 | Paris and northern France |  |
52. From Paris to Bâle by Troyes, Belfort
and Mulhouse.
Express in 12½, ordinary trains in 16 hrs.; fares 58 fr. 70 c., 44 fr.,
32 fr. 30 c. The station is on the l., adjoining the Station de Strasbourg.
From Paris to Noisy-le-Sec see p. 252. The Strasbourg line
here diverges to the l. At Nogent-sur-Marne (p. 127) the Marne
is crossed. On the r. the park of Vincennes is visible. The
line now enters the fertile, but monotonous plain of Brie. From
stat. Gretz a branch-line to Armainvillers. Nangis with 2000 inhab.,
a busy little town, possesses an ancient castle and an interesting
Gothic church (St. Martin).
The line traverses several attractive valleys and a succession
of viaducts and tunnels. Stat. Longueville.
Branch-line in 15 min. to Provins, an ancient town (7500 inhab.) on
the Vouzie, with remnants of a castle of the former Counts of Champagne.
The church of St. Quiriace, with its dome, and the Tour du Roi (or de César),
an early mediæval structure, are worthy of notice.
At stat. Chalmaison the line quits the plain of Brie and
enters the valley of the Seine. From stat. Flamboin a branch-line
to Montereau (p. 273). At stat. Nogent-sur-Seine, the line
crosses the Seine.
About 4½ M. to the S. of Nogent once lay the Abbey of Paraclet,
where during nearly seven centuries the remains of Abélard and Heloïse
reposed. In 1792 they were conveyed to the church of St. Laurent at
Nogent, whence they were finally removed to the cemetery of Père Lachaise
at Paris (p. 115). The farm of a M. Walckenaer now occupies the
site of the abbey. The empty vault, however, still exists.
The district continues flat. Near stat. Pont-sur-Seine is situated
the château Le Muet, where Madame Letitia, Napoleon's
mother once resided, afterwards the property of Casimir Périer.
The remains of Voltaire once reposed in the church of stat. Romilly,
whither they were transported on the suppression of the
neighbouring abbey of Scellières, the great poet's first resting-place.
They were subsequently conveyed to the Pantheon at
Paris (p. 139), whence they were removed in 1814. Several
small stations, then
Troyes (Hôtels de Paris, de France, du Mulet, du Commerce;
Restaurants Pillost, Chaulin; *Rail. Restaurant) on the Seine, the
ancient capital of Champagne, an animated and well-built town
with 33,000 inhab. During the Roman period the town was
named Augustobona, then Tricassis, and after the 5th cent. Trecae.
Mention of it is frequently made in the wars of the middle ages.
The cathedral of St. Pierre, commenced in 1208, completed
in 1640, exhibits a combination of different styles of architecture.
The choir has recently been restored in the early Gothic style.
The richly decorated Portal dates from 1506. — *St. Urbain was
erected in 1262—67 by Pope Urban IV. (Jacques Pantaléon,
son of a shoemaker), a native of this town. — The churches
of the 12th century contain little to detain the traveller.
The last named possesses a handsome rood-loft (jobé) with rich
sculpture.
The *Hôtel de Ville, erected 1624—70, contains a magnificent
hall, adorned with the busts of seven celebrated natives of the
town. On the E. side a medallion-figure in marble of Louis XIV.,
dating from 1680, with Latin inscription by Racine.
The Museum, founded in 1831 contains pictures, sculptures
and objects illustrative of natural history. Above it a *Library of
100,000 vols. and upwards of 2000 MSS. (open daily 10—2 o'clock).
Branch-line from Troyes to Bar-sur-Seine in 1 hr. 5 min.
Leaving Troyes the train traverses meadow-land on the bank
of the Scine, which it quits at stat. Rouilly. Beyond stat. Vendeuvre
the picturesque and partially wooded valley of the Aube
is entered. This district between Troyes and Arcis, and as far
as Langres, was the scene of the final desperate struggle of Napoleon
against the Allies under Schwarzenberg and Blücher in the
winter of 1814. Stat. Jessains commands an extensive prospect.
On the Aube is situated the village of La Rothière, where on Feb. 1st,
1814 Blücher obtained the first victory over Napoleon on French soil.
Farther to the l., on the height beyond the Aube, rises the ancient town
of Brienne (Brienne le Château, now named Brienne Napoléon), celebrated
for the military school where Napoleon studied in 1779—84. A sanguinary
conflict here took place between Blücher and Napoleon, Jan. 29th, 1814,
when the town was bombarded and set on fire and Blücher narrowly
escaped capture. Napoleon destined the sum of one million fr. to be employed
in rebuilding the town. In 1852 Napoleon III. presented the inhabitants
with 400,000 fr., which has been expended in the construction
of the new Mairie; in front of the latter a bronze Statue of Napoleon in
his 15th year by Louis Rochet.
