originally
constructed before the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury by Charles-Emmanuel de Savoie, and
taken over, almost without a struggle, by Les-
diguieres, almost before the masons had fin-
ished their work for the ducal master.

'* Wait." said the Marechal to his king, " we
will not be in a hurry. It were better that we
should have a finished fortress on our hands
than one half built." And with a supreme con-
fidence Lesdiguieres waited six months and then
simply walked up and '^ took it " and presented
it to his royal master.

At Montvallezen-sur-Seez, in the Tarentaise,
there existed, in the seventeenth century, a sort
of a monkish chateau, at least it was a purely
secular dwelling, a sort of retreat for the Canon
of the Hospice of Saint Bernard. It was built
in 1673 by the Canon Ducloz, and though all
but the tower has disappeared, history tells
much of the luxury and comfort which once
found a place here in this " Logement du

Mountain Background of Savoy 289

Vicar." The tower rises five stories in height
and contains a heavy staircase lighted on each
landing by a single window. From this one
judges that the tower must have been intended
as a defence or last refuge for the dwellers in
the chateau in case they were attacked by ban-
dits or other evil doers. On arriving at the
final floor, the walls are pierced with ten win-
dows. A carven tablet reproduced herewith
tells as much of the actual history of the tower
as is known.

HOC . opvs

F. F. R . D . LOES

DVCLOT

CUBERNATOR

DOM US . SATI

BERXARDI

in -\-

CHAPTER XX

BY THE BANKS OF THE RHONE

The boundary
between D a u -
pliiny and Pro-
vence was by no
means vague; it
was a well de-
fined territorial
limit, but in the
old days, as with
those of the pres-
ent, the climatic
and topographic limits between the two regions
were not so readily defined. The Rhone, the
mightiest of French rivers when measured by
the force and, at times, the bulk of its current,
played a momentous historic part in the devel-
opment of all the region lying within its water-
shed, and for that reason the cities lying mid-
way upon its banks had much intercourse one
with another.

Vienne, on the left bank of this swift-flowing

290

By the Banks of the Rhone 291

river, was the capital of the Counts of the Vien-
nois, and the birthplace of the earliest of the
*' native " Dauphins, who afterwards trans-
ferred their seat of power to Grenoble. For
this reason it is obvious that the history of
Vienne and that of the surrounding territory-
was intimately bound up with the later moun-
tain province of Dauphiny, whose capital was
Gratianopolis.

As the capital of this mountain empire
evolved itself into Grenoble, and the power of
the Dauphins gradually waned at Vienne,
Comte Humbert, who was then ruler at Vienne,
transferred his sceptre to the heir of Philippe
de Valois who built his palace in the ancient
mountain stronghold of the Romans in prefer-
ence to continuing the seat of governmental dig-
nity and rule by the banks of the mighty Rhone.

From this one gathers, and rightly, that Vi-
enne is one of the most ancient cities of Dau-
phiny, and indeed of all the Rhone valley. Its
history has been mentioned by Caesar :

" Accolit Alpinis opulenta Vienna calonis."

In the fifth century it was the capital of the
fii'st BurgTindian kingdom, and at a later period
the official residence of the native Dauphins,
the race that came before those eldest sons of

292 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

the French kings who wielded their power from
their palace at Grenoble.

Vienne's architectural monuments are many
and of all states of nobility, but of palaces, cas-
tles and chateaux it contains only the scantiest
of memories.

Down by the river, at the terminus of the ugly
wire-rope suspension bridge, the modern useful
successor of the more aesthetic works of the
mediaeval " Brothers of the Bridge," is a most
remarkable tower known as the " Tour de Mau
Conseil." It has for a legend the tale that
Pontius Pilate threw himself from its topmost
story. Historj^, more explicit than the over-
enthusiastic native, says that it was only the
shore-end or gatehouse of a chateau which
guarded the river crossing, and was built by
Philippe de Valois. There is a discrepancy
here of some centuries, so with all due respect
to local pride one had best stick to historic fact.

There is a Chateau de Pilate, so-called, on the
banks of the Ehone just below Saint Vallier,
a few leagues away, of which the traditional
legend is also kept green. It may be only a
story anyway, but if one is bound to have it
repeated, it had best be applied at this latter
point.

This tower of Philippe de Valois as it exists

^

T<)^;' <>/ Philippe dc V,ilois, Vicnne

i

By the Banks of the Rhone 293

to-day, also known as the " Clef de 1 'Empire,"
is thus much more explicitly named, for it was
in a way a sort of guardian outpost which con-
trolled the entrance and exit to and from the
neighbouring Lyonnais.

Vienne, being the outgrowth of a city of great
antiquity, its Roman remains are numerous and
splendid, from the bare outlines of its Amphi-
theatre to its almost perfectly preserved Tem-
ple d'Auguste. Monuments of its feudal epoch
are not wanting either, though no splendid do-
mestic or civic chateau exists to-day in its en-
tirety. Instead there are scattered here and
there about the town many fragmentary re-
minders of the days of the first Burgundian
kingdom, and of the later city of the counts and
Dauphins.

In 879 A. D. the ruler of the province. Boson,
Comte de Vienne, Aries et Provence, by his
ambition and energy, was proclaimed king by
the barons and bishops assembled in the Cha-
teau de Mantaille, belonging to the Archbishop
of Vienne and situated at Saint Rambert, be-
tween Vienne and Valence.

In the Rue de I'Hopital one sees two coiffed
towers rising high above the surrounding
gables. They are all that remain of the semi-
barbarian Comte Boson's palace. In the pas-

294 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy-
sage entered by an antique portal, and running
between two rows of rather squalid buildings,
there is a slab which bears the following in-
scription :

LE PALAIS DE BOSON

SERVIT d'hOTEL DE VILLE

DE 1551-1771.

It is not a very convincing souvenir, but the
sight of the great round towers, rising above
the canyon-like alleys roundabout, at least lends
aid to the acceptance of the assertion by one
who does not demand more clearly defined
proofs.

In the Rue Boson is another edifice which
may have something in common with the life of
the first Burgundian court. It is a house which
combines many non-contemporary features and
possesses a marvellously built winding Eenais-
sance stairway and two great towers, one a
mere watch-tower, seemingly, the other strongly
fortified. Frankly these towers might be acces-
sories of some church edifice, or yet the chim-
neys of a factory, or of an iron furnace, since,
even considering their situation, there is noth-
ing distinctively feudal about them. They are,
however, of manifest ancient origin and served

By the Banks of the Rhone 295

eitlier military or chateau-like functions. Of
that there is no doubt in spite of their ungain-
liness.

Valence is a h my ante, grandiose city, which,
without the Rhone or the mountains, might be
Tours or Lille so far as its local life goes, and
this in spite of the fact that it is on the border
line between the north and the south.

'' A Valence le Midi commence " is the classic
phrase with which every earnest traveller in
France is familiar, though indeed for three or
four months of the year Valence is surrounded
by snow-capped mountains. '* The women of
Valence are vive et piquante " is also another
trite saying, but the city itself has nothing but
its historic past to recommend it in the eyes of
the sentimental traveller of the twentieth cen-
tury.

The strategic position of Valence has made
it in times past the scene of much historic action.
.With this importance in full view it is really as-
tonishing that the city possesses so few historic
monuments.

