ROUEN TO EVREUX, 32½ MILES (52 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
Kil. Miles.
=Rouen= to Pont de l’Arche =18= 11¼
=Pont de l’Arche= to Louviers =10= 6¼
=Louviers= to Evreux =24= 15
NOTES FOR DRIVERS
On leaving the Seine for Pont de l’Arche, there is a long, winding
ascent.
After =Pont de l’Arche= comes a climb through the forest, and a
switchback of small, sharp hills before reaching =Louviers=.
After crossing the Iton, the road is hilly until the valley of that
river is dropped into again, about 6 kilometres from Evreux.
PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
=Rouen.=--Cathedral; churches of St. Ouen and St. Maclou, and crypt
of St. Gervais (on hill above the Place Cauchoise); the
Grosse-Horloge gateway and belfry; Palais de Justice; Tour de
Jeanne d’Arc; the spot where Jeanne d’Arc was burnt in the Place du
Vieux-Marché; Maison Bourgthéroulde, No. 15 in the Place de la
Pucelle, dating from 1486; many old timber-framed houses near
cathedral.
=Pont de l’Arche.=--Small town on the Seine; remains of ramparts;
fifteenth- and sixteenth-century timber houses; beautiful
fifteenth-century church, with coeval glass.
=Louviers.=--Old manufacturing town, with a few picturesque houses
near the church and market-place; south aisle and porch of church
covered with remarkable profusion of fifteenth-century carving.
=Evreux.=--An old city, famous for its cathedral (see next section).
ROUEN
On the sunlit slopes that went down to the swamps by the Seine, where
stands the Rouen of to-day, there were Celtic inhabitants in remote
times; and when the advancing sway of Rome brought civilization to the
north of France, the light of history illuminates the spot, and reveals
the presence of a town called Ratuma, the chief centre of the tribe of
the Veliocassians. The Romans modified the name to Rotomagus, and in the
second century it is believed to have received the first seeds of
Christianity. From South Wales, the home of so much evangelizing
enthusiasm, there arrived, about the year 260, a missionary called St.
Mellon, who became in time the first Bishop of Rouen. This may, perhaps,
sound a far-away piece of information, belonging too much to what is
legendary to be of much service as a guide to the antiquities of Rouen;
but it is not so, for beneath the Church of St. Gervais, a building in
the modern Norman style, there can still be seen, in a crypt of the
fourth or fifth century, the tomb in which was laid the body of that
early missionary. The crypt was probably built soon after the year 404
by St. Victrice, the sixth to succeed St. Mellon, and the body must,
therefore, have been placed there more than a century after his death.
It remained there until 1562, when the Huguenots opened the tomb and
removed the remains.
=The Cathedral.=--_Building Dates_
_c._ 400 A.D. First church on present site, built by St. Victrice.
638. Archbishop St. Romain, who died in this year, enlarged the
church.
_c._ 841. Destroyed by Northmen.
930. By this year a new cathedral had been built, and Rollo was
buried in it.
_c._ 1063. The cathedral having been again practically rebuilt, it
was consecrated in this year. The only portions standing to-day are
the lower part of the Tour St. Romain, and a few traces here and
there; the rest of the Norman building was burnt in 1200.
1202-1255. _Early French_ nave, choir, transepts, and central tower
built.
1278-1478. Portail aux Libraires and Portail de la Calende built.
1477. _Flamboyant._ Tour St. Romain finished.
1485-1507. _Flamboyant._ Tour de Beurre built.
1508-1527. _Flamboyant._ West portal built.
1827. Iron spire begun.
St. Victrice was the first to put up any church on the site of the
present cathedral, and the numerous Bishops who succeeded him rebuilt
and enlarged the Early Christian structure until it must have been
something far removed from the simple rudeness of the first building.
