IN THE BEAUJOLAIS AND LYONNAIS
South from Chalon, by the banks of the Saône, lies the Beaujolais, a
wine-growing region which partakes of many of the characteristics of the
Côte d'Or itself. Further south, beyond Mâcon, the aspect of the
Lyonnais is something quite different. All is of a bustle and hustle of
the feverish life of to-day, whilst in the Beaujolais pursuits are
agricultural. Each of these regions is profoundly wealthy and
prosperous, an outgrowth, naturally enough, of the opulent times of old,
for here, as in the heart of Burgundy, the conditions of life were ever
ample and easy.
Throughout the countryside of the Beaujolais and the Mâconnais one notes
a manner of building with respect to the meaner dwellings which, to say
the least, is most curious. These small houses are built of a species of
sun-dried bricks or lumps of clay. It seems satisfactory; as
satisfactory as would be an adobe dwelling--in a dry climate. But here
in times of flood those built in the river bottoms have been known to
melt away like the sand castles of children at the seashore.
The present Département of the Saône-et-Loire was evolved from the very
midst of the Burgundian kingdom, and comprises chiefly the mediæval
Comtés of the Autunnois, Chalonnais, Mâconnais and Charollais. The
Romans were the real exploiters of all this region, and only with the
pillage of the Normans, and the successive civil and religious wars, did
the break-up of Burgundy really come to be an assured fact.
Chalon-sur-Saône itself is most attractive--in parts. As a whole it is
disappointing. François Premier built the fortifications of Chalon in
1521, and half a century later Charles IX constructed the citadel--"to
hold the town in subjection, and the inhabitants in ignorance."
Dijon was the city of the mediæval counts; Chalon was a city of
churchmen. Nevertheless the bishops of the episcopal city bore the title
of Counts, and of its churches which remain none is more typical of the
best of Romanesque in France than the nave and side aisles of Chalon's
Cathedral de Saint Vincent.
Chalon's monuments of the feudality are few indeed to-day; they and
their histories have been well nigh forgotten, but here and there some
fine old gable or portico springs into view unannounced, and one readily
enough pictures again the life of the lords and ladies who lived within
their walls, whilst to-day they are given over to matter of fact,
work-a-day uses with little or no sentimental or romantic atmosphere
about them.
There is no distinct official edifice at Chalon which takes up its
position as a chateau, or _manoir_, at least none of great renown,
though a rebuilt old church now transformed into a hotel of the second
or third rate order is one of the most curiously adapted edifices of its
class anywhere to be seen.
What a great family the Chalonnais were is recalled by the fact that in
the sixteenth century all the folk of the city were regarded as cousins.
This is taking the situation by and large, but certain it was that a
community of family liens as well as interests did tend to make this
relationship notable. Furthermore each of the trades and _métiers_
herded by themselves in real clansman fashion, the nail-makers in the
Rue des Cloutiers, the boiler-makers in the Rue des Chaudronniers and
the barrel-makers in the Rue des Tonneliers. And there was a quarter,
or faubourg, devoted to the priests and monks, as well as another where
none but the nobility were allowed to be abroad.
To the west of Chalon are two famous vineyards, Touches and Mercurey,
surrounded by mere hamlets, there being no populous centres nearer than
Givry or Chalon. One remarks these two famous vineyards because of their
repute, and because of the neighbouring superb ruin of the mediæval
Chateau de Montaigu which crowns a hill lying between the two
properties.
In the neighbourhood of Chalon are numerous little towns of no rank
whatever as historic or artistic shrines, but bearing the suffix of
_Royal_. It is most curious to note that many have changed their
nomenclature--as it was before the Revolution. Saint Gengoux-le-Royal
and ten other parishes all dropped the Royal, and became known as Saint
Gengoux-le-National, etc. Donzy-le-Royal was not so fortunate in its
position. Saint Gengoux has gained nothing by its spasm of
republicanism. It is not more national to-day than Cavaillon or
Carpentras, whereas the suffix Royal meant, if it meant anything, that
it was an indication of its ancient rank when it belonged directly to
the crown of France. Republicanism did not change its allegiance, only
its name.
The diligence from Paris stopped at Chalon-sur-Saône in the old days and
passengers made their way to Lyons by the river. Colbert it was who
sought to develop the service of _coches d'eau_ on the Saône between
Chalon and Lyons. He carried the thing so far, in 1669, that he
suppressed the public diligence by land which had formerly made the
journey between the two capitals. This was not accomplished without a
live protestation from the residents of the terminal cities.
In the last days of the _malle-poste_, when Chalon was the end of the
journey from Paris, four steamboats of a primitive order competed for
the privilege of carrying passengers from Chalon to Lyons.
To-day the service has been suppressed; the "_piroschapes_," as they
were called, have gone the way of the mail coaches. Travel to-day is
accomplished with more comfort and more expedition.
