Aix-les-Bains

“ Only twenty-five miles farther lies Avignon, on the Rhône, once the abiding-place of seven Popes, and from there a run of one hundred and eighty-five miles takes one to Grenoble, whence, by way of Aix-les-Bains, it is an easy and delightful way to reach Geneva. Then [Pg 31] Lausanne—home, so to speak!—a lakeside drive of a couple of hours!
The other choice led from Tours, through Bourges, Nevers, Lyons, tapping the longer route at Chambéry.
“We will leave it to you to decide,” said my niece. “It makes not the slightest difference to us. We have plenty of time. ”

“ Revard is snow clad most of the year. The train descends steeply at many places, but it has been a rare day that men will recount to their children and grand-children, so no one seems afraid. “Overseas” songs in joyful strain fill the echoing caves and crevices and float out on the lake as the day closes and the train returns them to Aix-les-Bains.
Lake Bourget, the largest and most beautiful of French lakes, offered another happy day. First, by train to Bordeau or to Aix-les-Bains, thence by boat out on Lake Bourget. We ride across its shimmering surface and fathomless depth ”

“ Her state is certainly one of incomparably more suffering than at Rome, and she feels the change of climate dreadfully."
"Aix-les-Bains, June 9.—Last night, to my great relief, Colonel and Mrs. Cracroft and Miss Wilson arrived at Susa, and were the greatest possible help to us. We had obtained a permesso for the Mother to be taken straight through to the Fell railway carriage, and her little procession started at 7 A.M., and she was carried from her bed to her seat in the railway. ”

“ Ricardo's habit as soon as the second week of August came round to travel to Aix-les-Bains, in Savoy, where for five or six weeks he lived pleasantly. He pretended to take the waters in the morning, he went for a ride in his motor-car in the afternoon, he dined at the Cercle in the evening, and spent an hour or two afterwards in the baccarat-rooms at the Villa des Fleurs. An enviable, smooth life without a doubt, and it is certain that his acquaintances envied him. ”

“ Wethermill put his arm through hers.
"You'll have to take yourself away before you can do that," he answered, and the couple walked together out of Ricardo's hearing.
Ricardo was left to wonder about Celia. She was just one of those problems which made Aix-les-Bains so unfailingly attractive to him. She dwelt in some street of Bohemia; so much was clear. The frankness of her pleasure, of her excitement, and even of her distress proved it. She passed from one to the other while you could deal a pack of cards. She was at no pains to wear a mask. ”

“ S.E. from Paris, 141⁄2 m. N. from Aix-les-Bains, and 831⁄2 m. N. from Modane, is Culoz, on the Rhône, about 3⁄4 m. E. from the station, 771 ft. above the sea, pop. 1200. Near the station are the inns *H. Folliet; H. Mémon. A great deal of carriage-changing takes place here. 41 m. N.E. is Geneva; see Black’s North France, and map p. 26. 41⁄2 m. S. from Culoz and 10 m. N. from Aix-les-Bains is Châtillon, 700 ft. above the sea, on the N.E. extremity of Lake Bourget, 2 hrs. distant by row-boat from Aix. In the castle, 13th cent., commanding a charming view of the lake, Pope Celestin was born. ”

“ The best place known to foreigners is Aix les Bains (q.v.) , while other sulphur springs rise at Marlioz and at Challes, those of Salins being saline, and those of Brides (the best known after Aix) alkaline.
See J. J. Vernier, Dictionnaire topographigue du dép. de la Savoie (Chambéry, 1897) . ”

“ He's one of our clients."
"Yes," said Frobisher. "I remember him—a rather finicking person in Grosvenor Square."
"That's the man. He's a friend of Hanaud and absurdly proud of the friendship. He and Hanaud were somehow mixed up in a rather scandalous crime some time ago—at Aix-les-Bains, I think. Well, Ricardo will give you a letter of introduction to him, and tell you something about him, if you will go round to Grosvenor Square at five this afternoon."
"Capital!" said Jim Frobisher. ”

“ I observed some fine paintings in the interior.
The several celebrated mineral springs in this town are nearly as hot as those at Baden; leading from the Baths, is a handsome street and a number of good houses, that appeared to have been recently erected. At a short distance from the town is a prettily planted hill, which must command a fine prospect from its top of the surrounding country and scenery; but my time would not permit a visit to it. In the vicinity of Aix-la-Chapelle are numerous market gardens, but I observed no nursery stock. ”

