The _Église de la Grande Chartreuse_ itself is very simple, about the only distinctive or notable feature being the sixteenth-century choir-stalls. At the midnight service, or at _matins_, when the simple church is lit only by flaming torches, and the stalls filled with white-robed _Chartreux_, is presented a picture which for solemnity and impressiveness is as vivid as any which has come down from mediæval times. The chanting of the chorals, too, is unlike anything heard before; it has indeed been called, before now, angelic. Petrarch, whose brother was a member of the order, has put himself on record as having been enchanted by it. As many as ten thousand visitors have passed through the portals of _La Grande Chartreuse_ during the year, but now in the absence of the monks--temporary or permanent as is yet to be determined--conditions obtain which will not allow of entrance to the conventual buildings. No one, however, who visits either Grenoble or Chambéry should fail to journey to St. Laurent du Pont--the gateway of the fastness which enfolds _La Grande Chartreuse_, and thence to beneath the shadow of the walls which for so long sheltered the parent house of this ancient and powerful order. [Illustration: _Belley_] XX BELLEY AND AOSTE En route to Chambéry, from Lyon, one passes the little town of Belley. It is an ancient place, most charmingly situated, and is a suffragan bishopric, strangely enough, of Besançon, which is not only Teutonic in its tendencies, but is actually of the north. At all events, Belley, in spite of its clear and crisp mountain air, is not of the same climatic zone as the other dioceses in the archbishopric of Besançon. Its cathedral is distinctly minor as to style, and is mainly Gothic of the fifteenth century; though not unmixed, nor even consistent, in its various parts. No inconsiderable portion is modern, as will be plainly seen. One distinctly notable feature is a series of Romanesque columns in the nave, possibly taken from some pagan Roman structure. They are sufficiently of importance and value to be classed as "_Monuments Historiques_," and as such are interesting. Aoste (Aoste-St.-Genix) is on the site of the Roman colony of Augustum, of which to-day there are but a few fragmentary remains. It is perhaps a little more than a mile from the village of St. Genix, with which to-day its name is invariably coupled. As an ancient bishopric in the province of Tarentaise, it took form in the fourth century, with St. Eustache as its first bishop. To-day the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of all this region--the Val-de-Tarentaise--is held by Tarentaise. [Illustration] XXI ST. JEAN DE MAURIENNE