Béarn and the Pyrenees : $b A legendary tour to the country of Henri Quatre — John Shaqi
Béarn and the Pyrenees : $b A legendary tour to the country of Henri QuatreCostello, Louisa Stuart
History
Béarn and the Pyrenees : $b A legendary tour to the country of Henri Quatre
Costello, Louisa Stuart
Béarn (France) -- Description and travel; Pyrenees -- Description and travel
The weather was very propitious while we were at Le Mans, and all
appeared attractive and agreeable, and we enjoyed our unwearied walks,
both in the environs, and in the town, extremely. Although there is a
great deal that is entirely new in the principal quarter of the town,
where our Hotel du Dauphin, in the spacious Place aux Halles, was
situated, yet, to the antiquarian, there is no lack of interest in the
antique parts, where much of the original city remains even as it might
have been in the earliest times. Roman walls and towers extend in every
direction between the three bridges of Ysoir, St. Jean, and Napoleon;
and, in the old quartiers of Gourdaine and du Pré, arches, pillars, and
ruins, attest the antiquity of the spot. We hesitated not to enter these
singular old streets, where the lowest of the population reside, and,
as is almost invariable in France, we always found civility and a
cheerful readiness to afford us information. The inquisitive stranger is
generally, however, obliged, after going through several of the narrow
ways which excite his curiosity, to abandon his search after uncertain
antiquities, from the inodorous accompaniments which are sure to assail
him; and so it was with us when we had visited the Rue _Danse Renard_,
Rue _de la Truie qui File_, _Vert Galant_, the _Grande_ and _Petite
Poterne_, &c. We found ourselves wandering in circles, amongst dwellings
that looked as if they must be the same inhabited by the original
Gaulish inhabitants, and at length, anxious to pay our daily devotions
at the shrine of Bérangère, we ventured on the ascent of an apparently
interminable flight of stone steps, between immensely high massive
walls, called _Les Pans de Gorron_.
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