Chapter XXVIII: Section XXVI: St. Germain-En-Laye to Gisors,

37½ MILES

(60 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

Kil. Miles. =St. Germain= to Conflans-Ste. Honorine =11= 7 =Conflans= to Pontoise =8= 5 =Pontoise= to Marines =14= 8¾ =Marines= to Chaumont-en-Vexin =18= 11¼ =Chaumont-en-Vexin= to Trie-Château =5= 3 =Trie-Château= to Gisors =4= 2½

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

=Pontoise to Bouconvilliers.=--On this section of the road there are
several stretches of paving, and at the cross-roads just beyond
Lierville (a village just off the road on the left) it is best to
go to the right through =Chaumont-en-Vexin=, to avoid the paved road
that goes direct to Gisors.

=Gisors.=--On entering there is a bad _caniveau_.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

This portion of the route goes through part of =Vexin=, a county of
ancient France.

=Conflans-Ste. Honorine.=--A village by the Seine; ruins of two
castles; church of twelfth and fifteenth centuries.

=Pontoise.=--Historic town on the Oise, formerly capital of Vexin;
portions of town walls and slight remains of castle; Hôtel Dieu,
rebuilt 1823-1827; two churches--(1) St. Maclou, partly twelfth,
but mainly fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; (2) Notre Dame,
Classic, with tomb of St. Gautier, 1146.

=Cormeilles-en-Vexin.=--Village with picturesque church, twelfth
century and later.

=Marines.=--Small village, with a seventeenth-century château.

=Chars.=--Village on the Voisne; has church of twelfth and fourteenth
centuries.

=Chaumont-en-Vexin.=--Very picturesquely situated little town; a few
old houses, and church of Flamboyant and Classic periods; remains
of eleventh-century castle.

=Trie-Château.=--Small town; has (1) gateway, tower, and other
remains of a fifteenth-century castle; (2) interesting Hôtel de
Ville of twelfth century; (3) church with richly ornamented
Romanesque façade.

The Forest of St. Germain-en-Laye, through which the route goes towards Pontoise, occupies practically the whole of the area enclosed by the third loop of the Seine below Paris, and was formerly part of the immense forest of Laye, one of those which surrounded Paris in the Middle Ages, and formed a great attraction to the French monarchs on account of the excellent hunting they provided.

From the long avenue there are interesting views of Paris, with the Eiffel Tower conspicuous, and on fine sunny days it has the fantastic aspect of a city of palaces and temples.

On emerging from the forest of very indifferent trees, the road crosses the Seine, and one turns to the right at once for Conflans-Ste. Honorine, where the ruins of its two castles, with an old tower conspicuous, look out over the soft green of the willows bordering the river. The late Gothic church, with a tower of the twelfth century, contains a picture attributed to Zurbaran, a Spanish artist of the seventeenth century who was Court painter to both Philip III. and Philip IV. The association of Conflans with St. Honorine has been mentioned in connection with Graville (Section I.).

About eight kilometres north of Conflans the River Oise is crossed at

PONTOISE,

an historic town picturesquely situated on high ground above the river.

It became the capital of the ancient province of <f>Vexin</f> when Philippe I. of France united one-half of Vexin to the Crown, and the castle became a royal residence. The boundaries of the province were, roughly, the Oise, the Seine, and the Andelle, and dividing it into two portions, known as Vexin Français and Vexin Normand, was the little River Epte. In the tenth century the Epte was decided upon as the boundary of the Duchy of Normandy, and it remained so until Philippe Auguste (II.) added the Norman half of Vexin to France. It is an interesting fact that the French half of Vexin, through having been a possession of the Abbey of St. Denis, gave the viscounts of the province the right of carrying in battle the celebrated banner of the oriflamme: thus, when Philippe I. acquired the territory he obtained the privilege, and the oriflamme of St. Denis was transferred to the royal standard.

There was a bridge at Pontoise in Roman times, for it was then called _Pons Iscaræ_, and before the present steel structure made its appearance in recent years there was a stone bridge of five arches.

It is unfortunate that the remains of the Château are inconsiderable, for its history as a royal residence in early times is interesting, St. Louis (IX.) having spent much of his youth in its massive walls at the time when his mother, Blanche of Castile, was endeavouring to keep him from his wife, Marguerite de Provence. It was also at Pontoise that St. Louis, when ill, vowed that he would lead a Crusade if he recovered. It was the fifth expedition to the Holy Land which he eventually headed. The town was often besieged in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, and under Louis XIV. and Louis XV. the Parliament was held there in 1652, 1720, and 1753.

