VALENCE TO ST. ÉTIENNE, 58¼ MILES
(94 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
Kil. Miles.
=Valence= to Tournan =18= 11¼
=Tournan= to Andance =21= 13
=Andance= to Annonay =13= 8
=Annonay= to Bourg-Argental =16= 10
=Bourg-Argental= to St. Étienne =26= 16
ALTERNATIVE ROUTE TO PARIS,
368½ MILES
(602 KILOMETRES)
If there is too much snow on the Cevennes to make the St. Étienne route
possible, the following road will be available:
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
Kil. Miles.
=Valence= to Vienne =73= 45½
=Vienne= to Lyon =26= 16
=Lyon= to Villefranche =30= 18½
=Villefranche= to Macon =37= 23
=Macon= to Chalon-sur-Saône =56= 35
=Chalon-sur-Saône= to Dijon =67= 41¾
=Dijon= to Montbard =76= 41
=Montbard= to Tonnere =44= 27½
=Tonnere= to Sens =85= 53
=Sens= to Melun =68= 42¼
=Melun= to Paris =40= 25
NOTES FOR DRIVERS
Between =Valence= and =Andance=, where the Rhone Valley is left, there
are no less than eighteen of the shallow drains called =cassis= on
the road; they are all marked with conspicuous warning-boards.
As far as =Andance= the road is perfectly level, but on going to the
left, just before entering that village, it ascends steeply, and
climbs more or less continuously to the watershed above =La
Versanne=. The gradient is much reduced by long loops, and the
surface is good all the way.
The descent to =St. Étienne= has some sharp corners, but is not
dangerous if taken carefully.
PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
=Valence.=--A large modern town on the Rhone; Cathedral dating from
1095; Maison des Têtes and another Renaissance house.
=St. Péray.=--A small town near the fine ruins of the Château of
Crussol, built in the twelfth century.
=Châteaubourg.=--A medieval castle on an isolated rock close to the
road.
=Tournon.=--A picturesque little town with castle, now the Hôtel de
Ville; old walls; narrow streets; church of thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries; the Lycée is one of the best known in France;
early suspension bridge across Rhone.
=Arras.=--A village, with a conspicuous castle in ruins.
=St. Cyr.=--A village among the Northern Cevennes.
=Annonay.=--A grey manufacturing town in a valley of the Northern
Cevennes.
=Bourg-Argental.=--Another manufacturing town, producing stuffs and
ribbons; church with eleventh-century doorway.
The =Northern Cevennes= reach their greatest height at Mont Pilat
(4,705 feet), about 5 miles north of the road; the scenery and the
distant views are exceedingly fine.
Valence is beautifully situated on a raised site above the Rhone, and
the view across the river from the cathedral towards the Cevennes, and
to the Vivarais Mountains to the north-west, is given a flavour of
romance, owing to the prominence of the twelfth-century Château of
Crussol. It is one of the biggest ruined castles on the Rhone, and its
great height of 1,055 feet is unusual.
The family of Crussol were great supporters of Protestantism in the
South of France, and Galiot de Crussol was killed in the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew.
Valence was the Roman _Valentia_, and a few relics of that age are in
the Museum (_open on Sundays and Thursdays, 1 to 4_). The chief interest
in the town is the cathedral, consecrated in 1095 by Pope Urban II. The
building has, however,
[Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 27.--VALENCE.]
undergone much restoration, and the tower and porch were rebuilt during
the last century. The heart of Pius VI., who died at Valence in 1799 is
buried in the cathedral, and there is a statue to his memory on the
south side of the altar. When Napoleon invaded Italy in 1797, he sent
General Berthier to Rome to proclaim a republic and demand of the Pope
the renunciation of his temporal authority. His refusal to do so
resulted in his being taken prisoner and removed from the Vatican to
Florence, and then by stages through the Alps to Grenoble, and finally
to Valence, where he died in captivity not far from Avignon, the former
seat of Papal authority.
Outside the cathedral on the north side is the large tomb of the Mistral
family, put up in 1548. It has a very flat dome and an inscription in a
curious spiral form.
The richly ornamented house at No. 57 Grande Rue was built in 1531, and
is called the _Maison des Têtes_, on account of the statues and busts,
now much mutilated, which adorn the front and the corridor leading into
a courtyard behind. Another interesting house is at No. 7 Rue
Pérollerie, a Renaissance building ornamented with bas-reliefs.
