Chapter XXV: Section XXIII: Moulins to Briare, 87 Miles

(140 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

Kil. Miles. =Moulins= to St. Pierre-le-Moutier =32= 20 =St. Pierre-le-Moutier= to Nevers =23= 14¼ =Nevers= to La Charité =25= 15½ =La Charité= to Pouilly =14= 8¾ =Pouilly= to Cosne =15= 9¼ =Cosne= to Briare =31= 19¼

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

=Moulins to St. Imbert.=--Level, and afterwards long undulations to
=Nevers=, and a good many moderate hills as far as =La Marche=.

=La Marche to Pouilly-sur Loire.=--Level, but a long hill follows
Pouilly, with a descent of 4 kilometres to =Cosne=.

From =Cosne= to =Briare= the road follows the Loire, and is level.

=Ousson=.--Has a _cassis_ or _caniveau_.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

=Moulins.=--A picturesque town, containing--(1) Several old houses;
(2) clock-tower, built in 1455; (3) portions of the château of the
Dukes of Bourbon; (4) cathedral, with choir built in 1463,
containing coeval glass; (5) tomb of Henri, Duc de Montmorenci, in
the Lycée.

=Sauvigny.=--Twelve kilometres west of Moulins; has a splendid
Romanesque church, containing several Bourbon tombs.

=St. Pierre-le-Moutier.=--An interesting little town, with
fifteenth-century houses, portions of its ramparts, and a gateway;
twelfth-century church, with richly carved north door.

=Nevers= (pron. Nervair).--A large and very pleasantly situated town
on the Loire, with--(1) Walls, gateways, and towers dating from the
eleventh to the sixteenth century; (2) the Ducal Palace, now the
Palais de Justice, built in 1475; (3) Cathedral of St. Cyr, with
eastern and western apses, and examples of nearly every period of
architecture from 1028 to the sixteenth century; (4) Church of St.
Étienne, an extremely fine example of the Romanesque Burgundian
style.

=La Charité.=--A very attractive little town on the Loire, with--(1)
Several old houses; (2) walls and towers of its fortifications; (3)
Church of Ste. Croix, a magnificent example of eleventh to twelfth
century work.

=Mesves.=--A pretty village with a twelfth-century barn.

=Pouilly.=--A picturesque little town with a seventeenth-century
château.

=Cosne.=--A town with iron foundries and three churches (one
disused); the most interesting is that of St. Aignan, with a fine
Romanesque apse.

=Myennes.=--A roadside hamlet.

=Bonny-sur-Loire.=--A village with a quaint church spire.

Moulins is a picturesque and attractive town on high ground above the River Allier. The first

conspicuous feature reached on entering from the south is the Tour de l’Horloge, built in 1455, with moving figures in its curiously designed lantern. The narrow streets contain several good houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and many of the brick fronts are ornamented with lozenges in darker brick. One house behind the clock-tower is noticeable for its beautiful little gazebo on the roof, with carved corbels and pilasters.

The nave and towers of the Cathedral are modern, having been built under the direction of Viollet le Duc. The spires add to the appearance of the town, as they stand out boldly from a hundred points of view. The beautiful choir was built by Agnes de Bourgogne in 1463, and it has been fortunate in preserving its fine fifteenth to sixteenth century glass. In the sacristy on the north side there is a fine triptych, showing, on the inside, the Virgin surrounded with angels, and Pierre II. de Bourbon and his wife, Anne of France (died 1522), a daughter of Louis XI. On the south side of the choir there is a beautiful spiral stone staircase, and near it, in a chapel, is a gruesome memorial representing the horrors of worms consuming a human body.

Adjoining the cathedral is all that now remains of the Castle of the Dukes of Bourbon, now unfortunately converted into a prison. From the river-side the walls tower up to a great height.

In the Lycée, formerly a convent of the Visitation, one is shown the sumptuous tomb of Carrara marble put up by his widow to the famous Henri, Duc de Montmorenci, who was executed at Toulouse in 1632 on a charge of treason against Louis XIII.

Lord Clarendon wrote a portion of his ‘History of the Great Rebellion’ while he was staying at Moulins, and James FitzJames, Duke of Berwick, Marshal and Peer of France, and a natural son of James II., was born here in 1670.

As one goes out of Moulins one notices two massive pillars marking the position of the town walls which have disappeared. The poplar-bordered road gives pretty views of the Allier on the left, and the fresh green of the roadside grass is a pleasant contrast to the

dust farther south. Picturesque timber-framed houses with dark browny-red roofs begin to abound, and the villages increase in charm. Large farmhouses with big stone barns, here and there buildings with quaint crows’ steps to the gables, and two or three windmills, are passed, all adding considerably to the charm of the scenery.