Almost at the juncture of the Isere and the
Rhone, Valence to-day bustles its days away
with a feverish local life that, in a way, reminds
one of a great city like Lyons, to which indeed
it plays second fiddle. There are few strangers

296 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

except those who have come to town from
places lying within a strictly local radius, and
there is a smug air of satisfaction on the face
of every inhabitant.

Things have changed at Valence of late years,
for it was once one of the first cities of Dau-
phiny where religious reform penetrated in the
later years of the sixteenth century, and even
in the preceding century it had already placed
itself under the protection of Louis XI, fearing
that some internal upheaval might seriously
affect its local life. Valence has always played
for safety and that is why it lacks any particu-
larly imposing or edifying aspect to-day.
When Napoleon was staying at the military
school at Valence he wrote of it as a city
*' somhre, severe et satis grace." There is no
cause to modify the view to-day.

Almost the sole example of domestic archi-
tecture at Valence worthy to be included in any
portrait gallery of great Renaissance houses,
is that which is somewhat vulgarly known as
the '' Maison des Tetes." It was built in 1531
by the art-loving Frangois Premier, not for
himself but as a recompense for some less
wealthy noble who had served him during his
momentous Italian journey.

The name applied to this historic house is

By the Banks of the Ehone 297

most curious, but is obvious from the decora-
tion of its fagade. Who its owner may actually
have been has strangely enough been over-
looked by those whose business it is to write
such things down. Certain it is that he was
fortunate to have a patron who would bestow
upon him so luxurious a dwelling as it must
once have been.

Perhaps, to go deeper into the question, the
edifice was one of those ** discrets chateaux "
which Frangois had a way of building up and
down France, where he might repair unbe-
kno\\Tist to the world or even his court. Surely,
here, in a tortuous back street of the dull little
city of Valence, in the sixteenth century, one
might well consider himself sheltered from
the few inquisitive glances which might be cast
on his trail. The ceil de boeuf, that Paris spy
or coterie of spies, did not exist for the mon-
arch at Valence.

The Maison des Tetes is the more remark-
able by reason of its modest proportions and
the exceedingly ornate and bizarre decorations
of its faQade. Below and above the window-
frames is an elaborate sculptured frieze, and
between the arceaux of the windows, even, are
equally finely chiselled motives.

There is a series of medallions of five philos-

298 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

ophers and poets of antiquity, flanked on either
side by a head of a Eoman emperor and an-
other of Louis XI. Two mutilated effigies,
nearly life size, occupy niches on a level with
the second story, and directly beneath the roof
are posed four enormous heads, typifying the
winds of the four quarters.

This interesting facade, no less than the
vague history which attaches to the house it-
self, is in a comparative state of dilapidation.
It seems a pity that in a city so poor in artistic
shrines it were not better preserved and cared
for. But there it is — Valence again ! As a
matter of fact the lower floor is occupied by a
mean sort of a wine-shop, which assuredly casts
an unseeming slur upon the proud position that
the edifice once held.

Nearly opposite the Maison des Tetes is the
house where the yoimg Napoleon lodged in
1785-1786.

Just above Valence, at the confluence of the
Isere and the Rhone, is the magnificent feudal
ruin of Crussol, the guardian of the gateway
leading from the south to the north. It sits at
a great height above the swirling waters of the
current on a peak of rock, and from the aspect
of its projecting, fang-like gable is locally
known as the " Corne de Crussol."

'o

By the Banks of the Rhone 299

For years this typical feudal castle and mili-
tary stronghold of great power belonged to
the family of Crussol, the old Dues d'Uzes. So
vast was it originally in extent that it contained
a whole village within its walls, and indeed
there was no other protection for those who
called the duke master, as the castle had appro-
priated to itself the entire mountain-top pla-
teau.

Oertainly Crussol must have been as nearly
impregnable a fortress as any of its class ever
built, for from its eastern flank one may drop
down a sheer thousand feet and then fall into
the whirlpool waters of the Rhone. This was
sure and sudden death to any who might lose
their footing from above, but it was also an
unscalable bulwark against attack.

The panorama which opens out from the
platform of the ruined chateau is remarkable
and extends from the Alps on the east to the
Cevennes on the west, and from the Vivarais
on the north to the distant blue of the Vercors
on the south, and perhaps, at times, even to
Mont Ventoux in Vaucluse.

CHAPTER XXI

IN THE ALPS OF DAUPHINY

In the high Alpine valleys back of the Barre
des Ecrins is a frontier land little known even
to the venturesome tourist by road, who with
his modern means of travel, the automobile,
goes everywhere. The conventional tour of
Europe follows out certain preconceived lines,
and if it embraces the passing of the Alps from
France into Italy it is usually made by the
shortest and most direct route. If the Saint
Bernard or the Mont Cenis route seems the
shortest and quickest, few there are who will
spend a day longer and pass by the highway
crossed by Hannibal, even though they would
experience much that was delectable en route.

Southeast from Grenoble and Vizille is
Bourg d'Oisans, the end of a branch railway
line, and a diminutive, though exceedingly
popular, French Alpine station. To the trav-
eller by road it is the gateway to the high Al-
pine valleys of Dauphiny, whose heart is the

300

In the Alps of Dauphiny 301

palpitating mouutain fortress of Briangon, the
most elevated of all French cities.

The highroad between Bourg d'Oisans and
BrianQon, really the only direct communication
between the two places, was begun by Napoleon,
that far-seeing road-builder whom future gen-
erations of travellers in France have good rea-
son to rise up and call blessed. The roadway
climbs up over the Lautret Pass, leaving the
Galibier — the highest carriage road in Europe
except the Stelvio — to the left, finally descend-
ing the southeastern slope and entering Brian-
Qon via Monetier-les-Bains, just opposite the
famous Barre des Ecrins, the highest of the
French Aljas, a peak of something over thirteen
thousand feet, the first ascent of which is cred-
ited to "WTiymper as late as 1864.

Briangon's chateau, or rather Fort du Cha-
teau, is no chateau at all, being a mere perpet-
uation of a name. Its history is most vivid and
interesting nevertheless. Briangon itself is
one vast fortress, or a nest of them. The bugle
call and the tramp of feet are the chief sounds
to awaken mountain echoes roundabout. It has
rightfully been called the Gibraltar of the Alps,
and commands the passage from France into
Italy.

The town sits most ravishingly placed just

302 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

above the pebbly bed of the incipient Durance,
which rushes down to the Mediterranean in a
mighty torrent. Save Briangon's barrier of
forts and fortresses and mountain peaks round-
about, the town is a sad, dull place indeed,
where winter endures for quite half the year,
and, until the last century, it was entirely cut
off from the world, save the exit and entrance
by the single carriage road which rises from
Gap via Embrun and Argentiere.

Charles le Chauve died here at Briangon in
the edifice which stood upon the site of the
present Fort du Chateau, and to that circum-
stance the place owes its chief historic distinc-
tion.

Above the city, a dozen kilometres away only,
rises the famous international highroad into
Italy. On one side of the mountain the waters
flow through the valley of the Po into the Adri-
atic, and on the other, via the Durance and the
Rhone, to the Mediterranean.

" Adieu, ma soeur la Durance,

Nous nous s6parons sur ce mont :
Tu vas ravager la Provence,
Moi f^conder le Piedmont."

On the extreme height of the pass is the
famous Napoleon obelisk, commemorating the

In the Alps of Dauphiny 303

passage of tlie First Consul iu 1806, though in-
deed the pass was one of the chief thorough-
fares crossing the Alps for long centuries be-
fore. In 149-4 Charles VIII crossed here with
the array with which he invaded Italy.

