The Motor Routes of France: To the Châteaux of Touraine, Biarritz, the Pyrenees, the Riviera, & the Rhone ValleyHome, Gordon
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The Motor Routes of France: To the Châteaux of Touraine, Biarritz, the Pyrenees, the Riviera, & the Rhone Valley
Home, Gordon
Automobile travel -- France -- Guidebooks; France -- Description and travel
The cathedral was mainly built between 1658 and 1689, with a brick tower
of the fourteenth century. Notre-Dame-du-Camp has a colossal red brick
façade of the fourteenth century, with machicolation and two towers, a
most astonishing illustration of the Church militant. The Church of the
Cordeliers dates from 1512, and is in the style known as Toulousian
Gothic, from the town a little to the north. There are a number of old
houses in Pamiers, but they are near the ironworks, which are an ugly
feature of the town, and in most instances they are frowsy and
dilapidated. From the site of the destroyed castle there are fine views
of the Pyrenees, but they are no better than those that the road
commands.
THE ROAD TO CARCASSONNE
goes south-westwards from the southern side of Pamiers, and turns to the
left at a fork, crossing the railway, and running in a straight line
over the level plain to the valley of the River Hers, upon which is
built the exceedingly attractive little town of
MIREPOIX
It is disposed of with a few cold words in the ordinary guide-books, but
it is nevertheless a place of singular picturesqueness. There is an old
nucleus, surrounded by wide tree-bordered boulevards, and the hurrying
tourist sees none of the antiquity of the town if he does not penetrate
the central square. It is surrounded on all sides with arcaded houses
resting on heavy wooden pillars, with rows of curiously carved brackets
in between. There are pictures everywhere, for at one end of the square
is a medieval gateway, and on one side stands the Church of St. Maurice.
The interior of this building is a vast aisleless space, and the whole
of the walls and the modern roof are covered with painting. The building
dates almost entirely from early in the fifteenth century.
All the rest of the way to Carcassonne there are huge views north and
south, and there are only two small places to be mentioned. The first is
Fanjeaux, which stands out most picturesquely on the left side of the
road, with a pair of quaint windmills on the hill opposite. The church
dates from the thirteenth century, and is believed to have been built on
the site of a temple of Jupiter the present name coming from _Fanum
Jovis_. The little town standing out boldly against the sky at sunset is
an exceedingly fine sight, and the colour of the foregrounds of nearly
every picture the road presents is the burning gold of gorse.
Montréal stands on an isolated hill, and has a fourteenth-century
church, built upon a terrace commanding a vast view of the Pyrenees.
SECTION XV
CARCASSONNE TO MONTPELLIER,
94¼ MILES
(152 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
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