The ramparts still exist in part, but there has apparently been a great deal of reckless destruction in the town, for it has been robbed of many of its old buildings.

The Hôtel Dieu, built by St. Louis down by the river, was rebuilt in 1823-1827, and its only interest now is the picture, ‘The Healing of the Paralytic,’ by Philippe de Champaigne, who was one of the artists who helped to decorate the Luxembourg in Paris for Marie de Medici, the wife of Henri IV.

Bossuet, the most famous man in the Church of France in the seventeenth century, was consecrated Bishop of Meaux in 1681 in the church of the Cordeliers, which had a splendid refectory. This church, with others, and several convents has disappeared.

St. Maclou, the more important of the two which remain, is in part a twelfth-century building, although mainly of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The west front has a fine Flamboyant porch. Pierre Lemercier, who was grandfather of Jacques Lemercier, who built the Sorbonne, the Sorbonne church, and the Palais Royale (1585-1660), was the architect of the Renaissance portions of the church.

Notre Dame, the other church, is chiefly in the Classic style of the latter half of the sixteenth century. It contains a fine altar-tomb of 1146, bearing the recumbent effigy of St. Gautier, Abbé of Meulan, with four angels swinging censers. There is also an ancient Madonna which attracts pilgrims to the church.

* * * * *

Leaving Pontoise by the road to Gisors, one passes through several picturesque villages. The first is Cormeilles-en-Vexin, whose church (partly twelfth century), with big flying buttresses and gargoyles, stands out prominently over the green and wooded country as the village is approached.

There are two or three stretches of paving-stones on this road, necessitating a slow pace to avoid dislocating every part of the car and its occupants, and there is thus plenty of time to enjoy the rural charm of the red-roofed villages, the big picturesque farms, and the extensive woods.

Marines is a small village with a seventeenth-century château containing a notable staircase. It belonged to Chancellor Sillory, who was Chancellor of France under Henri IV. In the church is the sixteenth-century chapel of St. Roch, standing over an octagonal crypt.

Three short stretches of _pavé_ follow after leaving Marines, then the road drops down through a cutting in yellow sandstone to Chars (on the River Voisne), where there is a church of the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. The earlier work is worth studying, and there is also an interesting tomb to Jeanne de Ferrières, of the fourteenth century.

Passing over a level-crossing, the village of Bouconvilliers lies on the left. It has a large farm of the Sussex Downs type, sheltered by big trees, a church with a Romanesque tower, and a castle of the time of Louis XIII. (seventeenth century) on the site of a much earlier one, of which the entrenchments remain.

Just beyond the hamlet of Lierville (on the left) five roads meet. The direct way to Gisors is straight ahead, but a notice warns one of bad paving-stones, and recommends going to the right through Chaumont-en-Vexin. By doing so the distance is only slightly increased, and the _pavé_ is entirely avoided.

The road winds down steeply into the leafy hollow in which the little town of Chaumont-en-Vexin stands. Its church, with a curious Classic tower of stumpy proportions, contains rich Flamboyant work, and is conspicuous on the shoulder of a hill above the houses.

There are remains of the eleventh-century castle where some of the French kings resided when the Norman frontiers were defended by a chain of castles. In the chief street there is a picturesque sixteenth-century house of timber-framing.

The Pierre-Trouée (_or des Druids_) is a very fine dolmen, composed of four stones, situated about two kilometres south-east of Trie-Château. An artificial circular hole has been cut through the base of the side stone, and Fergusson infers from this that the dolmen was probably never intended to be covered up with earth, or at the most only partially. The age of dolmens of this type is a matter of the greatest uncertainty. Although in a general way regarded as prehistoric burial-places, some of them may belong to post-Roman times.

TRIE-CHÂTEAU

is an interesting place. Its Hôtel de Ville is the Maison de Justice of the twelfth century, and it still has its round-headed windows with small pillars. The Romanesque façade of the church is richly ornamented, and the rest of the building belongs to the twelfth, thirteenth, and sixteenth centuries.

A fortified gateway (fifteenth century) of the château is passed through on the way to Gisors, and by it is a big round tower of the same period, although much restored. There can also be seen vaulted underground portions of this formerly important castle.

Charles François Dupuis, who wrote ‘Origins de tous les Cultes’--a book which did much to precipitate the irreligious crisis of the Revolution--was born at Trie-Château in 1742.

On entering Gisors there is a bad _caniveau_.