There remains little of actual monumental
aspect at Briangon which has come down from
other days. There is still something left of
the old chateau of the Seigneurs de Briangon,
but not much. This was the same edifice in
which Charles le Chauve died, and the moun-
tain retreat of the lords of the Tarentaise.
The general outlines of its walls are still to be
traced, and there is always the magnificent site
to help one build it up anew, but that is all.

The donjon is built on a peak of triangular
rock rising sheer from the torrent at the bottom
of the gorge which has cut its way through the
town from the source higher up under the Mon-
tague de la Madeleine.

The donjon is still there in all its solidity
and sadness, but it takes a climb of two hundred
and fifty steps up an exceedingly steep stair
to reach the platform of rock on which it sits,
and this after one has actually arrived at the
base.

The retreat was practically untakable by the
enemy, and the seigneurs conceived the idea

304 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

of making it still more difficult of access by-
ignoring any convenient and comfortable means
of approach. This must have been a great an-
noyance to themselves, but those were the days
before time was money, so what matter? The
old Koman way through the Tarentaise ran
close along by the base of the chateau.

There are four distinct ruined elements to-
day from wliich one may build up anew the
silhouette of this medieval stronghold. Chiefly
these elements have been crumbled by stress
of time, but here and there a reminder more
definite in form, a gaunt finger of stone, points
skyward, — a battery of them in fact surround
the actual donjon.

The bridge on which the Roman road crossed
the Durance was fortified, but was built of
wood brought from the neighbouring mountain
sides. It is supposed that the present stone
structure is the direct successor of this wooden
bridge, though it possesses the antique look
which may well claim a thousand years. Ay-
mon, the Seigneur de Briancon, when occupy-
ing the donjon on the heights, committed many
extortions for toll on travellers passing this
way. It was a sort of scandalous graft of the
eleventh century which finally induced Hera-
clius, Archbishop of the Tarentaise, to petition

^

y-"

/

Chateau de Brianron

In the Alps of Dauphiny 305

Humbert II, the overlord, Comte de Maurienne,
to call liis brother lord to a more reasonable
method of procedure. This was to the Comte
de Maurienne's liking, for he fell upon him
tooth and nail and drove A^^non from his castle,
leaving it in the ruined and dismantled condi-
tion in which it stands to-day.

©RIANCON

.TEAU

This toll of roads and bridges was, by in-
herited right, the privilege of many local sei-
gneurs throughout the feudality, but here the
demand was so excessive, so much greater than
the traffic could stand, to put it in modern par-
lance, that the concession was suppressed in the
same fashion as has been often brought to bear
on latter day monopolies badly administered.
This thing doesn't happen often, but with the
precedent of the toll bridge at BrianQon it has

306 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy-
been steadily growing as a commendable prac-
tice. Incidentally the Seigneur of Briangon
was killed in the struggle which deprived him
of what he thought his right, but that was seem-
ingly a small matter; the main thing was to do
away with the oppression, and the Lord of the
Maurienne, being one of those who did things
thoroughly, went at the root of the evil. It is
to his credit that he did not continue the toll-
gathering for his own benefit.

The enormous flanks of wall of the Chateau
de Briancon, which still stand, show a thickness
in some instances of thirty feet, and the mortar
of eight centuries still holds the blocks firmly
together here and there. What a comparison
between the ancient and modern manner of
building !

The same strategic position which first gave
a foothold to the seigneurial chateau was newly
fortified in 1536, in order to resist the troops
of Frangois I. The French by chance, or skill,
finally took the position, and occupied it for a
quarter of a century, until the time when Savoy
was returned to Emmanuel-Philibert by the
victory of Saint Quentin. Again it was cap-
tured in 1690 by Lesdiguieres, the date of the
conquest of Savoy by Henri IV.

The walls of the chateau which are to be re-

In the Alps of Dauphiny 307

marked to-day are probably of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries; all other works are of the
later fortifications, or of the more modern mili-
tary structure of the present war system of
France.

Briancon from the plain below lias the ap-
pearance and dignity of a monumental and
prosperous city. Near-by this aspect is lost en-
tirely. As the French say, it is like a shako
stuck rakishly over the ear of a grenadier. One
may take his choice of view points, but at all
events Briancon is marvellously imposing and
romantic looking from a distance. Roundabout
on every peak and monticule are forts bristling
with guns, all pointing Italy-wards; whilst on
the height of Mont Genevre the Italians in turn
train their cannon on Briangon's chateau and
the plain beyond.

South from Briancon runs the great route
nationale from Dauphiny and the Alps to Pro-
vence and the Mediterranean. It is replete
with historic and romantic souvenirs, but like
all the rest of these more or less poverty-
stricken mountain regions, it lacks any great
or splendid domestic or civic monuments on its
route. Souvenirs of medicTval times there are,
and many, but they were born of warlike deeds
rather than peaceful ones.

308 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Midway between BrianQoii and Embrun is
Mont Dauphin, another key to the Italian gate-
way. The fortress is a conspicuous point of
rock sitting strategically at the mouth of the
river Guil at its junction with the Durance.
The fortress was the work of Vauban, and its
bastions are built of a curious pink marble
found in the valley of the Queyras. No doubt
but that the fortress is impregnable, or was
when built, but it would avail little to-day
against modern explosives.

Up the valley of the Guil is the region known
as the Val de Queyras, one of the '' Protestant
Valleys " of Dauphiny, where the religious
wars under Lesdiguieres, during the reign of
Henri IV, raged fast and furious. Chateau
Queyras, as its name indicates, is the seat of
a mediaeval pile which, if not stupendous with
respect to its outlines, is at least more than sat-
isfying when viewed from afar. It is an an-
cient feudal castle and befits its name, in looks
at least, and was once the seat of the seigneurs
of Chateau- VIeille Ville. Like the fort of Mont
Dauphin it seemingly was built to guard the
passage to the frontier by the Col Lacroix and
the Col de Traversette.

Here as early as 1480 Louis 11 of Dauphiny
cut a tunnel below the Col to make the road

In the Alps of Dauphiny 309

between the French valleys and the rich plains
of the Po the easier of passage.

South of Chateau Queyras is Saint Veran,
the highest collection of human habitations in
France, and one of the most elevated in Europe.
It is commonly called the highest commune in
Europe where the peasants eat white bread.
Approximately its elevation is seven thousand
feet, still some thousands below Leadville, one
recalls. Because of its altitude also, it has been
called the most pious village in France. This
may or may not be so, but at any rate the place
has ever been on the verge of chang*ing its re-
ligion from Protestant to Catholic and from
Catholic to Protestant. What is in the rarefied
atmosphere, one wonders, to induce such fickle-
ness in matters spiritual !

Embrun, of all the towns of this part of Dau-
phiny, is the most illustrious and famous. This
is perhaps as much from its association with
Louis XI as for any other reason, for it is reck-
oned one of the dullest towns in France.

The general aspect of Embrun is most singu-
lar as it snuggles intimately around the drab
walls of an old donjon, the sole relic of its an-
cient feudal glory. The roof and gables of the
houses of the town rise abruptly from the low
levels to the height on which sits the donjon

310 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

and the shrine dedicated to the di\-inity of
Louis XI, " Our Dear Lady of Embrun," as
he called her.

To know more of what passed in the mind
of Louis XI with regard to Embrun and its
divinity one should re-turn the pages of ' ' Quen-
tin Durward. ' ' The monarch indeed resided so
long in Dauphiny, at one place or another, that
many of the most affecting scenes of his life
were enacted here.

