E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 25842-h.htm or 25842-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/8/4/25842/25842-h/25842-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/8/4/25842/25842-h.zip) ROYAL PALACES AND PARKS OF FRANCE * * * * * _WORKS OF FRANCIS MILTOUN_ _Rambles on the Riviera_ $2.50 _Rambles in Normandy_ 2.50 _Rambles in Brittany_ 2.50 _The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine_ 2.50 _The Cathedrals of Northern France_ 2.50 _The Cathedrals of Southern France_ 2.50 _In the Land of Mosques and Minarets_ 3.00 _Royal Palaces and Parks of France_ 3.00 _Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine and the Loire Country_ 3.00 _Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre and the Basque Provinces_ 3.00 _Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy and the Border Provinces_ 3.00 _Italian Highways and Byways from a Motor Car_ 3.00 _The Automobilist Abroad_ net 3.00 (_Postage Extra_) _L. C. Page and Company_ _53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass._ * * * * * [Illustration: _Terrace of Henri IV, Saint Germain_ (_See page 286_)] [Illustration] ROYAL PALACES AND PARKS OF FRANCE by FRANCIS MILTOUN Author of "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine," "Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy," "Rambles in Normandy," "Italian Highways and Byways from a Motor-Car," etc. With Many Illustrations Reproduced from paintings made on the spot by Blanche Mcmanus Boston L. C. Page & Company 1910 Copyright, 1910. by L. C. Page & Company. (Incorporated) All rights reserved First Impression, November, 1910 Printed by The Colonial Press C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U. S. A. Preface "A thousand years ago, by the rim of a tiny spring, a monk who had avowed himself to the cult of Saint Saturnin, robed, cowled and sandalled, knelt down to say a prayer to his beloved patron saint. Again he came, this time followed by more of his kind, and a wooden cross was planted by the side of the "Fontaine Belle Eau," by this time become a place of pious pilgrimage. After the monk came a king, the latter to hunt in the neighbouring forest."