Valence was the Roman _Valentia_, and a few relics of that age are in the Museum (_open on Sundays and Thursdays, 1 to 4_). The chief interest in the town is the cathedral, consecrated in 1095 by Pope Urban II. The building has, however, [Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 27.--VALENCE.] undergone much restoration, and the tower and porch were rebuilt during the last century. The heart of Pius VI., who died at Valence in 1799 is buried in the cathedral, and there is a statue to his memory on the south side of the altar. When Napoleon invaded Italy in 1797, he sent General Berthier to Rome to proclaim a republic and demand of the Pope the renunciation of his temporal authority. His refusal to do so resulted in his being taken prisoner and removed from the Vatican to Florence, and then by stages through the Alps to Grenoble, and finally to Valence, where he died in captivity not far from Avignon, the former seat of Papal authority. Outside the cathedral on the north side is the large tomb of the Mistral family, put up in 1548. It has a very flat dome and an inscription in a curious spiral form. The richly ornamented house at No. 57 Grande Rue was built in 1531, and is called the _Maison des Têtes_, on account of the statues and busts, now much mutilated, which adorn the front and the corridor leading into a courtyard behind. Another interesting house is at No. 7 Rue Pérollerie, a Renaissance building ornamented with bas-reliefs. THE ROAD TO ST. ÉTIENNE One crosses the river by the suspension bridge on leaving Valence, and in St. Péray, which is chiefly interesting as the nearest place to the Château Crussol already mentioned, one turns sharply to the right for Tournon. [Illustration: No. 21. VALENCE TO ST. ÉTIENNE.] The road goes through the village of Cornas, and all the way to Andance motor-drivers have to be constantly _on the alert for the dangerous shallow drains across the road_, which, if passed over at twenty miles an hour, would mean the chance of a broken axle. Immediately on the right is the broad Rhone, and on the left the hills rise sharply, with a narrow strip of vineyards and orchards on the lower ground. On the right, just above the junction of the Rhone with the Isère, the castle of Châteaubourg stands on an isolated mass of rock. It was visited by St. Louis in 1248. TOURNON is a romantic little town under the shadow of steep hills, and has two suspension bridges across the Rhone. One of them is the earliest bridge of this type built in France. The old town has medieval walls and circular towers, with machicolation, archways, and narrow picturesque streets. The château is now turned into an Hôtel de Ville. The collegiate church belongs to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the Lycée, one of the best-known colleges in France, consists chiefly of Renaissance buildings. Cardinal de Tournon, one of the feudal family which owned the town until 1644, founded the Lycée in 1542.