In order to understand the German borderlands better it would be well to use similar methods in studying them, though here we have difficulties due to political prejudice. We have seen that in the Paris basin the rural Franks adopted in modified form the Romanized language of the Gauls, and with this came in the influence of the Roman Church, the heir of the imperial tradition, not only here, but also along the old frontier of the Rhine-Danube. Under this influence civic life grew afresh, and the towns of the {29} Paris basin with their market-places dominated by the cathedral are a most notable feature. As these towns grew, the enlargement of the churches under the influence of the great wave of mediaeval enthusiasm led to the adoption of what is called the Ogival or Gothic style of building, in the Ile-de-France, and soon in the Paris basin generally, as a substitute for a Romanesque style which had been tending to change under pressure of Eastern (Byzantine-Lombardic) influences. With the details of architecture we are not primarily concerned, but the spread of the Gothic over the Paris basin, its failure to oust the Romanesque in the south, its penetration along the Route de S. Jacques (Pilgrim Road to Compostella) to Bordeaux, Bayonne, Burgos, and Léon, its later spread through the Flemish lowland and also across the hills to Metz, Strasbourg, and Basle, are a useful indication of the spread of Gallic feeling. In the Rhine region it spread with difficulty, and the Romanesque is highly characteristic here; beyond the Rhine it spread only with much modification. The contrasts between the boundary of the fully French Gothic and the intertwined boundary of French speech, over against German, are like the contrasts above noted between south and north in France, and one might further study the growth of the historic kingdom of France, the lines of Customs Dues, Gabelles, and so on, as well as facts about the occurrence and relative importance of Protestantism in various parts. All would show that between the Paris basin and the Rhine is a zone of people with mixed allegiances, and that, however convenient language may be as a distinctive mark, it by no means gives a full idea of the complexity of the case. Flanders is Low German in speech, but profoundly affected by France in many ways, as its architecture suggests; its zealous Catholicism is a marked feature. Wallony is Celto-Romano-Gallic in foundation, marvellously altered by modern industrialism. Luxembourg is indefinitely debatable, Lorraine mainly French, {30} Alsace Alemannic (Old High German) in speech, but in other respects deeply affected by France. The study of the zone behind the old Roman frontier of the Danube could be worked out on somewhat similar lines, but with less profit, owing to complications connected with the spread of Asiatic peoples and armies in subsequent times.