A Roman city was here in ancient times, and
from this grew up a great strategic military
base. Not a morsel of the debris of the Eoman
town remains, but the cathedral still preserves
the best of Roman principles of building in the
stones of its pillars and vaulting.

The donjon of the old chateau, the Tour
Brune, as it is called, is not far from the cathe-
dral, within the confines of the military bar-
racks. It is, therefore, not accessible to the
general public, unless by chance one makes the
acquaintance of some genial Alpin-Chasseur
who can be induced to do the honours — of
course with permission of his superior, which
on this particular occasion was, for us, not easy
to get. The thing was finally " arranged."
Military property in France is not for the vul-

In the Alps of Dauphiny 311

gar eye, leastwise not in the vicinity of a fron-
tier boundary.

The Tour Brune is accredited as the most
ancient military edifice in Dauphiny. Gotran,
Koi de Bourgogne, built it and ravished the
valleys roundabout, using it as a base from
which to make his pillaging sorties and then as
a retreat in case he was hard pressed. This
was according to the ethics of guerilla warfare
at that time, and probably is to-day.

As a mere habitation, the Tour Brune could
hardly have been very comfortable. It cer-
tainly never partook of any luxurious appoint-
ments or accessories, judging from its build
alone.

The metropolis of the upper valley of the
Durance is Gap, whose chief romantic memory,
since indeed it has no worthy architectural
monuments to-day, is recalled by the magnifi-
cent marble statue of the Connetable de Les-
diguieres on the mausoleum of this Dauphi-
nese hero, now installed in the Prefecture, hav-
ing been brought thither from the warrior's
natal chateau in the neighbourhood. It shows
the protestant defender of the rights of Henri
rV in Dauphiny clad in the full regalia of his
fighting armour. It is worthy of record to note

312 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

that from being a protestant Governor of Dau-
phiny, Lesdiguieres changed faith as did his
royal master and became a Catholic, acquiring
at the same time the title of Connetable de
France as a mark of favour for his devotion
to the tenets of his sovereign.

There is another Chateau de Lesdiguieres,
which lies out on the road running from Gre-
noble to Gap, via Corps and Vizille, and is noth-
ing at all grand or monumental in aspect. For
a fact, the chateau at Vizille was his preferred
domicile, and the present shapeless, ruined
mass, though built by the Connetable, was in-
tended merely to be a mausoleum rather than a
dwelling. He was actually buried here, his
body having been brought hither from Italy,
but the Eevolution threw his ashes to the winds
and his funeral monument was removed to Gap.

CHAPTER XXII

IN LOWER DAUPHINY

There is not a village or a town in Dau-
phiny, be it ever so humble, but which guards
some vestige or tradition of some feudal cha-
teau or fortress of the neighbourhood. Nor are
ocular evidences wanting which even he who
runs may read. This is far from stating that
the region is strewn with noble and luxurious
monuments as are Touraine or Anjou, but nev-
ertheless he, or she, who knows how to trans-
late the story of the stones may make up his-
tory to any extent he likes, and yet never finish
the volume. And much of the tale will be as
vivid and thrilling as that of the western and
southern provinces, which are usually given the
palm for romance.

On almost any site around one's horizon a
seigneur might have built himself a chateau,
an all but impregnable stronghold where he
might sustain successfully the powers vested
in him as a vassal of the Dauphin. This was

313

/

314 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

the usual procedure, and if many of these clas-
sic strongholds have disappeared, there are
enough remaining to suggest the frequency and
solidity of mediaeval building in these parts, a
species of castle building which here in the
mountains differed not a little from that of the
lowlands. It is just this view-point that makes
the study of the chateaux of Dauphiny the more
interesting. Even the imperfectly preserved
ruins which crown many a peak and hill-top
are suggestive of this unique and effective
manner of castle building, and though many
have fallen from sheer decay in later years, it
is chiefly because they were undermined or
overthrown in some great or petty quarrel, and
not because their design was not well thought
out nor their workmanship thorough. The
picks of Louis XI caused more actual depre-
dation than has the stress of time. Often but
a local legend remains to tell the tale. Cham-
baraud, Mantailles, and Beaufort have disap-
peared, and Moras, Thodure and Vireville, all of
them reminiscent of the prowess of the feudal
barons, are in truth but dim reminiscences of
their once proud estate.

Between Grenoble and Vienne is the Chateau
de Bressieux. most picturesque, the first great
requirement of a castle. It dates, in part, from

In Lower Dauphiny 315

the twelfth century. That is its second qual-
ification. Antiquity comes after picturesque-
ness in its appeal to even the traveller of con-
ventional mould.

The Barons of Bressieux were by the right
of their title members of the Parliament of
Dauphiny. The situation of their chateau as-
sured them the full and free exercise of their
power, right or wrong, and, like all the Dauphi-
nese seigneurs, they were practically rulers of
a lilliputian empire.

It seems that the celebrated Maudrin, a brig-
and so dignified that he was ranked as a *' gen-
tilJiomme/* married into the family of Bres-
sieux. History has apparently been unjust to
Mandrin, " the escroc who possessed the man-
ners of a dandy," but at any rate there be those
in Dauphiny to-day who revere his memory be-
fore that of Bayard.

Saint Marcellin, in the lower valley of the
Isere, is Italian in its general aspect and lay-
out. Its house walls, its roof-tops and its ar-
caded streets are what most folk will at once
call Italian. Be this as it may, it was originally
the stronghold of the native Dauphins and the
place in their royaume where they lived the
most at ease and ate and drank the best. This
is not conjecture or a far-away twentieth cen-

316 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

tury estimate, but a quotation from recorded
history. The only thing one recalls of Saint
Marcellin in the eating line to-day is an exceed-
ingly pungent variety of goat's milk cheese. It
is not for that that most of us make of the
quaint little Dauphinese city a place of pilgrim-
age.

Saint Marcellin was the seat of the ancient
Dauphinese Parliament, but since it was three
times destroyed by fire, it actually possesses
but few of its old-time monumental records in
stone.

Beauvoir, scarce a kilometre away from
Saint Marcellin, was the site of an incompara-
ble chateau-fort which, it is sad to state, the
enthusiasm of Louis XI for pulling things down
did not leave unspoiled. To-day the chateau^
is a reminiscence only, but the situation, at the
juncture of the Iseret, the Isere and the Cuman,
tells the possibilities of its storied past in the
eye's rapid review. There is little doubt that
mere attack could have had but small effect on
its sturdy walls, and that its having been des-
troyed or injured in any way must have been
the result of weakness or lack of courage on the
part of those who held it from within. Only
two definite architectural details of this great
fortress remain as they were in those warlike

Chateau de Bcaiivoir

In Lower Dauphiny 317

times, the tower of the chapel and a flank of
wall containing a series of ogival windows.

Still in the Vallee Saint Marcellinoise, as this
junction of the three rivers is known, one sees
the ignoble pile which marks the site of the
former chateau of the Seigneur de Flandaines,
one of the allies of the Dauphins, descended
from one of the proudest families of the region.

The Seigneur de Flandaines would build
himself a stronghold so sturdy that no one
might take it from him, nor no one drive him
out; primarily this was the formula upon
which all castles were built. This was the very
sentiment that the seigneur expressed to Louis
XI at the time when the latter was but a Prince
of Dauphiny :

"Lou las.ia de fe valan niaui que lousignous in buro."