Below Chalon, following down the Saône, within a league, one comes to
Toisé, with a celebrated chateau, almost wholly ignored to-day when
checking off the historical monuments of France. And this is true in
spite of the fact that it was here within the walls of the Chateau de
Toisé that was signed the famous treaty between Henri IV and the Duc de
Mayenne. The chateau is simply an admirable Renaissance monument of its
time with no very remarkable features or history save that noted above.
This is enough to make it better known and more often visited, if only
glanced at in passing. The author hopes the suggestion may be taken in
earnest by those interested.
Midway between Mâcon and Chalon is Tournus, the site of a chateau-fort
built by the Franks, and also of an abbey founded by Charles-le-Chauve
in 875 A.D. This monarch gave the abbey a charter as proprietor of the
city of Tournus in consideration of the monks putting it and its
inhabitants under the protection of the Virgin and Saint Philibert. He
also made the congregation of monks of the order of Saint Benoit
"_fermiers_" of this "_celestial domain_."
The Abbés of Tournus were a powerful race, rivalling the princes and
dukes of other fiefs, and owning allegiance only to the king and Pope,
more often to the latter than to the former. Among them were numbered no
less than eight cardinals in the fifty-nine who ruled the city and the
"domain."
The monastery itself has become a sort of institution, a secular lodging
house, but its fine church still remains as one of the most famous
Romanesque-Burgundian examples of its time.
Above Tournus, high on the hill back of the town, sits a disused ancient
fabric, a former Benedictine abbey. Its abbés had the right to wear the
pontifical vestments, and to administer justice to the city and its
neighbouring dependencies. More like an antique fortress than a
religious foundation, it is the most ambitious and striking edifice now
to be seen in Tournus.
Tournus has an artistic shrine of great moment and interest, although
its architectural details comport little with the really dignified
examples of mediæval architecture. It is the birthplace of the painter
Greuze, and before its arcades rises a monument to his memory. The great
painter of the idealist school was born here. In the local museum are
nearly five hundred designs from his hand.
Opposite Tournus, in mid-Saône, is a strip of flat island known as the
Ile-de-la-Palme, a morsel of alluvial soil respected by centuries of
spring floods which have passed it by on either side, and indeed, often
over its surface. The Helvetians, quitting their country in ancient
times, invaded Gaul and made use of the Ile-de-la-Palme to cross the
Saône, aided by either pontoons or rafts. Centuries later, after the
bloody battle of Fontenay, the son of Louis-le-Débonnaire held a
conference on this isle with regard to the division of the conquered
territory. Thus it is that the Ile-de-la-Palme in the Saône has
something in common with that other historic island in the Bidassoa
where France and Spain played a game of give and take in the sixteenth
century.
A short distance from the east bank of the Saône is Romenay in the heart
of the Chalonnais. It is a relic of an ancient fortified city, a townlet
to-day of less than six hundred inhabitants, though once, judging from
the remains of its oldtime ramparts, much more extensive and
influential.
Saint Trivier-de-Courtes, like Romenay, has little more than a bare half
a thousand of population to-day, though it was once a noble outpost
planted by the Ducs de Savoie, the masters of Bresse, against the
possible invasion of the Burgundians and the French from the north.
At Bagé-le-Chatel, between Mâcon and Bourg, rises a grim reminder of the
feudality. It is the silhouette of the fine old castle of the ancient
Seigneurs de Bagé.
Passing Mâcon by, and still following the Saône, one comes in a dozen or
twenty kilometres to Thoissey, a town which has not been greatly in
evidence these latter days. It is a somnolent little city of the ancient
Principality of Dombes, that disputed ground of the Burgundians and the
Savoyards in the middle ages. Only from the fact that it was the
birthplace of Commandant Marchand of the ill-fated Faschoda expedition
would it ever have been mentioned in the public prints of the last
generation.
In good old monarchial days it was different. Then Thoissey set an
aristocratic example to many a neighbour more prosperous and better
known to-day. The Princes de Dombes had a chateau here, and they
embellished the local Hospice in a way that made it almost a rival of
that other establishment of its class at Beaune. Throughout Thoissey
there were, and are still, many admirable examples of the town houses of
the nobles and courtiers of the little State of Dombes. Thoissey was the
miniature capital of a miniature kingdom. The local "college" still
shows evidences of a luxuriant conception of architectural decoration
with its finely sculptured window frames and doorways.
The most striking incident of Thoissey's career was when the Seigneur
de Bagé attacked the Seigneur de Thoissey, who was at the time the Sire
de Beaujeau, in his stronghold. The latter called the Duc de Bourbon to
his aid and thus brought about an inter-province imbroglio which
necessitated the intervention of the King of France as mediator, though
without immediate success. The litigation finally went before Pope
Clement VII (a French Pope, by the way), and only in 1408, a quarter of
a century after the feud began, did the Duc de Bourbon, who meantime had
become also the Sire de Beaujeau, succeed in throwing off his
adversaries.
