DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

It is unfortunate that Avignon has straggling suburbs outside its circle of wonderfully preserved walls, for if this new growth could be swept away there would appear on the plain a city of medieval aspect, encircled within its machicolated ramparts. Until this is done those who delight in such permanent pictures of the Middle Ages must be content with the views of the walls to be had from the fairly wide boulevards outside them and from the river side of the town. From across the Rhone the strange piled-up mass of the Papal palace shows a striking silhouette, and gives Avignon that feeling of romance so lacking in some towns whose relics of the past are more remarkable.

It was in the year 1305 that Pope Clement V. removed the headquarters of the representatives of St. Peter from Rome to Avignon, and it remained there until 1411, when what Petrarch termed ‘a shameful exile’ came to an end and the Popes returned to Rome. During the century of their residence in Avignon the Popes built the enormous pile of buildings called a palace, although it is a forbidding fortress and one of the finest examples of fourteenth-century military architecture in existence. It is, as Hare has fittingly described it, ‘rather the citadel of an Asiatic tyrant than the representative of the God of peace.’ The walls and towers encircling the town were begun by Innocent VI. (1352-1362), and finished by his successor, Urban V.

Until lately the palace was utilized for barracks, but fortunately the soldiers are now quartered elsewhere, and the restorers are peeling off plaster and taking down the ugly walls and partitions of recent times, thus bringing to light the original splendour of the Papal residence. A magnificently carved stone doorway of large dimensions has been literally dug out of a most unpromising wall, and when the work is completed the palace-fortress will be one of the most remarkable of the historic monuments of France. Fortunately, one of the smaller apartments, with richly painted walls and ceilings, was sufficiently remarkable to escape the destructive hands of those who built up the great doorway, and the chapels in the Tour St. Jean are also covered with wall paintings. The palace is built on a raised mass of rock, and some of the irregularities of design are due to this fact.

Just to the north, on the same rock, is the interesting Romanesque Cathedral of Notre Dame des Doms, first built in early Christian times on the site of a Roman temple. Of the 157 Cardinals and Bishops buried in the church there are no monuments, and even the elaborate tomb of Pope John XXII., at one time in the middle of the nave, has been placed in the antechamber leading to the sacristy. This John XXII., who held the Chair of St. Peter between 1316 and 1334, was the son of a shoemaker of Cahors. His genius seems to have lain chiefly in the acquisition of vast wealth, for when he died he had laid up treasure on earth

in his newly built castle to the extent of eighteen millions of gold florins in specie and seven millions in plate and jewels! Milman also describes him as harsh and relentless and a cruel persecutor, who betrayed joy not only at the discomfiture but at the slaughter of his enemies, and then goes on to speak of the fame of his piety and learning, and how he rose every night to pray and to study and every morning to attend Mass. One has to think of this cruel and callous Pope kneeling at night to thank God for his great wealth laid up for many years, for his success in overcoming his enemies, and perhaps for the general feeling of comfort and security given by the massive walls of his fortress. His successor, Benedict XII., pulled down John’s buildings and put up much of the present palace.

Beyond the cathedral is a public garden, sheltered from the sun and the fierce mistral by a close growth of trees and bushes. An outer walk commands a magnificent view over the Rhone, with the broken bridge of St. BÉnÉzet throwing its four arches into the irresistible waters down below. It was during a republic which lasted from 1135 to 1251 that the bridge was built. It originally had nineteen arches, and above one of the piers was built a chapel to St. Nicholas. This interesting little structure still survives, and is illustrated in these pages.

A favourite nursery rhyme, known to anyone who has had a French nurse, is:

The best of the churches is St. Pierre, to the south of the Papal palace. It has an elaborate faÇade, built in 1520, and richly carved doors. St. Didier is of the fourteenth century, and contains the grave of St. BÉnÉzet under a slab in the centre of the nave. Near this church is the HÔtel Crillon, a fine example of the domestic architecture of the seventeenth century. St. Agricol dates from 1340.

The palace of the Archbishop of Avignon is a picturesque old building, dating from early in the fourteenth century. It is now a Petit SÉminaire.

