Chapter XIX: Section XVII: Aix-En-Provence to Cannes, 100 Miles

(160 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

Kil. Miles. =Aix-en-Provence= to St. Maximin =36= 22½ =St. Maximin= to Brignoles =19= 11¾ =Brignoles= to Le Luc =24= 15 =Le Luc= to Le Muy =23= 14¼ =Le Muy= to Fréjus =16= 10 =Fréjus= to St. Raphaël } By the { =3= 1¾ =St. Raphaël= to Agay } Corniche { =8= 5 =Agay= to Théoule } d’Or, { =20= 12½ =Théoule= to Cannes } 26¼ miles. { =11= 7 [=Fréjus= to Cannes through the Estérels =36= 22½]

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

=Brignoles to Le Luc.=--Fairly hilly; elsewhere the journey from Aix
to St. Raphaël is practically level.

=St. Raphaël to La Napoule= (beyond Théoule)--[10 miles an hour
recommended].--This road was only finished in 1903. It is called
the Corniche d’Or (or d’Estérel), and follows the ragged coast-line
in and out of the beautiful bays. There is no protection on the
seaward side, and a collision between automobiles means that the
outside car will probably fall crashing into the sea immediately
below. =Drivers are therefore warned to go very slowly and with the
greatest care, especially at corners=, where one sometimes passes a
car being driven at a recklessly fast pace, allowing all too little
room for any vehicle being passed. The exquisite beauty of the
scenery makes a crawling pace welcome, and those who drive faster
than 10 miles an hour deserve whatever disaster may befall them.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

=Aix-en-Provence.=--A large town--the _Aquæ Sextiæ_ of the
Romans--formerly the capital of Provence: (1) Cathedral of St.
Sauveur, Romanesque, chancel 1285, west doors richly carved,
baptistery with Roman columns, and Romanesque cloister; (2)
Archbishop’s Palace; (3) Hôtel de Ville, containing large and
interesting library; (4) hot springs; (5) in the garden of thermal
establishment slight remains of Roman baths; (6) Tour de
Tourreluco, a survival of the medieval walls; (7) Church of St.
Jean de Malte, thirteenth century.

=Mont Ste. Victoire and Pourrières.=--The precipitous ridge looks
down on the battlefield of Pourrières, where Marius, with his Roman
legions and auxiliaries, wiped out the two northern tribes of the
Ambrones and the Teutones.

=St. Maximin.=--A small town, with a beautiful Gothic church
(thirteenth to fifteenth centuries), early crypt, and beautiful
altars.

=Tourves.=--Village with a large ruined castle.

=Brignoles.=--A small town, famous for its dried plums, but otherwise
without great interest.

=Flassans.=--A roadside village, with an old deserted one on the hill
adjoining.

=Le Luc and Le Muy.=--Pleasant little roadside towns.

=Fréjus.=--The Roman _Forum Julii_. The Roman remains consist of--(1)
The amphitheatre; (2) the walls, with three gateways; (3) the
aqueduct; (4) the remains of the harbour; (5) the baths; (6) the
theatre; (7) the two citadels. The cathedral is an interesting
Romanesque building, with fine choir-stalls, cloisters, and a
baptistery containing eight Roman columns.

=St. Raphaël.=--A small village, with a new quarter on the shore,
with large hotels lately added.

=The Corniche d’Or.=--The new road along the coast of the Estérels,
recently built by the Touring Club de France; lovely scenery all
the way.

=Théoule.=--A small resort on the Corniche d’Or, with hotels and
villas.

=La Napoule.=--A small place on the flat plain west of Cannes, where
the well-known golf-links are situated.

Although Aix has retained no structures of the Roman period, it was the oldest of the colonies, having been founded by the Consul Sextius Calvinus, about 120 B.C., at the hot springs still in existence. The place was therefore called _Aquæ Sextiæ_, after the discoverer of the thermal waters, and is now contracted into Aix. The threatened invasion of Italy by the Teutones and Ambrones was utterly defeated by Marius, a few miles east of the city, in 102 B.C.; but Aix at the fall of Rome fell a prey to the barbarians of the north, recovering slowly, and eventually becoming the capital of Provence. Under the good King Réné of Anjou, who died in 1480, Aix was exceedingly prosperous. His statue by David can be seen in the Cours Mirabeau.

