ST. GERMAIN-EN-LAYE TO GISORS,
37½ MILES
(60 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
Kil. Miles.
=St. Germain= to Conflans-Ste. Honorine =11= 7
=Conflans= to Pontoise =8= 5
=Pontoise= to Marines =14= 8¾
=Marines= to Chaumont-en-Vexin =18= 11¼
=Chaumont-en-Vexin= to Trie-Château =5= 3
=Trie-Château= to Gisors =4= 2½
NOTES FOR DRIVERS
=Pontoise to Bouconvilliers.=--On this section of the road there are
several stretches of paving, and at the cross-roads just beyond
Lierville (a village just off the road on the left) it is best to
go to the right through =Chaumont-en-Vexin=, to avoid the paved road
that goes direct to Gisors.
=Gisors.=--On entering there is a bad _caniveau_.
PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
This portion of the route goes through part of =Vexin=, a county of
ancient France.
=Conflans-Ste. Honorine.=--A village by the Seine; ruins of two
castles; church of twelfth and fifteenth centuries.
=Pontoise.=--Historic town on the Oise, formerly capital of Vexin;
portions of town walls and slight remains of castle; Hôtel Dieu,
rebuilt 1823-1827; two churches--(1) St. Maclou, partly twelfth,
but mainly fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; (2) Notre Dame,
Classic, with tomb of St. Gautier, 1146.
=Cormeilles-en-Vexin.=--Village with picturesque church, twelfth
century and later.
=Marines.=--Small village, with a seventeenth-century château.
=Chars.=--Village on the Voisne; has church of twelfth and fourteenth
centuries.
=Chaumont-en-Vexin.=--Very picturesquely situated little town; a few
old houses, and church of Flamboyant and Classic periods; remains
of eleventh-century castle.
=Trie-Château.=--Small town; has (1) gateway, tower, and other
remains of a fifteenth-century castle; (2) interesting Hôtel de
Ville of twelfth century; (3) church with richly ornamented
Romanesque façade.
The Forest of St. Germain-en-Laye, through which the route goes towards
Pontoise, occupies practically the whole of the area enclosed by the
third loop of the Seine below Paris, and was formerly part of the
immense forest of Laye, one of those which surrounded Paris in the
Middle Ages, and formed a great attraction to the French monarchs on
account of the excellent hunting they provided.
From the long avenue there are interesting views of Paris, with the
Eiffel Tower conspicuous, and on fine sunny days it has the fantastic
aspect of a city of palaces and temples.
On emerging from the forest of very indifferent trees, the road crosses
the Seine, and one turns to the right at once for Conflans-Ste.
Honorine, where the ruins of its two castles, with an old tower
conspicuous, look out over the soft green of the willows bordering the
river. The late Gothic church, with a tower of the twelfth century,
contains a picture attributed to Zurbaran, a Spanish artist of the
seventeenth century who was Court painter to both Philip III. and Philip
IV. The association of Conflans with St. Honorine has been mentioned in
connection with Graville (Section I.).
About eight kilometres north of Conflans the River Oise is crossed at
PONTOISE,
an historic town picturesquely situated on high ground above the river.
It became the capital of the ancient province of <f>Vexin</f> when Philippe I.
of France united one-half of Vexin to the Crown, and the castle became a
royal residence. The boundaries of the province were, roughly, the
Oise, the Seine, and the Andelle, and dividing it into two portions,
known as Vexin Français and Vexin Normand, was the little River Epte. In
the tenth century the Epte was decided upon as the boundary of the Duchy
of Normandy, and it remained so until Philippe Auguste (II.) added the
Norman half of Vexin to France. It is an interesting fact that the
French half of Vexin, through having been a possession of the Abbey of
St. Denis, gave the viscounts of the province the right of carrying in
battle the celebrated banner of the oriflamme: thus, when Philippe I.
acquired the territory he obtained the privilege, and the oriflamme of
St. Denis was transferred to the royal standard.
There was a bridge at Pontoise in Roman times, for it was then called
_Pons Iscaræ_, and before the present steel structure made its
appearance in recent years there was a stone bridge of five arches.
It is unfortunate that the remains of the Château are inconsiderable,
for its history as a royal residence in early times is interesting, St.
Louis (IX.) having spent much of his youth in its massive walls at the
time when his mother, Blanche of Castile, was endeavouring to keep him
from his wife, Marguerite de Provence. It was also at Pontoise that St.
Louis, when ill, vowed that he would lead a Crusade if he recovered. It
was the fifth expedition to the Holy Land which he eventually headed.
The town was often besieged in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
centuries, and under Louis XIV. and Louis XV. the Parliament was held
there in 1652, 1720, and 1753.
