LE GRAND ANDELY
Although possessing an almost cathedral-like church, the major attraction of Le Grand Andely must be its early sixteenth-century inn—the Hôtel du Grand Cerf. It was built in 1515 by Nicholas Duval, Seigneur du Viennois, a favourite of François I., and in the carving on the oak beams of the house one frequently comes across the salamander and the fleur-de-lys of that monarch. The frontage on the street and the charming little courtyard are made beautiful with the dark brown timber, in many places richly carved, which has never been hidden by plaster.
Going through a beautifully decorated door from a corner of the courtyard, one enters the old hall of the house through a tambour, or lobby, of richly carved and panelled oak. The chief feature is the great fireplace, which almost makes folk who sit at the little tables appear as figures in a romantic picture. It was only in 1749 that the house was sold to the M. Lefèvre who turned it into an inn. Sir Walter Scott, Rosa Bonheur, Viollet-le-Duc, Chateaubriand, and Victor Hugo, all stayed at Le Grand Cerf, but the book in which these famous guests wrote their names was stolen a few years ago.
The church dates between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, but belongs chiefly to the earlier period, and has three towers and fifty-two beautiful sixteenth-century windows worthy of careful examination. It has stalls of the Flamboyant period and three pictures by Quentin Varin, the first master of Nicholas Poussin, the most famous of the French painters of the seventeenth century, who was born, in 1594, in a village close to Les Andelys, and to whom a statue has been erected in the town.
On June 2 every year there is a pilgrimage to the Fontaine de Ste. Clotilde, which is under the shade of lime-trees near the church. Its waters are sacred in connection with the legend that Ste. Clotilde gave them the strength and flavour of wine for the workmen who were building a convent for her, and had complained of having nothing but water to drink.
LE PETIT ANDELY
A short straight road leads from Le Grand to Le Petit Andely, with its church standing in the centre of a space where one turns either to the right to go on to Rouen or to the left for Château Gaillard, whose walls, gleaming white in the sunshine, still frown above the picturesque main street of the town. The interesting church seems to have been built very soon after the first siege of the castle, and therefore at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The choir is considered to be the oldest part, but the whole building is very much of the same period, and is a very perfect example of early French architecture. Inside and out the style is a little plain, but the beauty of its proportions is very striking. The paintings on the walls are fifteenth century, and the copper chandeliers belong to the eighteenth.
CHÂTEAU GAILLARD
Just before the last houses of the little town are reached an opening to the left leads to the footpath which climbs up the steep, grassy ascent to the ruins of Richard Cœur-de-Lion’s ‘saucy’ castle.
Although, since the year 1603, when Henri IV. gave permission for the castle to be destroyed, it has been used as a quarry for dressed stone at various times in that period, the great pile still retains its chief features, and is, in many ways, one of the most notable castles in the world. Richard coolly determined to fortify the spot soon after the Treaty of Louviers, in which it was expressly agreed that neither France nor England should either fortify or have any feudal rights in Les Andelys! Only three months after the compact had been sworn he of the lion-heart began the great fortress. It was to be no ordinary castle; it was to be impregnable; and M. Dieulafoy suggests that Richard I. utilized his experience in the Crusades and built after the Syrian plan, Antioch and Tyre having been found exceedingly hard to capture.