THE ROAD TO ST. ÉTIENNE
One crosses the river by the suspension bridge on leaving Valence, and
in St. Péray, which is chiefly interesting as the nearest place to the
Château Crussol already mentioned, one turns sharply to the right for
Tournon.
[Illustration: No. 21. VALENCE TO ST. ÉTIENNE.]
The road goes through the village of Cornas, and all the way to Andance
motor-drivers have to be constantly _on the alert for the dangerous
shallow drains across the road_, which, if passed over at twenty miles
an hour, would mean the chance of a broken axle.
Immediately on the right is the broad Rhone, and on the left the hills
rise sharply, with a narrow strip of vineyards and orchards on the lower
ground.
On the right, just above the junction of the Rhone with the Isère, the
castle of Châteaubourg stands on an isolated mass of rock. It was
visited by St. Louis in 1248.
TOURNON
is a romantic little town under the shadow of steep hills, and has two
suspension bridges across the Rhone. One of them is the earliest bridge
of this type built in France. The old town has medieval walls and
circular towers, with machicolation, archways, and narrow picturesque
streets. The château is now turned into an Hôtel de Ville.
The collegiate church belongs to the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, and the Lycée, one of the best-known colleges in France,
consists chiefly of Renaissance buildings. Cardinal de Tournon, one of
the feudal family which owned the town until 1644, founded the Lycée in
1542.
After crossing the River Doux, one passes the village of Arras,
cowering beneath a ruined castle with a tall, bulging tower.
The busy-looking town of St. Vallier appears on the opposite bank of the
Rhone, just before reaching the hamlet of Sarras.
On approaching Andance one goes over a level-crossing, and immediately
afterwards turns to the left, leaving the river behind, and begins
climbing up a beautiful mountainous valley, adorned in April with masses
of pink-and-white fruit-blossom.
The road winds and gives a last peep of the Rhone--a blue patch in the
midst of soft shades of green and purply-brown.
Still climbing, one passes through the village of St. Cyr, with
prominent Calvaries and great views over the mountains to the west.
The main Cevennes range terminates a little to the south, and the
confusion of ridges and valleys one passes over and through on the route
belong to the Northern Cevennes. They are formed of clay and mica slate,
quartz rock and gneiss, while further west, in the neighbourhood of Le
Puy, there is a large area of volcanic rock.
At Annonay the road turns southwards, along the edge of a steep valley,
whose sides are filled with gloomy glove-leather and paper factories
and dirty streets of stone houses, very reminiscent of one of the cloth
manufacturing towns near Huddersfield in Yorkshire. After crossing the
bottom of the valley in the centre of the town, a turning to the right
marked _St. Étienne and Bourg-Argental_ is taken along the west side of
the valley; so that one leaves Annonay going northwards, the direction
from which one came on entering.
The scenery is delightful, as the road goes through a valley clothed
with fir plantations on steep slopes, with pleasant murmuring streams
down below. In spring the banks are starred with cowslips and primroses,
and the rich green of growing corn is contrasted with the sombre tones
of the woods, where the cuckoos can be heard.
At Bourg-Argental the road climbs up to a dour and grey street, not
altogether unsuited to a town which, among other things of a less
melancholy character, manufactures much crape. The richly carved
Romanesque doorway of the church can be seen on the left.
The road then climbs higher and higher, winding in long curves, and
passing steep ascents of lichened rocks and tall pines growing on
boulder-strewn slopes.
Mont Pilat, with three peaks--the highest, the Crêt de la Perdrix, 4,705
feet above the sea--is about five miles to the north. The view from the
road is modest compared with what one commands from this mountain-top,
but without leaving the car the eye sweeps away across the Rhone Valley
to the Alps, and westwards the skyline is serrated with the volcanic
peaks of the Auvergne Mountains.
At the highest portion of the road the views are cut off by dense masses
of pines. The resinous scent they exhale and the music of the wind in
their waving branches are delicious. Snow lingers up here long after it
has disappeared in the open.
The descent gives a grand western panorama, and one is lucky if there is
a golden sunset behind the Auvergnes. In places the road is hewn out of
a steep slope covered with coarse grass or pines, and the modern town of
St. Étienne is reached all too soon.