PARIS
MARSEILLES 274 263 [MACON], pop. 20,000. At station, large refreshment-rooms. Junction with line to Bourg, 41 m. E. Hotels.—Near the station, H. Étrangers. In town the Europe, on the Quai du Nord, near the landing-place from the steamers, which sail daily up and down the Saône, between Chalons, Macon, and Lyons. In the centre of the town are the hotels Champs Elysées and Sauvage. Macon is the great depôt of the Macon wines, an inferior Burgundy. The finest part of the town extends along the quays which line the right side of the Saône, crossed by a stone bridge of 12 arches, uniting Macon with its suburb Saint Laurent on the left side of the river. The oldest edifice is the Cathedral of St. Vincent, built in the 12th cent. The arches are stilted, the columns Romanesque, and the porch arcaded. Next to it is the Préfecture, formerly the Episcopal palace. In this neighbourhood,
at No. 21 Rue des Ursulines, is the house where Lamartine was born. On a black marble slab over the door are the words:—Ici est né Alphonse-Marie-Louis De Lamartine, le 21 Octobre 1790.
In the Rue Dombey is an old timber house, and towards the station, the beautiful church of St. Pierre, built in 1865, in the Romanesque style, and decorated with frescoes. Opposite is the Hôtel de Ville.
From Macon a branch line extends 48 miles westward to Paray-le-Monial, passing Cluny, 15 miles from Macon. From Macon a line extends to Geneva 74 m. E., by Bourg 13½ m. E., Nantua and Bellegards 39¾ m. E. (See Black’s France, North Half, and [map page 1].)
Cluny. Paray-le-Monial.
[Cluny], pop. 5000. In the valley of the Grosne. Hotels: Bourgogne; Pavilions—both near each other. This is the place where Guillaume-le-Pieux founded in the 10th cent, the famous abbey of Cluny. The abbey buildings are now used as a school. Of the abbey church an insignificant portion alone remains, and of it the most interesting part is the spire. In the Chapelle des Bourbons (15th cent.) are enormous corbels under the empty niches. About 300 yards distant is the Maison Abbatiale, 15th cent., with flattened elliptical-headed windows and ogee arches over the doors. At the entrance is a collection of columns, capitals, etc., from the first church founded in the 10th cent. Upstairs there is a small museum; entrance, ½-franc each.
41½ m. E. from Moulins and 33 m. from Montchanin is [Paray-le-Monial], pop. 3700, on the Bourbince. Inns: The Poste, the best; across the bridge, the Lion d’Or; at the head of the principal street, near the Palais de Justice, the Trois Pigeons and the Commerce; opposite the Chapelle de la Visitation, the Inn H. des Pelerins. The Palais de Justice, with the clock tower, occupies the remains of an edifice built in the 16th cent., to which date belongs also the house close to it, occupied by the Mairie and the Post Office.
A little way down the Bourbince is the formerly abbey, now the parish church, founded in the llth cent., but nearly rebuilt in the 12th cent. Over the façade rise two elegant square towers with pyramidal roofs, llth cent.; while from the centre of the transepts rises an octagonal tower in 2 stages, surmounted by a tapering 8-sided slated spire. From the apse radiate chapels adorned with dental friezes and short attached columns.
From this church, the narrow street, the Rue de la Visitation, leads up to the nunnery of the Visitation, an order instituted in 1620, and established in Paray on the 4th September 1626 by 8 nuns from the monastery of Bellecour at Lyons. In 1633 they commenced to build their chapel, which was repaired in 1823, and restored and beautified in 1854. To this chapel the order attach great importance, as it was in this building that Marguerite-Marie Alacoque had most of her interviews with J. C. In the interior the walls and roof are