Rouen, however, was destined to frequent disaster. A fire in 556 was
followed by a plague, and the city suffered much in the disorder which
followed the death of Charles the Great. Therefore, in the year 841,
when the Northmen began their raids upon the north of France, they found
only a lean city to plunder; and when Rollo became first Duke of
Normandy, and was converted to Christianity, he had almost to refound
the capital of his new dominion. It is therefore in no way surprising
that the crypt of St. Gervais is the sole survival yet discovered of the
buildings of the earlier city.
After the paralysis of fear which gripped Christendom at the approach of
the year 1000 had passed off, with the unchanged procession of normal
days and nights brought in by the new century, there came so great an
enthusiasm for church building that the cathedral of Rouen was
reconstructed on a larger and finer scale. The new structure was
consecrated on October 1, 1063, by Archbishop Maurilius, in the presence
of William the Norman.
It is quite possible that this church was of greater magnificence than
those of Jumièges or St. Georges de Boscherville, and perhaps even more
perfect than St. Étienne at Caen; but whatever theories one may care to
form must be built upon the style of the lower portion of the north-west
tower--the Tour St. Romain--for in the year 1200 a disastrous fire
destroyed the great building, and all that now exists of the Norman
church is this portion of a tower and some indications of Romanesque
work that can be discovered in a few other places. The havoc a fire can
work in a Norman church even at the present time, in spite of modern
fire extinguishing appliances, has been very forcibly illustrated by
the recent burning of the abbey church of Selby, in Yorkshire, in which
the terrific heat burnt halfway through stone piers of enormous
thickness.
The reconstruction of the cathedral appears to have been undertaken soon
after the disaster, and was commenced at the east end, where one finds
that the chapels of the apse and transepts were built first and the
choir soon afterwards, for it was finished in the Early French style.
Between 1202 and 1220 the nave, choir, transepts, and central tower
would appear to have been built, and before St. Louis (IX.) visited the
cathedral in 1255, the magnificent church, as it is to be seen to-day,
had assumed an appearance of completeness.
The embellishment of the great pile continued right through the
centuries that followed, until the influence of the Renaissance shows
itself in the central porch of the west front. In the fourteenth century
the Lady-chapel was built, and in the fifteenth the Tour de Beurre
climbed upwards, while the money provided by the indulgences sold,
giving permission to eat butter in Lent, was helping to provide the
funds. This tower, therefore, together with the uppermost portion of the
Tour St. Romain, the western rose-window, and a good deal of decoration
on each of the porches, belong to the Flamboyant period, corresponding
to the Perpendicular of English architecture.
At the base of the Tour St. Romain there still stands the lodge of the
porter, whose duties from very early times right up to 1700 included the
care of the fierce watch-dogs who were at night let loose in the
cathedral to guard its many precious treasures from robbers. How much
would we give for a glimpse of one of those porters walking through the
cavernous gloom of the echoing aisles, with his lamp throwing strange
shadows from the great slouching dogs!
The misereres of the choir-stalls were carved between 1457 and 1469, and
should be seen for the vivid details they reveal of nearly every trade
and employment, as well as the costumes of the period when the
Flamboyant style was in vogue.
The tombs in the cathedral bring one into close touch with the Dukes of
Normandy and their successors on the throne of England. In the
easternmost chapels on either side of the nave are the tombs of Rollo,
the first Duke of Normandy, and his son, William Longsword, who was
murdered in 943. The statues were made in the thirteenth or fourteenth
century, and have been restored. The inscription on Rollo’s tomb says:
‘Here lies Rollo, the first Duke, founder and father of Normandy,
of which he was at first the terror and the scourge, but afterwards
the restorer. Baptized in 912 by Françon, Archbishop of Rouen; died
in 917. His remains were at first deposited in the ancient
sanctuary, at present the upper end of the nave. The altar having
been removed, the remains of the Prince were placed here by the
blessed Maurille, Archbishop of Rouen, in the year 1063.’