The Cathedral of St. Sauveur dates from Romanesque times, with a chancel built in 1285. The tower and façade are fifteenth century--a little earlier than the highly enriched portal, with its lovely doors ornamented with sixteen figures in niches, which dates from 1503.

In the baptistery are eight monolithic columns--probably from the Temple of Apollo, that stood on the same spot--sculptured panels by Puget, and two triptychs, on one of which King Réné is depicted on his knees.

The Romanesque cloister, with richly carved capitals, and the great Renaissance doorway of the Archbishop’s Palace should be seen.

The Hôtel de Ville, containing a big library, to which the public is admitted, _except on Sundays and Mondays, and between August 15 and October 15_, was built in 1640, and much altered in 1760; but the clock-tower adjoining goes back to 1512.

One relic of the medieval fortifications of Aix exists in the Tour de Tourreluco. It stands in the garden of the thermal establishment, where one can also see the slight remains of the Roman baths.

The Church of La Madeleine was built in 1703 with a later façade, and St. Jean de Malle was founded in the thirteenth century for the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. It contains on the left side of the altar the tomb of

Only four arches and the chapel survive. (_Page 335._)]

Raymond, Count of Provence, with statues and recumbent figures.

THE ROAD TO FRÉJUS

goes out eastwards, and, after a few miles, passes through a rocky ravine before coming out into the long valley of the River Arc, bounded on the north by the gaunt grey precipices of Mont Ste. Victoire. It was into this valley that Marius with his legions drove the undisciplined invaders in 102 B.C., and near Pourrières he outflanked and defeated them. The slaughter was so enormous that the two great tribes of the Teutones and Ambrones, with their women and children, were practically annihilated, and the river ran red with their life-blood. Just after crossing the Arc, on the north side of the road, are the slight ruins of the monument put up by the Romans to celebrate the great victory achieved by the brilliant strategy of Marius, who thus saved Rome from premature extinction.

Soon after passing Pourrières, a compact village north of the road, with roofs and walls of the same dark orange-red as the soil of the vineyards, there is spread out in front a splendid mountain view, with snow-capped peaks standing out against the blue of the distant sky.

St. Maximin is a very small town with a lovely Gothic church, which should by no means be ignored. It dates from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, and stands over an early crypt containing Early Christian sarcophagi. This is kept locked, but the sacristan has the key. The altar at the east end of the north aisle is dated 1526, with the name ‘Jacques Baurmes, Chamberlain to the King,’ who gave it to the church. In one of the paintings Christ is being scourged on the Piazzetta at Venice! The choir-stalls of the seventeenth century are richly carved, the whole interior is clean and light, and the lofty arches are exceptionally beautiful.

The way out of St. Maximin is a zigzag to the right, and at the fork just outside one turns to the left, neither going under the railway-arch nor up to the station, which one can see on the left a little farther on.

The village of Tourves has an obelisk by the fine ruined Château de Valbelle, on a ridge to the left. On the steep hillsides one sees miles of terraces, where vineyards have been patiently extracted from the formerly arid slopes.

Brignoles is a small town, with a long, narrow street, and the hotel is often a convenient resting-place for _déjeuner_. The dried plums of Brignoles have long been famous. They were eaten by the Duc de Guise, it will be remembered, just before his assassination (p. 98). A twelfth-century house, with windows divided by columns, and the Sous-Préfecture, which was formerly the winter palace of the Counts of Provence, sacked by Charles V., are the only antiquities of the town.

Flassans is a comparatively new village on the road, with an abandoned one, now roofless and with broken walls, on the hill to the left. A conspicuous wooden cross and a little chapel by the ruined houses seem to suggest that something had to be done to keep restless spirits under proper control.

Le Luc has a narrow, shady street, with large plane-trees by a fountain, where there are often picturesque groups fetching water.

