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[Certain typographical errors have been corrected (see list at the end of this etext.). Except for a few normalizations, the spelling of French words and names has not been corrected, but left as the writer wrote them.]
[Illustration: LÂON, VIEW FROM THE PLAIN]
COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY _Published September, 1907_
The following chapters are the result of notes put together during summers spent in France in the course of the last five years. They are not intended to mark out any particular geographical scheme, though considered as isolated suggestions they may possibly prove useful to the intending traveller; nor do they aim at covering all the Cathedral cities of France.
The authors are indebted for much valuable help from the following books: Viollet-le-Duc's "Dictionnaire de l'Architecture"; Mr. Phené Spiers's "Architecture East and West"; Mr. Francis Bond's "Gothic Architecture in England"; Mr. Henry James's "Little Tour in France"; Mr. Cecil Headlam's "Story of Chartres"; Freeman's "History of the Norman Conquest" and "Sketches of French Travel"; Dr. Whewell's "Notes on a Tour in Picardy and Normandy"; M. Guilhermy's "Itineraire archéologique de Paris"; M. Hoffbauer's "Paris à travers les ages"; M. Enlart's "Architecture Réligieuse"; Mr. Walter Lonergan's "Historic Churches of Paris"; the "Chronicles" of Froissart and Monstrelet; and to the letters in _The Times_ of its war correspondent, 1870 and 1871.
The South Porch of the Cathedral, Coutances " " 146
Nôtre Dame de la Coûture, Le Mans " " 164
Rue de la Porte Guillaume, Chartres " " 212
The House of Jacques Coeur, Bourges " " 224
Entrance to the Harbour, La Rochelle " " 282
The Bridge and Cathedral, Auxerre " " 310
Pont St. Michel and Ste. Chapelle, Paris " " 378
There are in France to-day three distinct classes of cities--one might even add, of cathedral cities--and as the bishopric is a dignity far more usual in France than in England, "cathedral" may serve for the present as a term inclusive of many towns.
Firstly, there is the town whose local importance has remained unchanged through a succession of centuries and an eventful history, which has added a modern importance to that bequeathed to it by Time. Such towns are Le Mans, Angers, Amiens and Rouen. Secondly, we find the towns whose glory has departed, but who still preserve the outward semblance of that glory, though they remind us in passing through them of a body without a spirit, of an empty house, whose inhabitants are long dead and have left behind them only the echoes of their past footsteps. These towns are a picturesque group, and if we go back upon the centuries, we shall find in them the centre of much that has made history for our modern eyes to read. Look at Chartres and Bayeux, and Lâon and Troyes, for embodiments of this type. And lastly, there are the cities which exactly reverse the foregoing state of affairs, and owe their growth to the kindly fostering of a later age--an age which has learnt wisdom more quickly than its predecessors, and has learnt, moreover, to love the whirr of engines and the busy paths of commerce more than the safe keeping of ancient monuments and the reading of history in the worn greyness of their stones. Among these we may count Havre; but of this class it is more difficult to find examples in France, although in England the north country is thick with such mushroom cities.