Villeneuve-les-Avignon, on the west side of the Rhone, attracts one from the first, with its romantic grouping under the imposing bulk of the fourteenth-century Fort St. AndrÉ. The great square tower by the river, also of yellow stone, was built by Philippe le Bel for the defence of the bridge. Inside the Fort St. AndrÉ are the remains of a Benedictine abbey and a Romanesque chapel.

The interesting parish church of Villeneuve dates from the fourteenth century, and contains the tomb of Cardinal Arnauld de Via, the founder. In the chapel of the hospital on the other side of the street is the splendid tomb of Pope Innocent VI. (1352-1362), who did much to make amends for the misdeeds of Clement VI. The richly sculptured canopy rises in pinnacles to the roof, and the whole work reveals the enormous wealth of the Avignonese Popes.

In the picture-gallery of the hospital one of the most interesting works is the portrait of the lovely Marquise de Castellane, who, with her husband, was much at the Court of Louis XIV., and became known as ‘La Belle ProvenÇale.’ When the Marquis de Castellane died she married the Marquis de Ganges, and returned with him to Avignon. Here she was subjected to the unpleasant attentions of her brother-in-law, the Chevalier de Ganges, whose ill-controlled and illicit passion she firmly resisted, in spite of the efforts of another brother-in-law, the Abbot de Ganges. It was this villainous ecclesiastic who finally gave the beautiful Marquise poison, and the brutal Chevalier, on finding her dying, ran his rapier through her body several times. Both brothers were condemned to be broken alive on the wheel.

Roquemaure has the ruins of a picturesque medieval castle, where Clement V., the first of the Avignonese Pontiffs, died in 1314.

The road crosses the Rhone about two kilometres north of Roquemaure, and a short six miles brings one to

ORANGE

This quiet old town contains two astonishingly perfect relics of the Roman city of Aurasio—a triumphal arch and a theatre. The first stands on a circle of grass just outside the present town, and the road leading up to it in both directions gives the great arch a most striking position. A certain amount of restoration has been carried out, but it does not detract from the impressiveness of the work. There are several sculptured panels, and a frieze in which one can still see a great deal of a big battle subject.

It is generally believed that this is the triumphal arch put up in A.D. 21 to commemorate the victory of Tiberius over Sacrovir and Florus. It is certainly the best in France, and there are only two others in the world that surpass it in size and importance.

The theatre is an astonishingly perfect structure, retaining the enormous stone wall forming the back of the building. It is 118 feet high, 340 feet long, and 13 feet thick, and no doubt it was spared during the Middle Ages owing to its usefulness as an outer barbican or bastion to the castle on the high ground immediately above. There are indications showing that the theatre was roofed, and evidences of fire on the top of the vast wall reveal the agency which removed this unique feature. The three tiers of seats were cut out of the hillside, so that the building-up of the great auditorium was greatly simplified. The lowest tier of seats has been wonderfully well preserved, and the others have been reconstructed in recent years for the annual dramatic and lyrical performances given by the ComÉdie FranÇaise in August.

‘In August, 1886, a venture was made at Orange the like of which has rarely been made in France in modern times: a new French play demanding positive and strong recognition, the magnificent “Empereur d’Arles,” by the Avignon poet Alexis Mouzin, was given its first presentation in the Orange Theatre—in the provinces—instead of first being produced on the Paris stage. In direct defiance of the modern French canons of centralization, the great audience was brought together not to ratify opinions formulated by Parisian critics, but to express its own opinion at first hand. Silvain, of the ComÉdie FranÇaise, was the Maximien; Madame Caristie-Martel, of the OdÉon (a granddaughter of Caristie, the architect who saved the theatre from ruin), was the Minervine. The support was strong. The stately tragedy—vividly contrasting the tyranny and darkness of pagan Rome with the spirit of light and freedom arising in Christian Gaul—was in perfect keeping with its stately frame. The play went on in a whirl of enthusiastic approval to a triumphant end. There was no question of ratifying the opinion of Parisian critics: those Southerners formed and delivered an opinion of their own. In other words, the defiance of conventions was an artistic victory, a decentralizing success’ (Thomas A. Janvier).