Thoissey during the time of the Ligue, or more particularly its
Seigneur, threw in its lot with Mayenne, who ultimately, when he finally
went over to his royal master, caused the Chateau de Thoissey to be
razed to earth. This is why to-day one sees only the heap of stones,
locally called "the chateau," which, to be appreciated, require a
healthy imagination and some knowledge of the situation.
At Belleville-sur-Saône is a little strip of the earth's surface called
by the French the finest panorama in the world and "le plus bel lieu de
France." It is beautiful, even beyond words, a smiling radiant river
valley with nearly all the artistic attributes which go to make up the
ideal landscape. Just how near it comes to being the finest view in the
world is a matter of opinion. The New Zealander thinks that he has that
little corner of God's green earth, and so does many a down-east farmer,
to say nothing of the man from the Missouri Valley and the occasional
Scotch Highlander.
The tiny little city of Anse has few recollections for most travellers,
but it possesses an admirable ruin of a chateau-fortress, with two
towers bronzed by time and still proudly erect. This ruin, together with
the memory that Augustus once had a palace here in the ancient Anita of
the Romans, and the neighbouring ruin of the chateau of the Sires de
Villars over towards Trévoux, are all that Anse has to-day for the
curious save its delightful situation in a bend of the Saône.
Opposite Belleville-sur-Saône is Montmerle. In the middle ages it was
one of the sentinel cities which guarded the Principality of Dombes.
Sieges and assaults without number were its portion, from the
Bourguignons, the troops of the Sire de Beaujeau, the Dauphinois and the
Counts and Dukes of Savoy.
The imposing ruins of the former chateau-fortress tell the story of its
mighty struggle which endured for nearly a century. For the most part
the bulk of the material of which it was built has disappeared, or at
least has been built up into other works, but the massive signal tower
which once bolstered up the main portal still rises high above the
waters of the Saône. The tower supposedly dates from the twelfth
century--the period to which belonged the chateau--and is distinguished
by its hardiness and height rather than for its solidity and
massiveness.
At Farcins, near-by, is a magnificent and still habitable chateau of the
end of the reign of Henri IV, built by Jean de Sève, Conseiller du Roi,
on the plans of Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau. From Montmerle one may see
the towers and roofs of half a dozen other minor chateaux of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries scattered here and there through
the Beaujolais, but nothing distinctive arrests one's attention until
Villefranche and Trévoux are reached.
The Sires de Beaujeau, from motives of policy if from no other, ever
respected the privilege of Villefranche (founded by Humbert IV). The
traditions of Villefranche's old Auberge du Mouton are classic, and
have been used time and again by playwright and novelist without even
acknowledgment to history. It was here in the "Free City" beside the
Rhone that Edward II swore to observe the city's claims of municipal
liberty.
Villefranche has no other notable monuments save the Hôtel de Ville of
to-day, which is an admirable Renaissance town house, and another
equally striking in the Rue Nationale. The latter is almost palatial in
its proportions.
Just below Villefranche is Trévoux, the ancient capital of the
Principality of Dombes. It comes into the lime-light here only because
of its ruined castle on a height above the town which travellers by road
or rail cannot fail to remark even if they do not think it worth while
to become intimately acquainted.
The old castle is situated on the summit of a hill to the west of the
town, its two black-banded towers of the middle ages proclaiming loudly
the era of its birth. The octagonal donjon is a master-work of its kind
and dates from the twelfth century. Since the Revolution this remarkable
donjon has been shorn of a good two-thirds of its former height, and the
effect is now rather stubby. With another twenty metres to its credit it
must indeed have been imposing, as well by its construction as its
situation. It is no wonder that this powerful defence was able to resist
the attack of the Sire de Varambon, who, after capturing the city,
sought vainly to take the chateau in 1431. It was a cruel victory
indeed, for the wilful seigneur, not content with capturing the city,
drove out all its wealthy and comfortably rich inhabitants and charged
them a price of admission to get in again, mutilating their persons in a
shocking manner if they did not disgorge all of their treasure as the
price of this privilege.
The local seigneur, his family and immediate retainers, were meanwhile
huddled within the walls of the chateau and only escaped starvation at
the hands of the victor by his having tired of the game of siege and by
his withdrawal, carrying with him all the loot which he could gather
together and transport.
It was at Trévoux that the Jesuits compiled the celebrated Dictionary
and Journal which made such a furor in the literary annals of the
eighteenth century.
With the exception of François Premier all of the French monarchs from
Philippe-Auguste down to Louis XIV acknowledged the independence of the
Principality of Dombes, and owed them the allegiance of supplying men
and money in case they were attacked. The Parliament met at Trévoux and
the Principality was one of the earliest and smallest political
divisions of France to coin its own money.