It was only another way of saying (in the
local patois) that a vassal clothed in armour
was worth considerably more than one who
dressed only in velvet.

The Dauphin took this to mean much, but he
had a mighty em-y for the Seigneur de Flan-
daines, and sought forthwith the ways and
means by which to turn him out of his fortress
abode.

318 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

The Dauphin invited the seigneur to a court
ball and plied him and his retainers with food
and drink, not only to excess, but to the point
of insensibility. After this the troops of the
Dauphin marched on Flandaines, took it with-
out the least resistance, turned it over to the
crowbars of the house-breakers, and went back
and told their prince that their work was fin-
ished.

In the Chateau de Eochechinard, near Flan-
daines, the Dame de Beaujeau, emulator of the
policy of Louis XI, martyred the poor Zizim,
son of Mohamet II and brother of Bajazet.
The history of the affair entire is not to be
recounted here, but the Turk was exiled in
France and chose this " pays de Franguistan,"
of which he had read, as the preferred place
of his future abode.

Louis XI arranged with one of his Dauphin-
ese familiars to take the infidel into his chateau.
The alien was at first enchanted with his new
life and played the zither and sang songs to the
fair ladies of Dauphiny all the long day with
all the gallantry of a noble of France. He went
further: he would have married with one of
the most gracious he had met: " It was a thing
a thousand times more to be sought for than
the control of the Ottoman Empire," he said.

In Lower Dauphiny 319

For the moment it was the one thing that the
Turk desired in life. Proof goes further and
states that for the purpose he became converted
to Christianity.

And the rest? The fair lady of Dauphiny
did not marry the Turk ; so he was sent a hun-
dred leagues away in further exile and the
daughter of the Beranger-Sasseange married
and forgot — in fact she married three times
before she eradicated the complete memory of
the affair.

To-day the walls of Eochechinard are half
buried in an undergrowth of vine and shrubs
and are nothing more than a sad reminder of
the history which has gone before.

Three leagues from Saint Marcellin and
Beauvoir is Saint Antoine, a sixteenth century
townlet of fifteen hundred souls which has en-
dured much, as it has always existed unto this
day. It possesses one of the most remarkable
and astonishing flamboyant-Gothic churches in
all Christendom.

During the middle ages Saint Antoine was
a place of pilgrimage for Popes and princes,
and the Dauphins, by reason of their intimate
associations with the distinguished visitors to
their country, gained both riches and power
from the circumstance.

320 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

When Dauphiny came to be united to tlie
Crown of France the tradition of Saint Antoine
and its life-giving wine continued, and neither
Francois Premier nor Louis XI neglected to
make the journey thither. In the case of Fran-
cois Premier there may have been another
good, or at least sufficient, reason, for Saint
Vallier and Diane de Poitiers were but a few
hours away. But that's another point of view,
a by-path which need not be followed here, since
it would lead us too far astray.

Following still the valley of the Isere, one
comes to the Chateau de la Sone, at one time one
of the strongest fortifications of the lower val-
ley. It was the key to the Royonnais, and a
subterranean passage led from its platform
underneath the bed of the Isere itself to a cha-
teau of the Dauphins on the opposite bank.

With the establishment of a silk-mill here in
the chateau in 1771 all romance fled, and there
being no more need for a subterranean exit, the
passage-way was allowed to fill up. To-day
one takes the assertion on faith; there is noth-
ing to prove it one way or another.

It was here within these walls that Vaucan-
son (1709-1782), the " sorcier-mecanicien/' in-
vented the chain without end, which revolution-
ized the silk-spinning industry.

In Lower Dauphiny 321

The aspect of the chateau to-day, declassed
though it is, is most picturesque. It is the very
ideal of a riverside castle, for it bears the proud
profile of a fortress of no mean pretensions
even now, far more than it does that of a lux-
urious dwelling or a banal factory. It is one
of those structures one loves to know inti-
mately, and not ignore just because it has be-
come a commoner among the noble chateaux of
history.

Two very curious twin towns are Romans
and Bourg-de-Peage, separated by the rapidly
flowing waters of the Isere. If such a group-
ment of old houses and rooftops were in Swit-
zerland or Germany, and were presided over
by some burgrave or seneschal, all the world
of tourists would rave over their atmosphere
of mediaevalism. Being in France, and off the
main lines of travel, they are largely ignored,
even by the French themselves. It is to be re-
marked that their history and romance have
been such that the souvenirs and monuments
which still exist in these curious old towns are
most appealing. In that they are now seeking
to attract visitors, a better fate is perhaps in
store for Romans and Bourg-de-Peage than has
been their portion during the last decade of
popular touring.

322 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

Chateaux of a minor sort there are galore at
Eomans. Noble and opulent hotels privees in
almost every street reflect the glories of the
days of the Dauphins, still but little dimmed.
Here and there an elaborately sculptured
fagade without, or a courtyard within, bespeaks
a lineal dignity that of later years has some-
what paled before the exigencies of modern life.

Eomans of late years has become a ville com-
mercante and has broken the bounds of its old
ramparts and flowed over into new quarters
and suburbs which have little enough the char-
acter of the old town. This is a feature to be
remarked of most French towns which are not
actually somnolent, though true enough it is
that in population they may have gained very
little on the centuries gone by. The demand
is for new living conditions, as well as those
of trade, and so perforce a certain part of the
population has to go outside to live in comfort.

It was from the castle of Hazard at Eomans,
now a poor undignified ruin, that the last of the
native Dauphins signed his abdication in fa-
vour of Philippe de Valois, who acquired the
province for the French Crown. The event was
induced by the loss of his infant son, who, by
some mysterious agent, fell into the swift-flow-
ing Isere at the base of the castle walls. Over-

In Lower Dauphiny 323

whelmed with grief, the father would no longer
hold the reins of state, and turned his patri-
mony over to the Frencli king with content and
satisfaction, stipulating only that the French
heir to the throne should be known as the Dau-
phin henceforth, a state of affairs which ob-
tained until the reign of Louis Philippe.

South from Romans lies Die, which in spite
of its great antiquity has conserved little of
its ancient feudal memories. There are some
ancient walls with a supporting tower here and
there, but this is all that remains to suggest
the power that once radiated from the Dea
Vocontiorum of the ancients.

From Die down towards the Ehone, through
the valley of the Drome, is however a pathway
still strewn with many reminders of the feudal-
ity. "Where the valley of Quint enters that of
the Drome, are Pontaix and Sainte Croix, each
of them possessed of a fine old ruin of a chateau
on a hill overlooking the town and the river-bed
below.

Outside the stage setting of an opera no one
ever saw quite so romantically disposed a land-
scape as here. The hills and vales bordering
upon the Ehine actually grow pale before this
little stretch of a dozen kilometres along the
banks of the Drome.

324 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy

The village of Sainte Croix, and its chateau,
is the more notable of the two mentioned, and
played an important role in the military his-
tory of the Diois. First of all the Romans laid
the foundations of the fortress one sees on the
height above the crooked streets of the town.
This was originally a work intended to protect
their communications from their capital city
at Vienne, on the banks of the Rhone, with
Milan, beyond the Alpine frontier.

Formerly, it was a stronghold of the Em-
peror of the Occident, and in 1215 the Emperor
Frederick II gave it to the Bishop of Saint
Paul-Trois-Chateaux, who, by the end of the
century, had transferred it to the house of Poi-
tiers. Catholics and Protestants occupied it
turn by turn during the religious wars, when,
after the taking of La Rochelle, Richelieu razed
it, as he did so many another feudal monument
up and down the length and breadth of France.

