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
=Mont Ste. Victoire and Pourrières.=--The precipitous ridge looks
down on the battlefield of Pourrières, where Marius, with his Roman
legions and auxiliaries, wiped out the two northern tribes of the
Ambrones and the Teutones.
=St. Maximin.=--A small town, with a beautiful Gothic church
(thirteenth to fifteenth centuries), early crypt, and beautiful
altars.
=Tourves.=--Village with a large ruined castle.
=Brignoles.=--A small town, famous for its dried plums, but otherwise
without great interest.
=Flassans.=--A roadside village, with an old deserted one on the hill
adjoining.
=Le Luc and Le Muy.=--Pleasant little roadside towns.
=Fréjus.=--The Roman _Forum Julii_. The Roman remains consist of--(1)
The amphitheatre; (2) the walls, with three gateways; (3) the
aqueduct; (4) the remains of the harbour; (5) the baths; (6) the
theatre; (7) the two citadels. The cathedral is an interesting
Romanesque building, with fine choir-stalls, cloisters, and a
baptistery containing eight Roman columns.
=St. Raphaël.=--A small village, with a new quarter on the shore,
with large hotels lately added.
=The Corniche d’Or.=--The new road along the coast of the Estérels,
recently built by the Touring Club de France; lovely scenery all
the way.
=Théoule.=--A small resort on the Corniche d’Or, with hotels and
villas.
=La Napoule.=--A small place on the flat plain west of Cannes, where
the well-known golf-links are situated.
Although Aix has retained no structures of the Roman period, it was the
oldest of the colonies, having been founded by the Consul Sextius
Calvinus, about 120 B.C., at the hot springs still in existence. The
place was therefore called _Aquæ Sextiæ_, after the discoverer of the
thermal waters, and is now contracted into Aix. The threatened invasion
of Italy by the Teutones and Ambrones was utterly defeated by Marius, a
few miles east of the city, in 102 B.C.; but Aix at the fall of Rome
fell a prey to the barbarians of the north, recovering slowly, and
eventually becoming the capital of Provence. Under the good King Réné of
Anjou, who died in 1480, Aix was exceedingly prosperous. His statue by
David can be seen in the Cours Mirabeau.
[Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 23.--AIX-EN-PROVENCE.]
The Cathedral of St. Sauveur dates from Romanesque times, with a chancel
built in 1285. The tower and façade are fifteenth century--a little
earlier than the highly enriched portal, with its lovely doors
ornamented with sixteen figures in niches, which dates from 1503.
In the baptistery are eight monolithic columns--probably from the Temple
of Apollo, that stood on the same spot--sculptured panels by Puget, and
two triptychs, on one of which King Réné is depicted on his knees.
The Romanesque cloister, with richly carved capitals, and the great
Renaissance doorway of the Archbishop’s Palace should be seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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