La Pacaudière to Moulins.—A fairly level road.
Bessay.—Has a bad caniveau.
PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
St. Étienne.—A large industrial town in one of the great coalfields of France; manufactures include armour-plate, machinery, rifles and arms, and silk ribbon.
Feurs.—A small manufacturing town, containing a few old houses.
Roanne.—A busy manufacturing town, quite uninteresting.
La Pacaudière.—A picturesque village.
La Palisse.—On the Bèbre; is a small town, with a large château of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Varennes-sur-Allier.—A small place, with quaint houses.
St. Étienne owes its prosperity to its extensive coalfields, covering about 100 square miles. The annual production of the mines is given as from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 tons. The town also employs thousands of men in the iron foundries, where armour-plate and machinery and all sorts of large castings are made. A very large output of rifles and revolvers is another source of wealth to the town, and the ribbon industry, largely carried on in the homes of the workmen, keeps 40,000 men employed. The weavers, as a rule, show their looms to visitors without the least objection.