A great modern — comj)aratively modern —
pile situated at the entrance of the \^llage, has
nothing in common with the old fortress on the
height, and, though to-day it well presents the
suggestion of a fortified mediaeval manor, it is
in reality nothing but a walled farm, a trans-
formation from an old Antonian convent sup-
pressed at the Revolution.

Index

Adrets. Baron des, 227

Aguesseau, Chancelier d',
42

Aix-les-Bains, 239, 242-243,
2-9

Albertville, 243, 286

Allemon, Seigneurs d', 224

Allinges, 269

Amboisc Jacques d', 161

Ancy-Ie-Franc, 16, 93-99

Andelot Family, 87-88

Angely, Regnault de Saint-
Jean d'. 34

Anjou, Rene d', 118

Annecy. 260-262, 279

Ansc, 180

Apremont, in

Arbaud, Charles, 57

Argentiere, 302

Aries, Cardinal d', 272

Arnay-le-Duc, 5, 57, 60-61

Autun. 58. 70, 171

Auxerre, 5, 19. 20, 29-34,
35, 37. 38, 104

Auxerre, Comtes d', 30, 33,

35
Auxerre, Geoifroy, Bishop

of, 32
Auxois, The, 51
Auxonne, 186, 187-189
Aval Ion, 20, 36-37. 43, 50
Avignon, 108

Bage-le-Chatel, 177

Bage, Seigneurs de. 177,

179, 199, 210
Bar, Due de, 118

Bar-sur-Seine, 80-81
Barraux, Fort, 247, 251-252,

288
Bartholdi, 194, 198
Bathie, 286
Baviere, Famil\, 105, 126,

127
Bayard, Chateau de, 247-

252
Bayard, Chevalier, 221-222,

247-251, 315
Bazoche and its Chateau,

46-48
Beaufort, 314
Beaujeau. Anne de, 147.

318
Beaujeau, Sire de, 179, 180,

201
Beaujolais, The, 170, 181
^eaune, 9, 13, 108, 109, 124,

131. 133. 139-145, 178
Beaune, Claude de la, 168
Beauregard, Chateau de,

267
Beauvoir, 316, 319
Bedford, Duke of, 64, 127,

130
Belfort. 194. 195, 197-198
Belleville - sur - Saone, 179-

180
Bellev, 2m, 216-217
Benoit XIII, 108
Bcrrv, Duchesse dc, 72
Berlin, 8

Bcrtrand, General, 222
Besan(;on, 17, 185, 186, 187,

190. 191-194. 208
Besnard, Albert, 263

325

326

Index

Birun, Marcchal dc, 141

Blamont. 196

Blay, 286

Blonay, Baron de, 276

Blonay, Chateau de, 275

Blonay, Manoir de, 276

Bordeaii, 242

Boulogne, 2>7

Bourbilly and its Chateau,

52, 53, 54-56, 59
Bourbon, House of, 30, 161.

179, 201, 211
Bourbonnais, The, 2, 12
Bourg-de-Peage, 321
Bourg d'Oisans, 300-301
Bourg-en-Bresse, 85, 177.

206, 209-211, 212, 213
Bourges, 27
Bourget du Lac and its

Chateau, 239-240
Bourgogne. Canal de. 109
Bourguignons, 81
Bourrienne, 34
Boyvin, igi
Boz, 202
Brangion. Chateau de, 162-

163
Brandcs. 281
Bresse, 2, 14, 177, 199-201,

205-214
Bressieux, Chateau de. 314-

Briangon. Seigneurs de,

303-306
Brienne-le-Chateau. 80, 189
Brillat-Savarin, 201
Brouhce, 124
B tiff on, 4, 52, 62-66
Bugey, 2, 14. 199, 201
Burgundy, House of. 30. 27,

44, 57, "64, 75, 79, 85, 100.

102. 105, 108, I 13-130.

133-134, 144, 145, 147,

164. 272, 311
Bussv-Rabutin, Chateau de,

68-74
Bussy-Rabutin Familv, 55.

69-74

Calixtus //, 98, 159
Capet, Hughes, 36, 115
Carnot, Lazare, 4. 146-147,

278
Carpentras, 173
Cavaillon, 173
Celcstin /F, 242
Cerceau. Androuet du, 95-

96. 181
Chabas. Paul, 264
Chablais, The. 269. 271, 276
Chalon-sur-Saone, 5, 151,

170. 171-173. 174, 175, 177
Chambaraud. 314
Chambertin. 133, 135, 137
Chambery, 229-239, 243.

247. 251, 260
Chambord. 95, 96
Chambre, Pierre de la, 283
Chambrefte, 124
Champagne, Counts of, 19,

100
Champdivers, 208
Champdivers. Odette de,

208
Chagny, 151 -152
Chanceaux, 109
Chant el. Mme. de (St.

Jeanne de). 54, 55, 71
Chantilly, 154
Charbonne. 262
Charles I (Le Chauve),

175, 206. 213. 302. 303
Charles VI. 208
Charles VU. 28. 30
Charles VHI, 188. 220, 303
Charles IX, 93, 171
Charles X, 57
Charles V (Emperor). 116.

192, 193
Charolles. 153, 155, 171
Chastellux. Chateau de, 16,

37-43. 44
Chastillon (see Chatillon)
Chateau des Dues (see

Chastillon)
Chateauneuf, 206-207
Chateau-Vieiile Villc. Sei-

Index

327

gneurs dc, 308
Chatel-Censoir, 35
Chatelet, 196
Chatclct Family. 52
Chatillon-sur-Seine, 35, 62,

66. 75-82. 86
Chatillon-les-Dombes. 215
Chatillon, House of, 241-

242, 261
Chaumont-la-Guiche, 154
Chazeu, 70
Chenove. 1 33-134
Cheran, The. 243
Chignin. Chateau de, 238
Chinon. Chateau, 35
Clamecy, 35
Clement VII, 179, 260
Clemont. 196
Clermont Family, 93, 96,

97-98
Clos de la Perriere, 134
Clos du Chapitre, 134
Clos Vougeot. 9. 135-137.

142
Cluny and Its Abbey, 13-14,

157-162
Co^ur, Jacques, 27
Cognac, 116
Colbert, 70, 174
Coligny Family, 87-88, 90.

92, 93. 216
Colin, Sieur, 6
Conde, Prince de, 66, 87,

190
Conflans. 261. 286-288
Corcheval, 153
Cormatin. Chateau de, 162
Corps. 312
Corton. 144-145
Cosse-Brjssac, Marechal, 61
Costa, Marquis Leon and

Joseph. 267
Coucy, 12

Coudree. Chateau de, 268
Coulanges-sur-Yonne. 35
Courcellcs-les-Ranges. Cha-
teau de, 79
Courtney Family, 87-88, 90

Cousin, Jean, 34
Coypel. 72
Crais-Billon, 135
Crest. 246
Crussol, 298-299
Cuiseaux, 212
Cure. The. 38
Cussy-la-Colonne, 56-57

Dampierre, 95
Daudet. Alplionse, 236
Dauphiny. 2, 14. 15. 218-

228, 245-247. 252, 256. 257,

266, 279, 290-324
De La Roche, 269
Dents du Lanfont, 263
Dheune, The, 109
Die. 246, 323-324
Dijon. 13, 14, 17, 24, 52. 66,

67, 68. 70, 85, 99, 103,

104, 110, III, 112, 113-

130, 133. 135. 171, 185,

186, 190
Dole, 190-igi, 209
Dombes, Principality of, 2.

