The South of France—East Half

by C. B. Black

Saint Chamas. Rognac.

PARIS
MARSEILLES 506½ 30½ [SAINT CHAMAS ](Sanctus Amantius), pop. 3000, about ½ m.

from the station. It is situated on the N. end of the Étang de Berre, and on both sides of a short narrow ridge of soft sandstone pierced with excavations. The Government have one of their most important powder manufactories in this place. Hardly ½ m. E. from the Hôtel de Ville is the Flavian Bridge, built by the Romans, across the stream Touloubre, with at each end a kind of triumphal arch of 12 ft. span and about 22 ft. high. At each of the four corners is a grooved Corinthian pilaster surmounted by a frieze and a projecting dentilled cornice. On the top at each end stands a lion; the two on the east arch are apparently ready to spring eastward, and the other two westward. The bridge is in a state of perfect repair, but the sculpture and inscription on the two arches over the entrances are slightly effaced. The road to it is by the Hôtel de Ville and the parish church with a rudely sculptured “Pieta” over the portal. The bridge is to the E. of St. Chamas, and is well seen from the railway, especially when crossing the viaduct of 49 interlaced arches, which carry the rail over the little valley of the Touloubre. 8½ m. E. from St. Chamas is Berre station. The town, pop. 2100, is directly south, on [Lake Berre], a sheet of water 14 m. long and 38 in circumference.

PARIS
MARSEILLES 519½ 17½ [ROGNAC], pop. 900. Junction with rail to Aix, 16½ m. E., passing under the [Roquefavour] aqueduct, 7½ m. E. The canal, which brings 200 cubic ft. of water per second from the Durance to Marseilles and the neighbouring plain, commences opposite [Pertuis], directly north from Marseilles. It is 94 m. long, of which more than 15 are under ground; it has a fall of 614 ft., traverses, by 45 tunnels, 3 chains of limestone hills, and crosses numerous valleys by aqueducts, of which the largest crosses the ravine of the river Arc at Roquefavour. This aqueduct is 270 ft. high on three tiers of arches, is 1312 ft. long, 44½ ft. wide at the base, and 14 ft. wide at the water-way. It consists of 51,000 cubic yards of masonry, and cost £151,394, while the cost of the whole canal from the Durance to the sea, near Cape Croisette, a little to the east of Marseilles, has been £2,090,000. A branch from the principal channel throws 198,000 gallons per minute into the city, while five other ramifications fertilise by irrigation the country around it. The canal water is purified in the basins of Réaltort. The large reservoir for Marseilles is behind the [Palais de Longchamp]. (See p. 114, and for the course of the canal, maps pp. [66] and [123].)

To visit the aqueduct, take the road to the left from the station, pass under the railway bridge, and then ascend partly by a steep path and partly by steps to the house of the concierge.

Aix. Hôtel de Ville.

16½ m. E. from Rognac, or 33 m. N. from Marseilles by Rognac, but only 18 m. N. by Gardanne, is [Aix-en-Provence], pop. 29,000. Hotels: Negre-Coste, the best, in the Grand Cours; at the east end of the Cours, Mule-Noire, and near it at the Palais de Justice, the Hôtel du Palais; at the station end of the Cours, the Louvre and the France; at the baths, the Hôtel des Bains; opposite the Hôtel de Ville, the Hôtel Aigle d’Or. Best cafés in the Cours René. Post and telegraph offices in the street behind the Cours, or behind the division opposite the Hôtel Negre-Coste. Aix, formerly the capital of Provence, was founded 120 B.C. by the Consul Sextius Calvinus around the thermal springs, which he himself had discovered. The temperature of the water is 95° F., and the ingredients, iron and iodine, the carbonates, sulphates, and chlorides of soda and magnesia, together with an organic bituminous matter strongly impregnated with glairine. The establishment is situated at the extremity of the Cours Sextius. Pension, 8½ frs. Each bath 1 fr. At the high end of the Cours René is a statue, by David, of René of Anjou, “le bon Roi,” king of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem; died in 1480 at the age of 72, and buried at Angers, where he was born. He was endowed with every virtue, was a poet, painter, and musician, and was skilled in medicine and astronomy. During his reign in Aix the people were prosperous, and art and science flourished. From the right of the statue streets lead up to the principal square with a monument to Lodovico XV., the Palais de Justice with statues of the jurists Portales and Siméon, and the church of the Madeleine, built for the perpetual adoration of the host. A little higher up are the [Hôtel de Ville], built in 1640; the Halle-aux-Grains, reconstructed in 1760 and adorned with bold and spirited sculpture. Next the Hôtel de Ville is the great clock tower, bearing the date 1512. In the centre of the court of the Hôtel de Ville is a statue of Mirabeau, and on the staircase a white marble statue of Marshal Villars, by Coustou. In the Hôtel de Ville is also the public library with 100,000 vols. Among the MSS. is the prayer book of King René, with illustrations said to have been done by himself. No. 569 is a small 4to volume, with copies of letters written by Queen Mary Stuart. The first 57 pages relate to her early history. At page 645 commences a defence of her conduct, written by a warm partisan of the queen. The street, ascending through the gateway of the clock tower, leads to the university buildings, the palace of the archbishop, and the [ Aix: Cathedral.] Cathedral of Saint Sauveur, built in the 11th cent., partly on the foundations of a temple to Apollo. The tower, 195 ft. high, was built in the 15th cent., and the chancel in 1285. The façade was commenced in 1476, and the beautiful sculpture on the great entrance door executed in 1503. It is generally covered by a plain outer door. In the interior to the right is the Baptistery, an octagonal chapel with six antique marble and two granite Corinthian columns about 30 ft. high, each shaft being of one stone. The ornamental sculpture on the panels and in the spandrels is by Puget. On the same side are two triptychs, one by Crayer, “Mary worshipped by Saints,” and the

other by some artist of the Jean Van Eyck school, representing in the centre Moses and the burning bush, with Mary up in a clump of trees. On one wing is King René on his knees, attended by the Magdalene, St. Maurice, and St. Anthony; and on the other wing is the king’s second wife, Jeanne de Laval, attended by her patron saints. On the outside of the shutters are the angel Gabriel and Mary.

On each side of the chancel is an organ case, but only the one on the left hand has pipes. Under each is a large tapestry dating from 1511, representing scenes in the life of J. C. Both pieces are said to have belonged to St. Paul’s of London. Among the relics the church possesses are: the skull of St. Ursula, the arm of one of her 11,000 virgins presented by Nicolas V. in 1458, a rib of St. Sebastian presented by King René, and three thorns from the crown of our Lord.

Aix: Picture Gallery.