AIX-EN-PROVENCE TO CANNES, 100 MILES
(160 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
Kil. Miles.
=Aix-en-Provence= to St. Maximin =36= 22½
=St. Maximin= to Brignoles =19= 11¾
=Brignoles= to Le Luc =24= 15
=Le Luc= to Le Muy =23= 14¼
=Le Muy= to Fréjus =16= 10
=Fréjus= to St. Raphaël } By the { =3= 1¾
=St. Raphaël= to Agay } Corniche { =8= 5
=Agay= to Théoule } d’Or, { =20= 12½
=Théoule= to Cannes } 26¼ miles. { =11= 7
[=Fréjus= to Cannes through the Estérels =36= 22½]
NOTES FOR DRIVERS
=Brignoles to Le Luc.=--Fairly hilly; elsewhere the journey from Aix
to St. Raphaël is practically level.
=St. Raphaël to La Napoule= (beyond Théoule)--[10 miles an hour
recommended].--This road was only finished in 1903. It is called
the Corniche d’Or (or d’Estérel), and follows the ragged coast-line
in and out of the beautiful bays. There is no protection on the
seaward side, and a collision between automobiles means that the
outside car will probably fall crashing into the sea immediately
below. =Drivers are therefore warned to go very slowly and with the
greatest care, especially at corners=, where one sometimes passes a
car being driven at a recklessly fast pace, allowing all too little
room for any vehicle being passed. The exquisite beauty of the
scenery makes a crawling pace welcome, and those who drive faster
than 10 miles an hour deserve whatever disaster may befall them.
PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
=Aix-en-Provence.=--A large town--the _Aquæ Sextiæ_ of the
Romans--formerly the capital of Provence: (1) Cathedral of St.
Sauveur, Romanesque, chancel 1285, west doors richly carved,
baptistery with Roman columns, and Romanesque cloister; (2)
Archbishop’s Palace; (3) Hôtel de Ville, containing large and
interesting library; (4) hot springs; (5) in the garden of thermal
establishment slight remains of Roman baths; (6) Tour de
Tourreluco, a survival of the medieval walls; (7) Church of St.
Jean de Malte, thirteenth century.
=Mont Ste. Victoire and Pourrières.=--The precipitous ridge looks
down on the battlefield of Pourrières, where Marius, with his Roman
legions and auxiliaries, wiped out the two northern tribes of the
Ambrones and the Teutones.
=St. Maximin.=--A small town, with a beautiful Gothic church
(thirteenth to fifteenth centuries), early crypt, and beautiful
altars.
=Tourves.=--Village with a large ruined castle.
=Brignoles.=--A small town, famous for its dried plums, but otherwise
without great interest.
=Flassans.=--A roadside village, with an old deserted one on the hill
adjoining.
=Le Luc and Le Muy.=--Pleasant little roadside towns.
=Fréjus.=--The Roman _Forum Julii_. The Roman remains consist of--(1)
The amphitheatre; (2) the walls, with three gateways; (3) the
aqueduct; (4) the remains of the harbour; (5) the baths; (6) the
theatre; (7) the two citadels. The cathedral is an interesting
Romanesque building, with fine choir-stalls, cloisters, and a
baptistery containing eight Roman columns.
=St. Raphaël.=--A small village, with a new quarter on the shore,
with large hotels lately added.
=The Corniche d’Or.=--The new road along the coast of the Estérels,
recently built by the Touring Club de France; lovely scenery all
the way.
=Théoule.=--A small resort on the Corniche d’Or, with hotels and
villas.
=La Napoule.=--A small place on the flat plain west of Cannes, where
the well-known golf-links are situated.
Although Aix has retained no structures of the Roman period, it was the
oldest of the colonies, having been founded by the Consul Sextius
Calvinus, about 120 B.C., at the hot springs still in existence. The
place was therefore called _Aquæ Sextiæ_, after the discoverer of the
thermal waters, and is now contracted into Aix. The threatened invasion
of Italy by the Teutones and Ambrones was utterly defeated by Marius, a
few miles east of the city, in 102 B.C.; but Aix at the fall of Rome
fell a prey to the barbarians of the north, recovering slowly, and
eventually becoming the capital of Provence. Under the good King Réné of
Anjou, who died in 1480, Aix was exceedingly prosperous. His statue by
David can be seen in the Cours Mirabeau.
[Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 23.--AIX-EN-PROVENCE.]
The Cathedral of St. Sauveur dates from Romanesque times, with a chancel
built in 1285. The tower and façade are fifteenth century--a little
earlier than the highly enriched portal, with its lovely doors
ornamented with sixteen figures in niches, which dates from 1503.
In the baptistery are eight monolithic columns--probably from the Temple
of Apollo, that stood on the same spot--sculptured panels by Puget, and
two triptychs, on one of which King Réné is depicted on his knees.
The Romanesque cloister, with richly carved capitals, and the great
Renaissance doorway of the Archbishop’s Palace should be seen.
The Hôtel de Ville, containing a big library, to which the public is
admitted, _except on Sundays and Mondays, and between August 15 and
October 15_, was built in 1640, and much altered in 1760; but the
clock-tower adjoining goes back to 1512.
One relic of the medieval fortifications of Aix exists in the Tour de
Tourreluco. It stands in the garden of the thermal establishment, where
one can also see the slight remains of the Roman baths.
The Church of La Madeleine was built in 1703 with a later façade, and
St. Jean de Malle was founded in the thirteenth century for the Order of
the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. It contains on the left side of
the altar the tomb of
[Illustration: THE ROMANESQUE BRIDGE OF ST. BÉNÉZET AT AVIGNON.
Only four arches and the chapel survive. (_Page 335._)]
Raymond, Count of Provence, with statues and recumbent figures.
THE ROAD TO FRÉJUS
goes out eastwards, and, after a few miles, passes through a rocky
ravine before coming out into the long valley of the River Arc, bounded
on the north by the gaunt grey precipices of Mont Ste. Victoire. It was
into this valley that Marius with his legions drove the undisciplined
invaders in 102 B.C., and near Pourrières he outflanked and defeated
them. The slaughter was so enormous that the two great tribes of the
Teutones and Ambrones, with their women and children, were practically
annihilated, and the river ran red with their life-blood. Just after
crossing the Arc, on the north side of the road, are the slight ruins of
the monument put up by the Romans to celebrate the great victory
achieved by the brilliant strategy of Marius, who thus saved Rome from
premature extinction.
Soon after passing Pourrières, a compact village north of the road, with
roofs and walls of the same dark orange-red as the soil of the
vineyards, there is spread out in front a splendid mountain view, with
snow-capped peaks standing out against the blue of the distant sky.
[Illustration: No. 18. AIX-EN-PROVENCE TO CANNES.]
St. Maximin is a very small town with a lovely Gothic church, which
should by no means be ignored. It dates from the thirteenth to the
fifteenth century, and stands over an early crypt containing Early
Christian sarcophagi. This is kept locked, but the sacristan has the
key. The altar at the east end of the north aisle is dated 1526, with
the name ‘Jacques Baurmes, Chamberlain to the King,’ who gave it to the
church. In one of the paintings Christ is being scourged on the
Piazzetta at Venice! The choir-stalls of the seventeenth century are
richly carved, the whole interior is clean and light, and the lofty
arches are exceptionally beautiful.
The way out of St. Maximin is a zigzag to the right, and at the fork
just outside one turns to the left, neither going under the railway-arch
nor up to the station, which one can see on the left a little farther
on.
The village of Tourves has an obelisk by the fine ruined Château de
Valbelle, on a ridge to the left. On the steep hillsides one sees miles
of terraces, where vineyards have been patiently extracted from the
formerly arid slopes.
Brignoles is a small town, with a long, narrow street, and the hotel is
often a convenient resting-place for _déjeuner_. The dried plums of
Brignoles have long been famous. They were eaten by the Duc de Guise,
it will be remembered, just before his assassination (p. 98). A
twelfth-century house, with windows divided by columns, and the
Sous-Préfecture, which was formerly the winter palace of the Counts of
Provence, sacked by Charles V., are the only antiquities of the town.
Flassans is a comparatively new village on the road, with an abandoned
one, now roofless and with broken walls, on the hill to the left. A
conspicuous wooden cross and a little chapel by the ruined houses seem
to suggest that something had to be done to keep restless spirits under
proper control.
Le Luc has a narrow, shady street, with large plane-trees by a fountain,
where there are often picturesque groups fetching water.