14, 178, 180, 182, 183-184.

199, 201, 202, 215
Donzy, 173

Doussard, Foret de, 264
Douvaine. 268
Ducloc, Canon. 288
Duesme. 82-83
Dufayal, 60
Duguesclin. 71
Duingt, Chateau de, 263
Dunois, 71
Duretal. 212

Fdicard III, 33

Embrun. 302. 308, 309-311

Eon, Chevalier d', 34

Epailly. Jacques d' , 36

fipinac. 148-151

Epiry. Baron d' , 69

fipoisses. 20, 52-55

Eugene IV, 272

Evelyn. 6

£vian. 271. 27^276, 279

Excevencx. 268

328

Index

Fabre, Ferdinand, 263

Fagon, 138

Falais, 12

Farcins, 181

Fargis Family, De, 147

Faucigny, 269

Faverges, 264

Fecamp, Abbey de, 142

Feisons, 286

Felix V , 272

Fernay, 204-205

Fcsigny, 282

Fixin, 134-135

Flandaincs, Seigneur de,

317-318
Franche, Comte, 2, 17, 116,

185-197, 208
Frangois I, 116, 124, 154,

171, 183, 213, 216, 220,

254, 280, 281, 287, 296-297,

306, 320
Froissart, 80
Furstemburg, Comte de,

213-214

Gallas, 189

Galley, Mile., 265

Gap, 214, 248, 302, 311-312

Gatinais, The, 20

Gellan, Nicolas de, 76

Gelasse II, 159

Geneva, 102, 203-204, 215.

259, 265-268
Genevois. Comics de, 260-

261. 263. 268, 275
Genlis, 186. 187
Gevrey. 135
Gex, 203-204, 266
Givry, 173
Godran, Odinet, 129
Goelnit::. Abraham. 226
Gondi, Cardinal de. 25
Graffeny, Mile.. 265
Grange du Hameau de

Chavoires, 262
Granville Family, 193
Gregory VIII, 98
Gregory IX, 241

Grenoble, 219-224, 225, 244,
247, 248. 253, 254, 291,
292, 300, 314

Gresy, 286

Greuce, 4, 176

Gribaldi, Manoir, 275

Grignan, 246

Grignan, Comtessc de, 55,
72

Guiche Family, De, 154

Guillcbaud, 220

Guitant, Chateau de, 55, 59

Giinsbourg, M., 162

Hautecombe, Abbey of,

239, 240
H emery, Porticelli d', 88-89
Henri II, 69, 7:^, 94, 280
Henri IV, 52, 60, 61, 76, 77,

88, 141, 149, 165, 175, 181,

185, 201, 252, 261, 264,

281. 287, 306
Hercdia, Jose-Maria, 263
Hericoiirt, 196
Hermance, 267
Heurta, Jehan de la, 127
Hoiissayc. Arscne, 205
Huchisi, 202
Hugues III, 118
Hulls. Chateau des (see La

Rochette)
Humbert IV, 181

Ile-de-la-Palme. 176-177
Innocent IV, 159

Jean-sans-Peur, 64, 126-127
Joigny, 5, 20, 25-27
Joinville, House of, 203
Jude, Paul, 220
Just, 72,

Labedoyere. 249

La Fontaine, 7

Lamartine, 165-168, 243,

246, 267-268
Lamartine, Chateau de,

166-168

Index

329

Langeac, Comtesse de, /8
Langres, 149
Lans-le-Bourg, 286
Laroche, Madame, 8
La Rochepot, Chateau de,

146-148
La Rochette, 269, 282-283
La Tour Ronde, 276-277
Lauzun, 202

La Valette, Cardinal, 190
Lavin, 284
Lebrun, 72,
Le Chatelard, 243
Lemuel, 88, 91
Le Notre, 30, 74
Lepautre, Jean, 220
Lepellctier de Saint Far-

geau, 28
Les Bauges, 243
Lesdiguieres, Chateaux de.

311-312
Lesdiguieres Marechal de,

214, 221, 226-227, 252,

288, 306. 308, 311-312
Les Laumes, 68
Lippomano, 7
Longueville, Duchesse de.

6, 66
Lorraine. Duchy of, 196
Lorris, 22
Louhans, 211, 212
Louis I (Le Debonnaire).

164, 177
Louis VII (Le Jeune), 22,

45.
Louis IX (Saint), 45, 159
Louis XI, 30, 116, 142, 188.

220, 251, 296, 298, 309-

310, 314. 316, 317, 318.

320
Louis XII. 108, 116, 188,

247, 254
Louis XlII, 73, 124, 190,

213, 228. 282
Louis XIV, 38, 70, 71. 74-

94, 99, 102, 130, 138, 183.

201-202, 220
Louis XV, 63

Louis XVI, 78

Louis Philippe, 167, 12^

Louvois, Marquis de, 94, 98

Lugny, 153

Luvois Family, 84

MacMahon Family, 150
Macon, 5. 25, 153, 157, 163-

165. 168, 170, 171, 175,

177, 178, 210, 213
Magny-en-Vexin, 25
Mailly-le-Chateau, 35
Maine, Due de, 202
Mandrin, 315
Mansart, 122

Mantaille, Chateau de, 293
Mantailles, 314
Mantoche. 11 1
Manuel, Chateau de, 287
Marchand, Commandant,

178
Marcigny, 155-156
Marges, Conite de, 225
Marigny Family, 54
Marmont, Chateau de (see

Chatillon)
Marmont, Marechal, 78, 79
Maurienne, Comte de, 305-

306
Maxilly, 276

Mayenne, Due de, 175, 179
Macard, Castle of, 322
Mazarin, Cardinal, 31, 74,

88
Mcdicis, Catherine de, S7,

9-
Meillerie, 277
Mel'.o Family. De, 54
Menabrea. Leon, 282
Mercier, 5
Mercurey, 173
Mersault, 133, 145-146
Michelet. 4
Mignard. 72, 72,, 92
Milly. 166
Miolans. Chateau de, 16,

239. 283-285, 287
Mirabcau, Marquis de. 88

330

Index

Molay, 208

Moliere, 56

Moiturier, Antoine, 127

M onetier-les-Bains, 301

Monge, 4

Monglat, Marquise de, 70,

71, 73, 74
Momllefert, 145
Montagny, Chateau de, 239
Montaigu, Chateau de, 173
Montaigu Family, 150
Montbard and its Chateau,

52, 62-66, 68
Montbeliard, 190, 194-197
Montbossier Marquis de,

60
Montcony, 212
Mont Dauphin, 308
Montelimar, 246
Montepin, Xavier de, ill
Montersine, 153
Montfaiicon Family, 196
Montluel, 215
Montmayeur Family, 282,

284
Montmelian, 16, 239, 252,

279-282, 283, 285
Montmerle, 180-181
Montmorency Family, 88,

147
Montpensier, Mile, de, 6, 7,

28, 201
Montreal, Chateau de, 37,

43-44
Montreal, Family of, 40, 44
Montreval, Comte de, 165
Montvallesen-sur-Sees, 288
Moras, 314
Moret-sur-Loing, 25
Morveau, Guyton de, 4
Moulin-a-Vent, 138
Moulins-en-Allier, 140
Moutiers, 286
Mnrillo, 74
Musset, Alfred de, 65