A thirteenth-century effigy of Richard Cœur de Lion, discovered in 1838,
lies outside the southern railing of the choir. The heart was found in a
triple casket of lead, wood, and silver. Some of the dust can be seen in
the Museum of Antiquities, whither the original effigy of Henry II.’s
eldest son, Henry Plantagenet, has also been taken, the one in the
cathedral being modern. On the left side of the high altar is the tomb
of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent under Henry VI., and on the north side
of the choir is the mutilated effigy of Archbishop Maurice, who died in
1235.
The two grandest monuments are facing one another in the Lady-chapel.
The finer is that of Louis de Brézé, who was Grand Seneschal of
Normandy. It is an extremely good example of early Renaissance work,
carried out in black marble and alabaster. The splendid equestrian
figure in the upper part gives the monument a most imposing character.
At the head of the recumbent effigy is the figure of Diane de Poitiers,
who raised the memorial to her husband after his death in 1531. She
subsequently left her name written prominently on the page of history by
becoming the mistress of the Dauphin, afterwards Henri II. At the castle
of Chenonceaux and at Fontainebleau we shall see the homes of this
famous widow (see Section V.).
On the west side of the great monument is the beautiful canopied recess
of the Flamboyant period, where the effigies of Pierre de Brézé and his
wife lay until they were removed in 1769. Pierre was the first Grand
Seneschal of Normandy when the province was restored to France, as a
result of the work of Jeanne d’Arc. He was the favourite of Charles
VII., and was prominent in the reconquest of Normandy, finally losing
his life in the Battle of Montlhéry in 1465.
Opposite is the tomb of the famous Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, whose
lifelike figure is shown kneeling under a beautiful canopy. He was made
Bishop of Montauban when he was only fourteen, and was elected
Archbishop of Rouen at the early age of thirty-three. The story of his
election is interesting. On the death of Archbishop Robert de Croixmare,
Charles VIII. hinted that he would like the canons to choose the Duke of
Orleans, and by so doing gave some annoyance. However, on August 21,
1493, when the crowds in Rouen were wondering what was going to happen,
the canons retired to the chapter-house, as was their custom, and each
took the oath to vote according to conscience. Then, all kneeling down,
they sang the _Veni Creator Spiritus_, and prayed that they might make
the right choice, after which all rose to their feet as one man, saying,
‘Georges d’Amboise shall be Archbishop.’ This remarkable unanimity was
based on the wonderful promise the Cardinal showed even at that age, and
to Rouen he became a benefactor, for whose wisdom and equity in
administration and for the splendour of whose gifts the city has still
reason for gratitude. If he had lived earlier in the century, it is
conceivable that his influence would have prevented the tragedy of the
death of Jeanne d’Arc. He was the builder of the splendid Tour de Beurre
and the Flamboyant work of the west front of the cathedral, and he
improved the city’s supply of water, as well as its sanitation. Further
than that, he became, as Prime Minister under the easy-going Louis
XII., the virtual ruler of France; for the King was always ready to let
the wise Cardinal act for him, usually saying, ‘Leave it to George.’ He
died in 1510.
The other figure on the tomb is that of the second Cardinal of the same
name, who was a nephew of the statesman.
The great bell which was given by the Archbishop to be hung in the Tour
de Beurre, and was named Georges d’Amboise, was in 1793 melted down to
make cannon for the Republicans. The thirteenth-century glass in the
sacristy and the two adjoining windows is a foretaste of the glories of
Chartres.
The erection of the great spire of open ironwork on the central tower
began in 1827, replacing the wooden spire finished in 1550, and
destroyed by lightning in 1822. It is one of the tallest spires in the
world, and is considered by many writers to be a hideous excrescence on
the great Gothic pile; but although it cannot have the romance or charm
of stone, its effect at a distance, in spite of its curious finial, is
quite the reverse of unpleasing, and when one is near at hand it has a
way of hiding itself, or, if it shows at all, it appears so vast and
tremendous that its dimensions suppress the criticisms that would flow
readily if the spire were half its height.
