Chapter XXIII: Section XXI: Valence to St. étienne, 58¼ Miles

(94 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

Kil. Miles. =Valence= to Tournan =18= 11¼ =Tournan= to Andance =21= 13 =Andance= to Annonay =13= 8 =Annonay= to Bourg-Argental =16= 10 =Bourg-Argental= to St. Étienne =26= 16

ALTERNATIVE ROUTE TO PARIS,

368½ MILES

(602 KILOMETRES)

If there is too much snow on the Cevennes to make the St. Étienne route possible, the following road will be available:

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

Kil. Miles. =Valence= to Vienne =73= 45½ =Vienne= to Lyon =26= 16 =Lyon= to Villefranche =30= 18½ =Villefranche= to Macon =37= 23 =Macon= to Chalon-sur-Saône =56= 35 =Chalon-sur-Saône= to Dijon =67= 41¾ =Dijon= to Montbard =76= 41 =Montbard= to Tonnere =44= 27½ =Tonnere= to Sens =85= 53 =Sens= to Melun =68= 42¼ =Melun= to Paris =40= 25

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

Between =Valence= and =Andance=, where the Rhone Valley is left, there
are no less than eighteen of the shallow drains called =cassis= on
the road; they are all marked with conspicuous warning-boards.

As far as =Andance= the road is perfectly level, but on going to the
left, just before entering that village, it ascends steeply, and
climbs more or less continuously to the watershed above =La
Versanne=. The gradient is much reduced by long loops, and the
surface is good all the way.

The descent to =St. Étienne= has some sharp corners, but is not
dangerous if taken carefully.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

=Valence.=--A large modern town on the Rhone; Cathedral dating from
1095; Maison des Têtes and another Renaissance house.

=St. Péray.=--A small town near the fine ruins of the Château of
Crussol, built in the twelfth century.

=Châteaubourg.=--A medieval castle on an isolated rock close to the
road.

=Tournon.=--A picturesque little town with castle, now the Hôtel de
Ville; old walls; narrow streets; church of thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries; the Lycée is one of the best known in France;
early suspension bridge across Rhone.

=Arras.=--A village, with a conspicuous castle in ruins.

=St. Cyr.=--A village among the Northern Cevennes.

=Annonay.=--A grey manufacturing town in a valley of the Northern
Cevennes.

=Bourg-Argental.=--Another manufacturing town, producing stuffs and
ribbons; church with eleventh-century doorway.

The =Northern Cevennes= reach their greatest height at Mont Pilat
(4,705 feet), about 5 miles north of the road; the scenery and the
distant views are exceedingly fine.

Valence is beautifully situated on a raised site above the Rhone, and the view across the river from the cathedral towards the Cevennes, and to the Vivarais Mountains to the north-west, is given a flavour of romance, owing to the prominence of the twelfth-century Château of Crussol. It is one of the biggest ruined castles on the Rhone, and its great height of 1,055 feet is unusual.

The family of Crussol were great supporters of Protestantism in the South of France, and Galiot de Crussol was killed in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

Valence was the Roman _Valentia_, and a few relics of that age are in the Museum (_open on Sundays and Thursdays, 1 to 4_). The chief interest in the town is the cathedral, consecrated in 1095 by Pope Urban II. The building has, however,

undergone much restoration, and the tower and porch were rebuilt during the last century. The heart of Pius VI., who died at Valence in 1799 is buried in the cathedral, and there is a statue to his memory on the south side of the altar. When Napoleon invaded Italy in 1797, he sent General Berthier to Rome to proclaim a republic and demand of the Pope the renunciation of his temporal authority. His refusal to do so resulted in his being taken prisoner and removed from the Vatican to Florence, and then by stages through the Alps to Grenoble, and finally to Valence, where he died in captivity not far from Avignon, the former seat of Papal authority.

Outside the cathedral on the north side is the large tomb of the Mistral family, put up in 1548. It has a very flat dome and an inscription in a curious spiral form.

The richly ornamented house at No. 57 Grande Rue was built in 1531, and is called the _Maison des Têtes_, on account of the statues and busts, now much mutilated, which adorn the front and the corridor leading into a courtyard behind. Another interesting house is at No. 7 Rue Pérollerie, a Renaissance building ornamented with bas-reliefs.