Nantua, 213

Napoleon I, 80, iii, 134-

135, 189, 222, 248-249, 296,

298, 301, 302-303
Napoleon III, 233
Nattier, 92

Nemours, Dues de, 261-262
Nernier, 267-268
Nevers, Renaud, Comte de,

30
Noble, Chateau de, 168-169
Noblcmaire, M., 264
Noisat, Commandant, 134-

135
Nolay, 146-147
Nuits, 131, 133, 139
Nuits - sous - Ravieres, 99-

100

Orleans, Henrietta, Duch-
esse d', 232

Paray-le-Monail, 17, 155
Passerat, Baron, 268
Peregrin, 92
Pcrier, Casimir, 226
Pernand, 145
Pcrrenot, Nicolas, 193
Philibert le Beau, 211
Philibcrt II, 216
Philippe-Auguste, 23, 45,

183
Phdippe-de-Champaigne, 92
Philippe-le-Bon, 36, 64, 118
Philippe-le-Hardi, 105, 108,

IIS, 118, 126-127, 134

Philippe II, 193

Pierre, 208

Pisa. Nicolas de, 168

Poitiers, Diane de, 93, 256-

257. 320
Pommard, 131
Pontaix, 323
Pontarlier, 186, 187
Pontcharra, 247, 251, 252
Pont d'Ain, 215
Pont-de-Vaux, 212-213
Pont-de-Veyle, 213-214
Pot, Philippe, 147
Pouges-les-Eaux, 7

Index

331

Poussin, 74
Primataccio, gz, 96-97
Prud'hon, 4

Quentin de la Tour, 92
Queyras, Chateau, 308-309
Quincy, The, 90

Rabutin Family, 150
Rabutin-Chantcl Family, 54,

69
Ragny, Dame dc, 44
Ragusc, Due de, 78, 79
Rambeauteau, 153
Rameau, 4
Rancurellc , 129
Renan, Ernest, 263
Ribbonnier, 149
Riehard Cocur-de-Lion, 45
Richelieu, 10, 73, 97, 190,

227, 324
Ripaille, Chateau de, 271-

273
Roche, Sires de la, 147
Rochechinard, Chateau de,

318-319
Rochefort, Sires de. 79
Rochefort - en - Montague,

Chateau de, 252-253
Rochefort - Lucay Family,

253
Pochette Family, De la,

239, 274
Rollin, Nicolas, 129, 142,

144
Romanee-Conti, 136-138
Romans, 321-323
Romenay, 177
Rouge, Chateau, 287
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 65,

229, 234-237, 245, 262, 265,

277
Rude, 4, 135

Sade, Marquis de, 283
Saint Antoine, 319-320
Saint-Beauve. 114
Saint Beninge, 103

Saint Bernard, 45

Saint Bernard, Chateau de,

262
Saint-Bonnet-de-Joux, 154
Sainte Croix, 323-324
Saint Donat, 253, 256-257
Saint Fargeau, 6, 27-28
Saint Ferreol Family, 224
Saint Francois - dc - Sales,

271
Saint Gengoux, 173
Saint Gingolph, 266
Saint Jean-de-Losne, 190
Saint Laurent, 219
Saint Marcellin, 218, 315-

316, 319
Saint Michel de Maurienne,

238
Saint Nicholas-les-Citeaux,

Saint Pierre d'Albigny, 283
Saint-Pont, 166-168
Saint Rambert, 293
Saint Seine, 109
Saint Trivier-de-Courtes,

177
Saint Vallier, 292, 320
Saint Veran, 309
Saint Vorles, Canons of,

77
Sales, Comte Louis de, 261
Salins, Guignonne de, 142
Sa}nbin, Hugues, 4, 124,

125-126
Sarcus, Comtesse de, 69
Sarto, Andrea del, 74
Sassenage, 253-254
Saulieu, 5, 57-60
Saulx- Tavannes , Marechal

de, 149
Savace Family, De, 54
Savegny-sous-Beaunc, 145
Savoigny, Chateau de, 69
Savoy, 2, 14, 15, 16, 102,

199, 215, 216-217. 223,

229-244, 245, 252, 264,

266, 278-289, 306
Sa7'oy, House of, 177, 180,

332

Index

201, 203, 210, 213, 215,
216, 227, 229-234, 239, 240,
243, 251, 252, 260, 263,
268, 270, 271, 281, 285,
288

Sciez, 268

Segur, Pierre de, 195

Semur - en - Brionnais, 156-

157

Semur - en - Auxois, 36, 50-

53, 56, 62
Sennonais, The, 19, 29, 84
Sens, 5, 14, 20, 21
Serlio, 25

Seruin, The, 34, 43
Srjc, Jean de, 181
Sevigne, Mme. de, 6, 53-56,

59, 69, 72
Short, Frank, 164
Sigismond, Emperor, 215,

232
Sluter, Clans, 127
Sone, Chateau de la, 320-

321
SoufHot, 34
Souvre, Anne de, 95
Stendhal, 191, 247
Sue, Eugene, 262
Sully, Chateau de, 149-150
Sully Family, 147, 281

Taine, 263

Tanlay, Chateau de, 16, 86-

93, 96, 98
Tapffer, 273
Tarentaise, The, 286-288,

303, 304
Tavannes Family, 149-150
Terrail Family, 250-251
Terreaux-a-Verostres, 154
Thil Family, De, 54
Thevenin Family, 88
Thodure, 314
Thoire et Villars, Sires de,

201
Thoisscy, 178-179
Thoisy-la-Berchere, 60
Thone, 264

Thonon-Ies-Bains, 268-270,

271, 272, 273
Thoron, Manoir de, 264
Thorij.'aldsen, 194
Toise, 174-175
Touches, 173
Touges, 267

Tour de Fonbonne, 275
Tour-de-Pin, 17, 246
Tour, Manoir de la, 264-265
Tour, Quentin de la, 236
Tour Sans Venin, 254-255
Tour, Villa de la, 262
Tournette, 263
Tournus, 5, 162, 175-176
Trevoux, 5, 180, 181-184
Tonnerre, 20, 29, 35, 84-86.

93, 99
Tonnerre Family, 30, 33, 84,

93, 94. 95, 98
Tremouille Family, De la,

54
Troches, Chateau de, 268
Turner, 164

Urban III, 241
Uriage, 224-225
Uces, Dues de, 299

Valbonne, 215
\'alence. 247, 293, 295-298
Valentinian, Emperor, 102
Valois, Jeanne de, 25
Valois, Philippe de, 218, 291,

292, 322
Val-Romey, 199, 201, 206
Varamhon, Sire de, 183
Vatel Family. 59
Vauban, Chateau de, 48-49
Vauban, Marechal, 34, 46-

49, 187, 191, 192, 223, 308
Vaucanson, 320
Verg\', Chateau de, 139
Vermanton, 5
Vezelay, 36, 44-46
Vibrave Family, 48
Vienne, 290-295, 314, 324
Vienne, Archbishops of, 275

i

THIS BOOK IS DUB ON THE LAST DATE
THib ^u^ STAMPED BELOW

AN INITIAL FINB OF 25 CENTS

THIS BOOK ON THE DATE U FOURTH

OVERDUE.

%

^ECtheB^-^

LD 21-100m-12,'43(8796sT

? CCI>^

^3

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

IJJIJII I flli II

lllllli;!'

ii'iiiifi niii!!;ii!!!i!i.mi)i;