The Church of St. Ouen.--To the north-east of the cathedral (see plan)
stands the great abbey church of St. Ouen, in the wide open space of the
Place de l’Hôtel de Ville--as great a contrast to the narrow streets
that crowd up to the cathedral as could be imagined. It is for this
reason that St. Ouen from without does not call up with any vividness
the romance of a medieval church packed into the small space which was
all that the encircling defensive walls could afford. But the church of
St. Ouen is the most perfect and the most beautiful of the abbey
churches of France, and there might be legitimate cause for grumbling if
it were impossible to get a clear view of it. There is only space to
tell the story of the building in the following list of dates:
St. Ouen.--_Building Dates_
400. Legendary date of the founding of the earliest church.
686. St. Ouen, Archbishop of Rouen, buried in church that received
his name.
_c._ 841. Destroyed by Northmen, but rebuilt by Rollo.
1045. Old church demolished by Abbot Nicholas, and new one founded,
which was dedicated in 1126.
1136. Destroyed by fire, and then rebuilt, the Empress Matilda and
Richard Cœur de Lion aiding the work.
1248. Again destroyed by fire.
1318-1339. Fifth church commenced, and eastern portion built by
Abbot Jean Roussel, otherwise called Marc d’Argent. Building
carried on all through fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
interrupted at intervals during the Hundred Years’ War with
England.
1422-1441. Alexandre de Berneval, architect, designed rose-window
for south transept; built chapel of SS. Peter and Paul.
1806. Monastic buildings entirely demolished; had served as
residence of Kings of France when in Rouen--Henri II., Charles IX.,
Henri III., Henri IV., and Louis XIII.
1845. West front erected by order of the Government under Louis
Philippe; architect, M. Grégoire.
* * * * *
The Church of St. Maclou stands back a few paces from the east side of
the Rue de la République, and one comes upon its wondrous display of
delicately carved stone all of a sudden. It is an exquisite example of
the Flamboyant style, having been commenced in 1436 and completed about
1480. The present spire was only finished in 1868, the previous one,
covered with lead, having suffered much through a storm, and later
during the Revolution.
The wonderful doors, with their remarkable carving, and the splendid
tympanum above the central one, date between the years 1527 and 1560. In
that period it is possible that some of the carving was executed by Jean
Goujon, who was afterwards killed in the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
St. Maclou was a Scotsman who went to Brittany, was made Bishop of
Aleth, and died in 561. The first church dedicated to him was built in
the tenth century outside the walls of Rouen. A passage on the north
side of the Rue Martainville (which runs from the north side of St.
Maclou) leads into the Aître St. Maclou, a picturesque little cloister
built in 1526, surrounding a paved courtyard, which was a burial-ground
at the time of the plague of 1348--the Black Death that claimed 100,000
victims in the city.
Jeanne d’Arc.--The tragedy of the
[Illustration: THE TOWERS OF ST. OUEN AT ROUEN.
St. Ouen is, next to the Cathedral, the finest church of Rouen.]
martyrdom,--or, more properly, the murder--of the Maid of Orleans, who
saved her country from the English, cannot be forgotten by the visitor
to Rouen. There are still houses standing near the cathedral which were
there in her day, and were the lodgings of some of her heartless judges;
there is still the great pile of Notre Dame, standing much as it stood
in her day, although the later Flamboyant work, including the Tour de
Beurre, had not then appeared; and there still remains one solitary
tower of the castle of Rouen in which Jeanne was confined. The tower was
never her prison, but in the ground floor she was intimidated by being
shown instruments of torture. The visitor can enter this chamber, which
was the scene of that callous brutality to a most innocent maiden, who,
encouraged by her implicit belief in the vision of her saints, bore
herself throughout with a fortitude and heroism which baffled and
enraged her inquisitors.
It is a pity that the tower has been over-restored, and that the walls
are hung with wreaths of artificial flowers. There is also a statue of
the maid and many prints hung on the walls, but their interest is not
commensurate with the subtraction from the grimness of the tower which
they cause.
