The descent gives a grand western panorama, and one is lucky if there is a golden sunset behind the Auvergnes. In places the road is hewn out of a steep slope covered with coarse grass or pines, and the modern town of St. Étienne is reached all too soon. SECTION XXII ST. ÉTIENNE TO MOULINS, 109½ MILES (177 KILOMETRES) DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE Kil. Miles. =St. Étienne= to Feurs =38= 23½ =Feurs= to Roanne =39= 24¼ =Roanne= to La Pacaudière =23= 14¼ =La Pacaudière= to La Palisse =26= 16 =La Palisse= to Varennes =21= 13 =Varennes= to Moulins =30= 18½ NOTES FOR DRIVERS =St. Étienne to La Fouillouse.=--Is a picturesque, hilly road. =La Fouillouse to Balbigny.=--Is level. =Balbigny to near Roanne.=--The road goes through a hilly country, but there are no formidable gradients. =Roanne to La Palisse.=--A hilly road. =St. Germaine l’Espinasse.=--Has a bad _cassis_ or _caniveau_. =La Pacaudière to Moulins.=--A fairly level road. =Bessay.=--Has a bad _caniveau_. PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE =St. Étienne.=--A large industrial town in one of the great coalfields of France; manufactures include armour-plate, machinery, rifles and arms, and silk ribbon. =Feurs.=--A small manufacturing town, containing a few old houses. =Roanne.=--A busy manufacturing town, quite uninteresting. =La Pacaudière.=--A picturesque village. =La Palisse.=--On the Bèbre; is a small town, with a large château of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. =Varennes-sur-Allier.=--A small place, with quaint houses. St. Étienne owes its prosperity to its extensive coalfields, covering about 100 square miles. The annual production of the mines is given as from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 tons. The town also employs thousands of men in the iron foundries, where armour-plate and machinery and all sorts of large castings are made. A very large output of rifles and revolvers is another source of wealth to the town, and the ribbon industry, largely carried on in the homes of the workmen, keeps 40,000 men employed. The weavers, as a rule, show their looms to visitors without the least objection. The Palais des Beaux Arts contains a good picture-gallery and a museum of gun-making and looms, but otherwise there is little to see in this town, consisting mainly of one very long street. THE ROAD TO ROANNE From St. Étienne until one reaches Fontainebleau the towns and villages have fewer antiquities and, on [Illustration: No. 22. ST. ÉTIENNE TO MOULINS.] the whole, less picturesqueness than farther south, and if time is running short this portion of the tour can be hurried over with less fear of missing good things than any other part of the route described. The scenery is delightful in some districts, but comparatively tame in others.