There is no need for me to describe the marvels of rock scenery in Mal Infernet, the Ravin d’Uzel, the Rochers du Pigeonnier, or the many other sights of the Estérel, for there are two or three excellent little guide-books to this most fascinating region, easily obtainable at Cannes.
In addition to Agay, there are other comfortable places well furnished with hotels, where one may spend many pleasant days, as Théoule and Le Trayas. And as there is not only the New Corniche Road, but also the main line skirting the Estérel, it is easily accessible and easily abandoned should books run short and rain fall.
WASHERWOMEN, GRASSE
CHAPTER XI
GRASSE
Advantages of situation—Fine scenery in neighbourhood—The foux—Manufactures—Romeo de Villeneuve—Charles of Anjou—In Sicily—The Sicilian Vespers—Death of Charles—The transfer of Episcopal Chair to Grasse from Antibes—Antoine Godeau—Cathedral—Cathedral of Vence—Western Choirs—Attempt to blow up the Bishop—The Hôtel Cabris—Louise de Cabris—The Mirabeaus—Cabris—Gabriel Honoré—André Boniface—The Gorges of the Loup—Gourdon—Mouans Sartoux—The Calvinist Seigneur—Pompée de Grasse—Susanne de Villeneuve—François de Théas Thorenc—Fragonard—Petty quarrels—The Flowers of Grasse.
GRASSE, once a great resort, during the winter, for visitors, has ceased to be that, unless it be out of curiosity. They run up by train from Cannes for a couple of hours and return by the next. The only foreign residents there for the winter season are such as have bought villas which they cannot dispose of. But Grasse possesses advantages not shared by Cannes. It is far better protected against cold winds, as it lies under the great limestone wall that supports the bare terrace before the Alps. But, built as it is on a steep slope, it is not a place where any one with a weak heart can live, unless content to live at his window. There is scarce a bit of level street in the place. The shops are naught and entertainments indifferent. But then—it is an admirable centre for a stay of a few weeks, for one who desires to explore the magnificent scenery of the Loup, the curious country in the great loop made by the River Var, S. Vallier, and the upper waters of the Siagne; Vence also and S. Jeannet under its marvellous crag, full of crevasses and caves.
Grasse must always have been a place where men settled, from the earliest days, as there is a foux, a great outburst of purest water from the rock. The cave from which it rushes is now closed up, and the water is led to the place where the women wash clothes, and by pipes is conveyed about the town. There is, however, no evidence that the town was one in Greek or Roman times, and it first appears in history in 1154; but then it was a place of some consequence, and shortly after that it contracted alliances on an equal footing with the Pisans and the Genoese. Throughout the Middle Ages it throve on its manufactures of soap, its leather, its gloves, its refined oil and scents. It was a free and independent town, governing itself like the Italian communities, as a Republic, with its annually elected consuls; and when it submitted in 1227 to Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence, it made its own terms with him. Grasse attained to great prosperity under the celebrated seneschal Romeo de Villeneuve, a remarkable man, whose story may here be told.