The contrasts with which one meets in going between the extreme boundaries of east and west are very great, both with respect to men and to manners; the Niçois is no brother of the Basque, though they both be swarthy and speak a patois, even to-day as unlike modern French as is the speech of the Breton or the Flamand. The Catalan of Roussillon is quite unlike the Languedoçian of the Camargue plain, and the peasant of the Aude or the Ariège bears little or no resemblance in speech or manners to the Béarnais.

There is a subtle charm and appeal in the magnificent feudal châteaux and fortified bourgs of this region which is quite different from the warmer emotions awakened by the great Renaissance masterpieces of Touraine and the Loire country. Each is irresistible. Whether one contemplates the imposing château at Pau, or the more delicately conceived Chenonceaux; the old walled Cité of Carcassonne, or the walls and ramparts of Clisson or of Angers; the Roman arena at Nîmes, or the Roman Arc de Triomphe at Saintes, there is equal charm and contrast.

To the greater appreciation, then, of the people of Southern France, and of the gallant types of the Pyrenean provinces in particular, the following pages have been written and illustrated.

F. M.

Perpignan, August, 1907.



CHAPTER PAGE
By Way of Introduction v
[I.] A General Survey[1]
[II.] Feudal France—Its People and Its Châteaux[18]
[III.] The Pyrenees—Their Geography and Topography[46]
[IV.] The Pyrenees—Their History and People[73]
[V.] Roussillon and the Catalans[95]
[VI.] From Perpignan to the Spanish Frontier[110]
[VII.] The Canigou and Andorra[130]
[VIII.] The High Valley of the Aude[152]
[IX.] The Walls of Carcassonne[161]
[X.] The Counts of Foix[175]
[XI.] Foix and Its Château[185]
[XII.] The Valley of the Ariège[197]
[XIII.] St. Lizier and the Couserans[211]
[XIV.] The Pays de Comminges[222]
[XV.] Béarn and the Béarnais[230]
[XVI.] Of the History and Topography of Béarn[244]
[XVII.] Pau and Its Château[258]
[XVIII.] Lescar, the Sepulchre of the Béarnais[278]
[XIX.] The Gave d’Ossau[287]
[XX.] Tarbes, Bigorre and Luchon[297]
[XXI.] By the Blue Gave de Pau[307]
[XXII.] Oloron and the Val d’Aspe[324]
[XXIII.] Orthez and the Gave d’Oloron[335]
[XXIV.] The Birth of French Navarre[354]
[XXV.] The Basques[372]
[XXVI.] Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and the Col de Ronçevaux[393]
[XXVII.] The Valley of the Nive[405]
[XXVIII.] Bayonne: Its Port and Its Walls[413]
[XXIX.] Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz[422]
[XXX.] The Bidassoa and the Frontier[436]
[Index]: [A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [J], [L], [M], [N], [O], [P], [Q], [R], [S], [T], [U], [V], [W], [Y]. [449]