The Maure Mountains lie to the south, covered with pine, or showing
crags of grey and orange rock. The coast-road from Fréjus to Hyères,
round the bays of these mountains, is an exquisitely beautiful one, and
those who have time should include this in their tour when staying at
St. Raphaël or Valescure.
Passing through Le Muy in a serpentine fashion, with a very sharp and
narrow turning, the road comes out into the flat alluvial plain of the
River Argens, with the pine-clad Estérels on the left as one runs into
FRÉJUS
This is a place of vanished glories, having the atmosphere of ancient
importance inseparable from ports abandoned by the sea, which was their
life-blood.
Fréjus was the last harbour on the great Roman road from Rome to
Provence--_the Via Aurelia_--which at this point turned inland to Aix.
Its importance was therefore seen by Julius Cæsar, who built the town
called after him _Forum Julii_, and now contracted into Fréjus. By the
remains to be seen to-day the work appears to have been done hurriedly,
for strength rather than beauty, but the interest of the place is
scarcely diminished in the knowledge of this probability.
The first most imposing survival is the Amphitheatre. It stands outside
the town, and a by-road passes through its longest axis. There is no
fencing, nor, indeed, any restriction to the public from climbing the
broken tiers of seats; nor has there been any attempt at restoration to
the broken arches or the grass-grown arena. On the eastern side of the
little town, where the harbour was situated, is a small tower with a
conical top, called La Lanterne. This was the Roman harbour-master’s
office, and not a lighthouse. The remains of the aqueduct are imposing
detached masses of ivy-mantled stonework, ranging like great sentinels
across cornfields and meadows to the hills to the north, from whence a
pure supply of water was obtained. There are also remains of the walls
of the Roman town; of three of the gateways, including the Porta Romana,
which is the best; of the two citadels; the baths; and the theatre.
Modern Fréjus has some picturesque doorways and old houses spoilt with
stucco. The Romanesque Cathedral has beautiful cloisters, much in need
of restoration, and a baptistery with eight monolithic granite pillars
from a Roman temple.
ST. RAPHAËL
stands on the opposite side of the alluvial plain, and being on the sea,
has lately blossomed into a Riviera resort, with modern hotels, a huge
domed church, and new streets of shops and stuccoed houses. It is a
dusty and windy place compared to Valescure, a little way inland, on
high ground, among the pines of the Estérel slopes.
Napoleon embarked from St. Raphaël for Elba after his abdication in
1814. The British warship _Undaunted_ received the ex-Emperor on board
on April 28. He had come through many hostile crowds on his journey from
Fontainebleau, and so great was the danger to his life that he consented
to disguise himself in the uniform of an Austrian officer.
THE CORNICHE D’OR
is a most beautiful road, recently built by the Touring Club de France,
along the high rocky coast of the Estérels. Its dangers for motorists
have been described at the beginning of this section, but in case that
warning may have been overlooked, the need of driving slowly and
cautiously is again emphasized.
After the somewhat arid scenery of the delta of the Rhone and of the
country about Aix and Brignoles, the first few miles of the Riviera are
an exquisite pleasure to the eye. The road at first winds between
gardens, whose trees cast long patches of shade, and the air is
deliciously scented with lemons and other plants; then one comes out by
the breaking waves, and looks across little bays, ‘the peacock’s neck in
hue.’ Dark masses of firs clothe the red of the porphyry cliffs, and
each turn of the road brings some fresh combination of rock and wave and
tree-clothed valley.
Agay is a tiny place on one of these lovely bays, and as there is a
choice of hotels, it is a delightful spot for a halt for the night if
one does not mind the periodic roar of the P.L.M. expresses. Beyond
Théoule comes the first great view of the French Riviera. On a clear
morning of typical spring sunshine the great sweep of the blue bay of
Cannes, with its bold mountain background and green villa-dotted shores,
is one of exquisite loveliness. It appears with a foreground of the
strong, hot colour of swarthy rocks, deep green foliage, and perhaps the
brilliance of lemons and oranges, or a bank of glowing flowers,
emphasizing the delicate charm of the distance.
The road gradually drops down to the sea-level at La Napoule, where the
famous golf-links of Cannes are situated. A short run along the
villa-bordered main road brings one to the great resort founded by an
English statesman--Henry, Lord Brougham and Vaux.
[Illustration: ON THE COAST OF THE ESTERELS.
A typical stretch of the rocky shore between Cannes and St. Raphaël.]