When Jeanne d’Arc was finally condemned to be burnt, the stake was set
up in the Vieux-Marché, and the exact spot is now marked by a large
stone, bearing the inscription, ‘Jeanne d’Arc, 30 Mai, 1431.’ The heroic
girl was taken to the spot in a car with a confessor and others, and
escorted by English soldiers. With the awful piles of faggots ready for
kindling, the girl’s agony was dragged out with a sermon, and after her
sentence was read there is no wonder that she wept bitterly. To Bishop
Cauchon, whose heart must have been of flint, she said, while they set
the wood on fire: ‘It is you who have brought me to this death.’ A
Dominican priest who stood near gives the following account of her
death:
‘As I was near her at the end, the poor woman besought and humbly
begged me to go into the church near by and bring her the cross, to
hold it upright on high before her eyes until the moment of death,
so that the cross on which God was hanging might be in life
continually before her eyes. Being in the flames, she ceased not to
call in a loud voice the Holy Name of Jesus, imploring and invoking
without ceasing the aid of the Saints in Paradise; again, what is
more, in giving up the ghost and bending her head, she uttered the
name of Jesus as a sign that she was fervent in the faith of God,
just as we read of St. Ignatius and of many other Martyrs.’
Another witness--Maître Jean Massieu, a priest--says:
‘With great devotion she asked to have a cross; and, hearing this,
an Englishman who was there present made a little cross of wood
with the ends of a stick, which he gave her, and devoutly she
received and kissed it.... With her last word in dying, she cried
with a loud voice “Jesus!”’
The Palais de Justice (small gratuity to the concierge) is in the Rue
Jeanne d’Arc, with the main front facing the Rue aux Juifs. The central
portion dates from 1499 to 1515, and was designed by Le Roux, who was
also the brilliant architect of the western portal of the cathedral and
the tomb of the Cardinals d’Amboise. The interior is rather
disappointing. The great hall, formerly used for the Parliament or
Échiquier of Normandy, is now a criminal court, and its panelled and
gilded oak ceiling is flat and ineffective in spite of its pendent
bosses. The fine Salle des Pas-Perdus in the west wing has a gallery at
each end and the marble table of the tribunal.
The Rue de la Grosse Horloge contains a picturesque sixteenth-century
archway, bearing a great blue and gold clock, and alongside it is the
belfry, commenced in 1389. The visitor who cares for vivid impressions
of the past should stroll through this street at 9 p.m., and hear the
great bell La Rouvel ring the curfew, raising as it does so the same
mellowed tones that have vibrated the air since the Middle Ages.
LEAVING ROUEN
The memory of those sounds is a precious one, and on the next morning,
when the car carries one away, it remains among the many things in the
mind that are not left behind.
[Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 5--ROUEN.
_Walker & Boutall sc._]
Keeping to the north bank of the Seine, and going to the right at the
fork which almost immediately presents itself, one shakes off the
cobble-stones in a mile or so, and, after the modern river-side village
of Amfreville, the open country is freed from the suburban growth of
Rouen. Across the level green fields appear the cotton and cloth mills
which are the chief industry of the neighbourhood, and in the distance
on the right across the river’s windings can be seen the manufacturing
town of Elbeuf. The freedom from smoke of this and the average French
industrial town is most striking to the Englishman.
Two kilometres beyond the hamlet of St. Crespin one turns sharply to the
left, and, climbing an easy gradient among low woods, comes to the
village of Igoville, where one turns to the left again; and, a kilometre
farther on, goes to the right, crossing the railway and a long modern
bridge over the Seine, which brings one to the old town of
PONT DE L’ARCHE
It is picturesquely situated above the river, which is studded with
islands in this portion of its course, and the remains of the ramparts
are visible on the river-side, with the towerless Church of Notre Dame
des Arts rising above old roofs. There are some old timber-fronted
houses, and one of them has a thirteenth-century wooden-pillared porch.