The ramparts still exist in part, but there has apparently been a great
deal of reckless destruction in the town, for it has been robbed of many
of its old buildings.
The Hôtel Dieu, built by St. Louis down by the river, was rebuilt in
1823-1827, and its only interest now is the picture, ‘The Healing of the
Paralytic,’ by Philippe de Champaigne, who was one of the artists who
helped to decorate the Luxembourg in Paris for Marie de Medici, the wife
of Henri IV.
Bossuet, the most famous man in the Church of France in the seventeenth
century, was consecrated Bishop of Meaux in 1681 in the church of the
Cordeliers, which had a splendid refectory. This church, with others,
and several convents has disappeared.
St. Maclou, the more important of the two which remain, is in part a
twelfth-century building, although mainly of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. The west front has a fine Flamboyant porch. Pierre
Lemercier, who was grandfather of Jacques Lemercier, who built the
Sorbonne, the Sorbonne church, and the Palais Royale (1585-1660), was
the architect of the Renaissance portions of the church.
[Illustration: No. 26. ST. GERMAIN-EN-LAYE TO GISORS.]
Notre Dame, the other church, is chiefly in the Classic style of the
latter half of the sixteenth century. It contains a fine altar-tomb of
1146, bearing the recumbent effigy of St. Gautier, Abbé of Meulan, with
four angels swinging censers. There is also an ancient Madonna which
attracts pilgrims to the church.
* * * * *
Leaving Pontoise by the road to Gisors, one passes through several
picturesque villages. The first is Cormeilles-en-Vexin, whose church
(partly twelfth century), with big flying buttresses and gargoyles,
stands out prominently over the green and wooded country as the village
is approached.
There are two or three stretches of paving-stones on this road,
necessitating a slow pace to avoid dislocating every part of the car and
its occupants, and there is thus plenty of time to enjoy the rural charm
of the red-roofed villages, the big picturesque farms, and the extensive
woods.
Marines is a small village with a seventeenth-century château containing
a notable staircase. It belonged to Chancellor Sillory, who was
Chancellor of France under Henri IV. In the church is the
sixteenth-century chapel of St. Roch, standing over an octagonal crypt.
Three short stretches of _pavé_ follow after leaving Marines, then the
road drops down through a cutting in yellow sandstone to Chars (on the
River Voisne), where there is a church of the twelfth and fourteenth
centuries. The earlier work is worth studying, and there is also an
interesting tomb to Jeanne de Ferrières, of the fourteenth century.
Passing over a level-crossing, the village of Bouconvilliers lies on the
left. It has a large farm of the Sussex Downs type, sheltered by big
trees, a church with a Romanesque tower, and a castle of the time of
Louis XIII. (seventeenth century) on the site of a much earlier one, of
which the entrenchments remain.
Just beyond the hamlet of Lierville (on the left) five roads meet. The
direct way to Gisors is straight ahead, but a notice warns one of bad
paving-stones, and recommends going to the right through
Chaumont-en-Vexin. By doing so the distance is only slightly increased,
and the _pavé_ is entirely avoided.
The road winds down steeply into the leafy hollow in which the little
town of Chaumont-en-Vexin stands. Its church, with a curious Classic
tower of stumpy proportions, contains rich Flamboyant work, and is
conspicuous on the shoulder of a hill above the houses.
There are remains of the eleventh-century castle where some of the
French kings resided when the Norman frontiers were defended by a chain
of castles. In the chief street there is a picturesque sixteenth-century
house of timber-framing.
The Pierre-Trouée (_or des Druids_) is a very fine dolmen, composed of
four stones, situated about two kilometres south-east of Trie-Château.
An artificial circular hole has been cut through the base of the side
stone, and Fergusson infers from this that the dolmen was probably never
intended to be covered up with earth, or at the most only partially. The
age of dolmens of this type is a matter of the greatest uncertainty.
Although in a general way regarded as prehistoric burial-places, some of
them may belong to post-Roman times.
TRIE-CHÂTEAU
is an interesting place. Its Hôtel de Ville is the Maison de Justice of
the twelfth century, and it still has its round-headed windows with
small pillars. The Romanesque façade of the church is richly ornamented,
and the rest of the building belongs to the twelfth, thirteenth, and
sixteenth centuries.
A fortified gateway (fifteenth century) of the château is passed through
on the way to Gisors, and by it is a big round tower of the same period,
although much restored. There can also be seen vaulted underground
portions of this formerly important castle.
Charles François Dupuis, who wrote ‘Origins de tous les Cultes’--a book
which did much to precipitate the irreligious crisis of the
Revolution--was born at Trie-Château in 1742.
On entering Gisors there is a bad _caniveau_.