=Nevers= (pron. Nervair).--A large and very pleasantly situated town on the Loire, with--(1) Walls, gateways, and towers dating from the eleventh to the sixteenth century; (2) the Ducal Palace, now the Palais de Justice, built in 1475; (3) Cathedral of St. Cyr, with eastern and western apses, and examples of nearly every period of architecture from 1028 to the sixteenth century; (4) Church of St. Étienne, an extremely fine example of the Romanesque Burgundian style. =La Charité.=--A very attractive little town on the Loire, with--(1) Several old houses; (2) walls and towers of its fortifications; (3) Church of Ste. Croix, a magnificent example of eleventh to twelfth century work. =Mesves.=--A pretty village with a twelfth-century barn. =Pouilly.=--A picturesque little town with a seventeenth-century château. =Cosne.=--A town with iron foundries and three churches (one disused); the most interesting is that of St. Aignan, with a fine Romanesque apse. =Myennes.=--A roadside hamlet. =Bonny-sur-Loire.=--A village with a quaint church spire. Moulins is a picturesque and attractive town on high ground above the River Allier. The first [Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 29.--MOULINS.] conspicuous feature reached on entering from the south is the Tour de l’Horloge, built in 1455, with moving figures in its curiously designed lantern. The narrow streets contain several good houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and many of the brick fronts are ornamented with lozenges in darker brick. One house behind the clock-tower is noticeable for its beautiful little gazebo on the roof, with carved corbels and pilasters. The nave and towers of the Cathedral are modern, having been built under the direction of Viollet le Duc. The spires add to the appearance of the town, as they stand out boldly from a hundred points of view. The beautiful choir was built by Agnes de Bourgogne in 1463, and it has been fortunate in preserving its fine fifteenth to sixteenth century glass. In the sacristy on the north side there is a fine triptych, showing, on the inside, the Virgin surrounded with angels, and Pierre II. de Bourbon and his wife, Anne of France (died 1522), a daughter of Louis XI. On the south side of the choir there is a beautiful spiral stone staircase, and near it, in a chapel, is a gruesome memorial representing the horrors of worms consuming a human body. Adjoining the cathedral is all that now remains of the Castle of the Dukes of Bourbon, now unfortunately converted into a prison. From the river-side the walls tower up to a great height. In the Lycée, formerly a convent of the Visitation, one is shown the sumptuous tomb of Carrara marble put up by his widow to the famous Henri, Duc de Montmorenci, who was executed at Toulouse in 1632 on a charge of treason against Louis XIII. [Illustration: No. 23. MOULINS TO BRIARE.]