Charles the Bald (died 877), a grandson of Charlemagne, had a palace at
Pont de l’Arche, and the little town was one of the first to open its
gates to Henry of Navarre when he became Henri IV. in 1589, after the
murder of the Duke of Guise. Being one of the gates of Normandy, it
suffered several sieges; the old bridge, however, survived up to 1850.
The church was chiefly built in the fifteenth century, and, though
unfinished, justifies its unique dedication in the wealth of beautiful
carving that adorns the exterior. The chapels ranged along the sides of
the nave have curious little conical roofs, which, in the absence of any
tower, form the main outline of the building. The interior is very
light, in spite of the fifteenth and sixteenth century glass that fills
several of the windows. One of them in the north aisle is noticeable for
the curious little portraits inserted at a later date. Henri IV., it is
said, gave the church its organ, and Jean Gougon is associated with the
carving of the font. The choir-stalls come from the neighbouring abbey
of Bon-port.
At a fork on leaving the town the road to Louviers goes to the left, and
rises straight uphill through the forest of Pont de l’Arche. Succeeding
this comes a curious stretch of switchback road, with a blue horizon
beyond, and soon afterwards one is bumping on the cobble-stones of
LOUVIERS
Standing at a fork in the middle of the town is the Church of Notre
Dame, whose outline is marred by an uncompleted tower, but whose
profusion of the most elaborate fifteenth-century carving leaves the
wondering spectator almost breathless. The writer once, several years
ago, commenced a drawing of the south aisle and porch, but it remains
to-day as unfinished as the tower just mentioned! All the lacework
carving is on the most obvious side of the church, and is an addition of
the Flamboyant period. Its extraordinary wealth of detail repays the
closest scrutiny, for among canopied niches and flame-patterned parapets
are the grotesque heads of gargoyles and representations of such
creatures as the monkey and the bat. The north side of the church shows
the greatest contrast imaginable to all this delicate beauty. It is
plain and bare thirteenth-century work, with the fortified tower built
about the year 1366, a few years after the town had been half destroyed
by the English, when the citizens set to work to fortify their town,
which hitherto had relied for protection solely on the fact that
Louviers was a possession of the Archbishop of Rouen. The
thirteenth-century interior, with its double aisles, giving wonderful
perspectives of pillars, is one of the most remarkable in Normandy.
Gisors (see Section XXVII.) also has double aisles, but their loftiness
gives an entirely different effect to those at Louviers. The dark brown
pulpit has its sounding-board supported by a couple of carved wooden
palm-trees. Some picturesque old houses remain in the old part of the
town near the church, and although the town is given up to a
considerable extent to woolen factories, it is still a pleasant place,
surrounded by the beautiful pastoral scenery of the River Eure.
A terrible incident of the Hundred Years’ War took place in 1418, when
Louviers fell into the hands of the English, in spite of its newly built
wall, and 120 of its most wealthy merchants were condemned to death. In
1431, in spite of an heroic defence, the English again entered the town,
and burnt and destroyed so heartlessly that it is a wonder that the town
ever recovered, and yet in the last years of the same century the
amazing mass of ornament was added to the south side of the church.
THE ROAD TO EVREUX
Continuing through the main street of Louviers in a straight line past
the church, the road runs by the side of the River Eure, with wooded
hills on the right. A picturesque half-timbered château, with pepper-box
turrets, is passed on the left, and
[Illustration: THE ROAD NEAR ROUEN.
A typical corner on the road between Rouen and Pont de l’Arche.]
old church lying a little way from the road on the same side.
[Illustration: No. 3. ROUEN TO EVREUX.]
The Iton, a tributary of the Eure, is then crossed, and with a beautiful
view of steep hills dropping down to the strip of water-meadows by the
Eure, the road to Evreux climbs up steadily, making a big bend as it
passes through a strip of woodland. The road swings to the right to make
a zigzag down into the valley of the Iton, where in descending one has
beautiful views of the curving, delicately tinted hills, and a distant
glimpse of Evreux, which is entered through a fine avenue.