No. 21. VALENCE TO ST. ÉTIENNE.
The road goes through the village of Cornas, and all the way to Andance motor-drivers have to be constantly on the alert for the dangerous shallow drains across the road, which, if passed over at twenty miles an hour, would mean the chance of a broken axle.
Immediately on the right is the broad Rhone, and on the left the hills rise sharply, with a narrow strip of vineyards and orchards on the lower ground.
On the right, just above the junction of the Rhone with the Isère, the castle of Châteaubourg stands on an isolated mass of rock. It was visited by St. Louis in 1248.
TOURNON
is a romantic little town under the shadow of steep hills, and has two suspension bridges across the Rhone. One of them is the earliest bridge of this type built in France. The old town has medieval walls and circular towers, with machicolation, archways, and narrow picturesque streets. The château is now turned into an Hôtel de Ville.
The collegiate church belongs to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the Lycée, one of the best-known colleges in France, consists chiefly of Renaissance buildings. Cardinal de Tournon, one of the feudal family which owned the town until 1644, founded the Lycée in 1542.
After crossing the River Doux, one passes the village of Arras, cowering beneath a ruined castle with a tall, bulging tower.
The busy-looking town of St. Vallier appears on the opposite bank of the Rhone, just before reaching the hamlet of Sarras.
On approaching Andance one goes over a level-crossing, and immediately afterwards turns to the left, leaving the river behind, and begins climbing up a beautiful mountainous valley, adorned in April with masses of pink-and-white fruit-blossom.