THE ROAD TO ST. ÉTIENNE

One crosses the river by the suspension bridge on leaving Valence, and in St. Péray, which is chiefly interesting as the nearest place to the Château Crussol already mentioned, one turns sharply to the right for Tournon.

The road goes through the village of Cornas, and all the way to Andance motor-drivers have to be constantly _on the alert for the dangerous shallow drains across the road_, which, if passed over at twenty miles an hour, would mean the chance of a broken axle.

Immediately on the right is the broad Rhone, and on the left the hills rise sharply, with a narrow strip of vineyards and orchards on the lower ground.

On the right, just above the junction of the Rhone with the Isère, the castle of Châteaubourg stands on an isolated mass of rock. It was visited by St. Louis in 1248.

TOURNON

is a romantic little town under the shadow of steep hills, and has two suspension bridges across the Rhone. One of them is the earliest bridge of this type built in France. The old town has medieval walls and circular towers, with machicolation, archways, and narrow picturesque streets. The château is now turned into an Hôtel de Ville.

The collegiate church belongs to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the Lycée, one of the best-known colleges in France, consists chiefly of Renaissance buildings. Cardinal de Tournon, one of the feudal family which owned the town until 1644, founded the Lycée in 1542.

After crossing the River Doux, one passes the village of Arras, cowering beneath a ruined castle with a tall, bulging tower.

The busy-looking town of St. Vallier appears on the opposite bank of the Rhone, just before reaching the hamlet of Sarras.

On approaching Andance one goes over a level-crossing, and immediately afterwards turns to the left, leaving the river behind, and begins climbing up a beautiful mountainous valley, adorned in April with masses of pink-and-white fruit-blossom.

The road winds and gives a last peep of the Rhone--a blue patch in the midst of soft shades of green and purply-brown.

Still climbing, one passes through the village of St. Cyr, with prominent Calvaries and great views over the mountains to the west.

The main Cevennes range terminates a little to the south, and the confusion of ridges and valleys one passes over and through on the route belong to the Northern Cevennes. They are formed of clay and mica slate, quartz rock and gneiss, while further west, in the neighbourhood of Le Puy, there is a large area of volcanic rock.

At Annonay the road turns southwards, along the edge of a steep valley, whose sides are filled with gloomy glove-leather and paper factories and dirty streets of stone houses, very reminiscent of one of the cloth manufacturing towns near Huddersfield in Yorkshire. After crossing the bottom of the valley in the centre of the town, a turning to the right marked _St. Étienne and Bourg-Argental_ is taken along the west side of the valley; so that one leaves Annonay going northwards, the direction from which one came on entering.

The scenery is delightful, as the road goes through a valley clothed with fir plantations on steep slopes, with pleasant murmuring streams down below. In spring the banks are starred with cowslips and primroses, and the rich green of growing corn is contrasted with the sombre tones of the woods, where the cuckoos can be heard.

At Bourg-Argental the road climbs up to a dour and grey street, not altogether unsuited to a town which, among other things of a less melancholy character, manufactures much crape. The richly carved Romanesque doorway of the church can be seen on the left.

The road then climbs higher and higher, winding in long curves, and passing steep ascents of lichened rocks and tall pines growing on boulder-strewn slopes.

Mont Pilat, with three peaks--the highest, the Crêt de la Perdrix, 4,705 feet above the sea--is about five miles to the north. The view from the road is modest compared with what one commands from this mountain-top, but without leaving the car the eye sweeps away across the Rhone Valley to the Alps, and westwards the skyline is serrated with the volcanic peaks of the Auvergne Mountains.

At the highest portion of the road the views are cut off by dense masses of pines. The resinous scent they exhale and the music of the wind in their waving branches are delicious. Snow lingers up here long after it has disappeared in the open.

The descent gives a grand western panorama, and one is lucky if there is a golden sunset behind the Auvergnes. In places the road is hewn out of a steep slope covered with coarse grass or pines, and the modern town of St. Étienne is reached all too soon.