The line now descends the pleasant valley of the Aube, crosses
the stream near stat. Arsonval and reaches Bar-sur-Aube, an
ancient town (4500 inhab.), with the churches of St. Maclou and
St. Pierre, dating from the 11th and 12th centuries. Schwarzenberg
here gained a victory over Oudinot on Feb. 27th, 1814.
Next stat. Clairvaux, which lies to the r. in the valley of the
Aube. The celebrated Cistercian abbey (Clara Vallis) founded
by St. Bernard in 1115 is now a workhouse. No traces of antiquity
are now perceptible.
The line now enters the valley of the Aujon, and at stat.
Maranville that of the Brozé. Stat. Bricon is the junction of
the branch-line to Châtillon-sur-Seine and Nuits-sous-Ravières
(p. 274). Beyond Villiers-le-Sec a huge viaduct of 50 arches,
150 ft. in height, crosses the valley of the Suize to Chaumont
(en-Bassigny), a fortified town (6300 inhab.) on a barren ridge
between the Suize and the Marne. The church of St. Jean Baptiste
of the 13th, with choir of the 16th cent., deserves notice.
La Tour Hautefeuille near the Palais de Justice, is the remains
of an ancient castle of the Counts of Champagne.
Branch-line from Chaumont in 2½ hrs. to Blesme, a station on the
Paris and Strasbourg line, traversing the valley of the Marne.
The line descends through deep cuttings into the valley of
the Marne. The district is picturesque. Stat. Foulain, Rolampont,
then Langres (Hôtel de l'Europe; Poste), the ancient Andomatunum,
capital of the Lingones, now an episcopal residence
loftily situated on a spur of the Plateau de Langres, with
8300 inhab. The cathedral of *St. Mammès, with its two vast
towers is a structure of the 11th and 12th centuries in the transition
style from Romanesque to Gothic. St. Martin, of the
13th cent., is Gothic; tower of the 18th cent. At the Porte du
Marché is an admirably preserved *Roman Gateway. The Museum
(Place St Didier) contains altars, inscriptions and other antiquities.
Diderot (d. at Paris in 1784) was born at Langres in 1713. —
The three sources of the Marne are situated in a rocky ravine,
to the S., near the farm La Marnotte.
From stat. Chalindrey a line diverges to Gray and Auxonne
(p. 275). Then a long tunnel. The line then enters the valley
of the Amance, which it follows down to the Saône. Stat. Hortes,
Charmoy, Laferté-sur-Amance.
The celebrated baths of Bourbonne-les-Bains are situated 12 M. to
the N. (diligence in 2 hrs.); sulphureous and saline waters, known to
the Romans.
The line soon crosses the Saône and ascends on its r. bank.
At Port d'Atelier the line from Vesoul to Nancy by Epinal diverges,
which unites with the Paris and Strasbourg line at stat. Blainville-la-Grande.
At stat. Port-sur-Saône the valley of the Saône is quitted,
and the line traverses wooded heights to Vaivre and Vesoul
(6800 inhab.), the busy capital of the Departement Haute-Saône,
picturesquely situated in the valley of the Durgeon. (Branch-line
to Gray, see above.)
Then three small stations, and several cuttings and tunnels.
Towards the l. (N.E.) the Vosges Mts. become visible. Stat. Lure
in the valley of the Ognon, was once a considerable abbey. The
Vosges continue to rise picturesquely on the l.
Belfort (6000 inhab.), a fortress on the Savoureuse, was constructed
by Vauban under Louis XIV.
This is the junction of the line to Besauçon, which proceeds thence
by Lons le Saulnier and Bourg to Lyons, being the most direct line of communication
between Strasbourg and Lyons.
Mulhouse, Ger. Mülhausen (Ville de Paris; Lion Rouge;
Hôtel de France, at the station), once a free town of the Germanic
Empire, belonging to Switzerland from 1515 to 1798,
since then French, is an important manufacturing town on the
Rhine-Rhone Canal, with upwards of 40,000 inhab. Several
branches of the Ill traverse the town. The Société Commerciale
possesses nat. history and industrial collections.
The line to Bâle now traverses the broad plain of the Rhine;
to the r. vine-clad hills; to the l. in the distance the mountains
of the Black Forest, among which the Blauen is the most conspicuous.
St. Louis is the last French stat. To the l. on the
Rhine is situated the former fortress of Hüningen, constructed
by Vauban in 1679, dismantled by the Austrians in 1815.
Bâle (*Trois Rois, on the Rhine. At the central station:
*Schweizerhof; *Sauvage; *Cicogne; *Couronne and Tête, on the
Rhine; Poste; Cygne), see Baedeker's Switzerland.
| Paris and northern France | |