The towers stand to-day--lowered somewhat from their former proportions--gaunt and grim, and the rich Burgundian narthen, which lay between, has been converted--not restored, mark you--into an inferior sort of chapel. The destruction that fell upon various parts of this old church might as well have been more sweeping and razed it to the ground entirely. The effect could not have been more disheartening. Macon formerly had twelve churches. Now it has three--if we include this poor fragment of its one-time cathedral. Between the Revolution and the coronation of Napoleon I. the city was possessed of no place of worship. Macon became an episcopal see, with Placide as its first bishop, in the sixth century. It was suppressed in 1790. The bridge which crosses the river to the suburb of St. Laurent is credited as being the finest work of its kind crossing the Saône. Hamerton has said that "its massive arches and piers, wedge-shaped to meet the wind, are pleasant to contemplate after numerous festoons of wire carrying a roadway of planks." This bridge was formerly surmounted, at either end, with a castellated gateway, but, like many of these accessories elsewhere, they have disappeared. The famous bridge at Cahors (shown elsewhere in this book) is the best example of such a bridge still existing in France. As a "cathedral city," Macon will not take a high rank. The "great man" of Macon was Lamartine. His birthplace is shown to visitors, but its present appearance does not suggest the splendid appointments of its description in that worthy's memoirs. Macon is the _entrepôt_ of the abundant and excellent _vin du Bourgogne_, and the strictly popular repute of the city rests entirely on this fact. [Illustration: ST. JEAN _de LYON_.] IV ST. JEAN DE LYON The Lyonnais is the name given to that region lying somewhat to the westward of the city of Lyon. It is divided into three distinct parts, _le Lyonnais_ proper, _le Forez_, and _le Beaujolais_. Its chief appellation comes from that of its chief city, which in turn is more than vague as to its etymology: _Lugdunum_ we know, of course, and we can trace its evolution even unto the Anglicized Lyons, but when philologists, antiquarians, and "pedants of mere pretence" ask us to choose between _le corbeau_--_lougon_, _un eminence_--_dounon_, _lone_--an arm of a river, and _dun_ the Celtic word for height, we are amazed, and are willing enough to leave the solving of the problem to those who will find a greater pleasure therein. Lyon is a widely-spread city, of magnificent proportions and pleasing aspect, situated as it is on the banks of two majestic, though characteristically different rivers, the Rhône and the Saône. In many respects it is an ideally laid-out city, and the scene from the heights of Fourvière at night, when the city is brilliant with many-lighted workshops, is a wonderfully near approach to fairy-land.