goes out eastwards, and, after a few miles, passes through a rocky ravine before coming out into the long valley of the River Arc, bounded on the north by the gaunt grey precipices of Mont Ste. Victoire. It was into this valley that Marius with his legions drove the undisciplined invaders in 102 B.C., and near Pourrières he outflanked and defeated them. The slaughter was so enormous that the two great tribes of the Teutones and Ambrones, with their women and children, were practically annihilated, and the river ran red with their life-blood. Just after crossing the Arc, on the north side of the road, are the slight ruins of the monument put up by the Romans to celebrate the great victory achieved by the brilliant strategy of Marius, who thus saved Rome from premature extinction.
Soon after passing Pourrières, a compact village north of the road, with roofs and walls of the same dark orange-red as the soil of the vineyards, there is spread out in front a splendid mountain view, with snow-capped peaks standing out against the blue of the distant sky.
No. 18. AIX-EN-PROVENCE TO CANNES.
St. Maximin is a very small town with a lovely Gothic church, which should by no means be ignored. It dates from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, and stands over an early crypt containing Early Christian sarcophagi. This is kept locked, but the sacristan has the key. The altar at the east end of the north aisle is dated 1526, with the name ‘Jacques Baurmes, Chamberlain to the King,’ who gave it to the church. In one of the paintings Christ is being scourged on the Piazzetta at Venice! The choir-stalls of the seventeenth century are richly carved, the whole interior is clean and light, and the lofty arches are exceptionally beautiful.
The way out of St. Maximin is a zigzag to the right, and at the fork just outside one turns to the left, neither going under the railway-arch nor up to the station, which one can see on the left a little farther on.
The village of Tourves has an obelisk by the fine ruined Château de Valbelle, on a ridge to the left. On the steep hillsides one sees miles of terraces, where vineyards have been patiently extracted from the formerly arid slopes.
Brignoles is a small town, with a long, narrow street, and the hotel is often a convenient resting-place for déjeuner. The dried plums of Brignoles have long been famous. They were eaten by the Duc de Guise, it will be remembered, just before his assassination (p. 98). A twelfth-century house, with windows divided by columns, and the Sous-Préfecture, which was formerly the winter palace of the Counts of Provence, sacked by Charles V., are the only antiquities of the town.
Flassans is a comparatively new village on the road, with an abandoned one, now roofless and with broken walls, on the hill to the left. A conspicuous wooden cross and a little chapel by the ruined houses seem to suggest that something had to be done to keep restless spirits under proper control.