St. Pierre-le-Moutier is a delightful old place. It retains portions of its ramparts, round towers, and a gateway, made more interesting when one remembers that this was one of the towns of the Loire Valley taken by Jeanne d’Arc in 1429. The church belonged to the Cluniac priory of St. Martin d’Autun, and is a very interesting example of the style of the latter half of the twelfth century. The north doorway, with its richly sculptured tympanum showing Christ in the midst of angels, should be seen. The town contains some picturesque houses of the fifteenth century and later.

NEVERS

On approaching this town there is a fine view of its cathedral rising above the old roofs with the Loire in the foreground, and the confluence with the Allier two or three miles to the left.

All remains of the Roman town of _Nevirnum,_ which was of so much strength that Cæsar kept his military stores there, have entirely disappeared, with the exception of a few objects in the Library of the town.

The medieval remains are, on the other hand, of great interest. On the town walls there remain--(1) The Porte de Croux, a most picturesque gateway dating from 1393-1396; it has corner turrets and three openings for the drawbridge supports; (2) the Loire gateway, the lower part of which is as early as the eleventh century; (3) the Tour Goguin, twelfth century; and (4) the Tour St. Eloi, sixteenth century.

The Ducal Palace, now the Palais de Justice, was built in 1475 by Jean de Clamecy, Comte de Nevers, and its Renaissance character was given during the next century, when the Clèves family, and afterwards the Gonzogas of Mantua, held Nevers. In front of the palace there are pleasant gardens, with a view southwards towards Moulins, and to the right (when one faces this prospect) is the Cathedral of St. Cyr. It has a square tower of the Flamboyant period, rather severe in outline, but encrusted with beautiful panelling and statuary, and the south porch belongs to the same period. The curious, almost bizarre, feature of the interior is the apsidal termination at both the east and west ends. At the east end there is a beautiful vaulted ambulatory of the fourteenth century, erected outside the eastern apse of the Romanesque cathedral, built in 1028 and restored and altered in 1194. The early wall-paintings were fortunately preserved by the Gothic architect.

At the west end, the Romanesque crypt remains beneath an apse rebuilt in the sixteenth century. The Saint Sépulcre in the crypt is a hideous group of painted figures bending over a representation of Christ. The beautiful nave, rebuilt in 1188, is enriched with caryatides and sculptured figures.

Before leaving Nevers the very fine Church of the Cluniac Priory of St. Étienne, begun in 1063 by William I., Count of Nevers, and finished in 1097, should be seen. It is a remarkably fine example of the Burgundian-Romanesque style. The cloisters belong to the thirteenth century.

Bernadette Soubirous, the unfortunate heroine of the Lourdes apparition of the Virgin, spent her last years, and died at the early age of thirty-five, in the nunnery of St. Gildard at Nevers. Throughout most of her life, and especially towards the end, her physical infirmities were a great burden to the poor girl. Her grave is in the convent garden, and one marvels that the Roman Catholic authorities did not order a sumptuous tomb in the pilgrimage church at Lourdes! (See p. 235.)

The road goes northwards through Pougues-les-Eaux, and runs close to the Loire from the hamlet of La Marche for a considerable distance. The river is broken up with sandy islands covered with low green bushes and thin wire-grass.

La Charité is a very picturesque and cheerful little town with several good old houses, and an old stone bridge across the river. The extremely interesting and beautiful Romanesque church belonged to one of the most important Cluniac priories in France, so famed for its good deeds that the place received the name it now bears. A town sprang up round the abbey, and ramparts defended with several towers were built in 1184, but the fortifications standing to-day were rebuilt in 1364. It is surprising that there are any of the defences left when one reads of the frequent sieges and sackings the town endured, particularly during the religious wars of the sixteenth century.

The Church of Ste. Croix, just mentioned, was consecrated in 1107 by Pope Pascal II., but not finished until some years later. The nave and south-west tower were ruined in 1557 during the religious wars. The choir, with picturesque stilted arches, the transepts, and the central tower, are all that remain of one of the finest Romanesque basilicas in France.

The road goes northwards through the mossy-roofed village of Mesves, which has a twelfth-century barn, and for mile after mile the Loire appears on the left as a blue ribbon threaded through the lacework of the intervening trees.

Pouilly is a cheerful little town with high-pitched roofs and stone walls, a seventeenth-century château, and a partially Gothic church. The white wine of the neighbourhood is considered exceedingly good.

COSNE

is a considerable town with iron foundries, barracks, and a hospital. The church of St. Aignan has a fine Romanesque apse with richly carved capitals to its pillars, and a greatly enriched west door of the same period. Pope Pius VII., when in France under Napoleon’s orders, stayed at the Hôtel du Grand Cerf.

One passes through the village of Myennes, with the houses standing back from the road, and two or three hamlets, including Bonny-sur-Loire, with the oddest spire to its church, and then enters the village of Briare, where the road to Orleans goes off to the left.

The quaint Hôtel de France, with a courtyard, can furnish a modest _déjeuner_.