The Maure Mountains lie to the south, covered with pine, or showing crags of grey and orange rock. The coast-road from Fréjus to Hyères, round the bays of these mountains, is an exquisitely beautiful one, and those who have time should include this in their tour when staying at St. Raphaël or Valescure.

Passing through Le Muy in a serpentine fashion, with a very sharp and narrow turning, the road comes out into the flat alluvial plain of the River Argens, with the pine-clad Estérels on the left as one runs into

FRÉJUS

This is a place of vanished glories, having the atmosphere of ancient importance inseparable from ports abandoned by the sea, which was their life-blood.

Fréjus was the last harbour on the great Roman road from Rome to Provence--_the Via Aurelia_--which at this point turned inland to Aix. Its importance was therefore seen by Julius Cæsar, who built the town called after him _Forum Julii_, and now contracted into Fréjus. By the remains to be seen to-day the work appears to have been done hurriedly, for strength rather than beauty, but the interest of the place is scarcely diminished in the knowledge of this probability.

The first most imposing survival is the Amphitheatre. It stands outside the town, and a by-road passes through its longest axis. There is no fencing, nor, indeed, any restriction to the public from climbing the broken tiers of seats; nor has there been any attempt at restoration to the broken arches or the grass-grown arena. On the eastern side of the little town, where the harbour was situated, is a small tower with a conical top, called La Lanterne. This was the Roman harbour-master’s office, and not a lighthouse. The remains of the aqueduct are imposing detached masses of ivy-mantled stonework, ranging like great sentinels across cornfields and meadows to the hills to the north, from whence a pure supply of water was obtained. There are also remains of the walls of the Roman town; of three of the gateways, including the Porta Romana, which is the best; of the two citadels; the baths; and the theatre.

Modern Fréjus has some picturesque doorways and old houses spoilt with stucco. The Romanesque Cathedral has beautiful cloisters, much in need of restoration, and a baptistery with eight monolithic granite pillars from a Roman temple.

ST. RAPHAËL

stands on the opposite side of the alluvial plain, and being on the sea, has lately blossomed into a Riviera resort, with modern hotels, a huge domed church, and new streets of shops and stuccoed houses. It is a dusty and windy place compared to Valescure, a little way inland, on high ground, among the pines of the Estérel slopes.

Napoleon embarked from St. Raphaël for Elba after his abdication in 1814. The British warship _Undaunted_ received the ex-Emperor on board on April 28. He had come through many hostile crowds on his journey from Fontainebleau, and so great was the danger to his life that he consented to disguise himself in the uniform of an Austrian officer.

THE CORNICHE D’OR

is a most beautiful road, recently built by the Touring Club de France, along the high rocky coast of the Estérels. Its dangers for motorists have been described at the beginning of this section, but in case that warning may have been overlooked, the need of driving slowly and cautiously is again emphasized.

After the somewhat arid scenery of the delta of the Rhone and of the country about Aix and Brignoles, the first few miles of the Riviera are an exquisite pleasure to the eye. The road at first winds between gardens, whose trees cast long patches of shade, and the air is deliciously scented with lemons and other plants; then one comes out by the breaking waves, and looks across little bays, ‘the peacock’s neck in hue.’ Dark masses of firs clothe the red of the porphyry cliffs, and each turn of the road brings some fresh combination of rock and wave and tree-clothed valley.

Agay is a tiny place on one of these lovely bays, and as there is a choice of hotels, it is a delightful spot for a halt for the night if one does not mind the periodic roar of the P.L.M. expresses. Beyond Théoule comes the first great view of the French Riviera. On a clear morning of typical spring sunshine the great sweep of the blue bay of Cannes, with its bold mountain background and green villa-dotted shores, is one of exquisite loveliness. It appears with a foreground of the strong, hot colour of swarthy rocks, deep green foliage, and perhaps the brilliance of lemons and oranges, or a bank of glowing flowers, emphasizing the delicate charm of the distance.

The road gradually drops down to the sea-level at La Napoule, where the famous golf-links of Cannes are situated. A short run along the villa-bordered main road brings one to the great resort founded by an English statesman--Henry, Lord Brougham and Vaux.

A typical stretch of the rocky shore between Cannes and St. Raphaël.]