“ It is divided into a beautiful variety of vineyards, wheat fields, gardens, plantations of olives and figs, and is enclosed by hedge-rows of almond and mulberry trees. Round the valley rise a succession of romantic hills, covered with woods, and forming a fine conclusion to the view. It was altogether an enchanting picture. If this is the case in winter, what must it be in summer? The town of Aix, situated in this valley, is, as far as we have seen, the cleanest, neatest, and most comfortable-looking town in France—we are as yet all delighted with it ”

“ June 5th.—I left Geneva, and after passing through a succession of valleys between innumerable mountains, and after crossing a variety of picturesque bridges, thrown over the streams which water them, arrived at Aix, in Savoy, famous for its baths, which, as disagreeable things are generally the most salutary, ought doubtless to be of the greatest efficacy; for more uninviting objects one seldom meets with. ”

“ Having resumed our journey, we reached Aix at an early hour on the following day, and passed an hour very pleasantly in walking over the town and neighbourhood.
Aix, the capital of Provence, is very pleasantly situated in a valley, surrounded by hills, which give it an air of recluseness, and romantic retirement, without being so close as to prevent the due circulation of air. It is surrounded by a wall, but which, from long neglect, originating perhaps in its inutility, has become dilapidated, and interests only as an ancient ruin. ”

“ Aix lies in a green basin of hills, at a little distance from the river Are, clustered about the hot springs that rise at the junction of the porphyry and the limestone. They were certainly hotter when Aix was founded by Caius Sextius Calvinus, B.C. 123, to serve as a protection to the Greeks of Marseilles against the attacks of the Salyes. Roman colonists were planted there, consequently in race distinct from the Massalliotes. ”

“ The ancient walls of Aix enclose a vast extent of ground, and afford a pleasant walk; but there is much of the space enclosed in fields and gardens, and the population is not proportioned to the remaining buildings, being no more than 30,000. ”

“ Aix-la-chapelle——The imperial city of Aix-la-Chapelle, by the Germans called Achen, lies at the distance of twenty-fix miles, nearly East, of Liege. As it was a moderate stage, the weather fine, and the face of the country around beautiful, I found my journey extremely pleasant, and entered that famous city in as good a disposition to be pleased with it, as circumstances and reflections so melancholy as mine (which, in spite of every effort, would intrude themselves) may be supposed to allow. It is certainly a very fine city, and well deserves the reputation it has in all parts of the world. ”

“ It is now kept for the inspection of tourists, and one is shown the inscriptions carved on its begrimed walls by Edmond Dante and the learned Abbe Faria during their fourteen years' imprisonment in cells where daylight never penetrated.
If time should hang heavily on your hands at Marseilles, go to Aix-en-Provence—not that there is anything especial to see at Aix except the quaintly rural landscape, nor yet anything especial to do except to taste the calisson, an almond cake of which Aix holds the secret recipe. But, go! It is in the going that your time will be unhung. ”

“ Aix lacks one thing greatly, a terrace above the town whence the valley may be seen, the towers of Aix, and the crags of Mont Victoire. But a walk should on no account be omitted up the heights of S. Eutrope to an old windmill that stands on a crest of limestone. ”

“ The new town extends to the south, the old town with its wide but irregular streets and its old mansions dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries lies to the north. Aix is an important educational centre, being the seat of the faculties of law and letters of the university of Aix-Marseille, and the north and east quarter of the town, where the schools and university buildings are situated, is comparable to the Latin Quarter of Paris. The cathedral of St Sauveur, which dates from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, is situated in this portion of Aix. ”

“ I handed over the hounds to my brother Aylmer, and started for London at a moment’s notice, with an empty mind and a Continental Bradshaw. In the train I endeavoured to fill the former with the latter, and, beginning with France, its towns and watering places, the third name on the list was Amélie-les-Bains. “Warm sulphur springs, which are successfully used in affections of the lungs. Known to the Romans. Thriving town, finely placed at the confluence of the rivers Tech and Mondony, at the foot of Fort-les-Bains. Owing to mildness of climate Baths open all the year. ”

“ Perhaps, if I had n't known that Aix-en-Provence was the home of the troubadours, and that its springs had been loved by the Romans before the days of Christianity, I might not have thought it more charming than many another ancient sleepy town of France; but it is impossible to disentangle one's imagination and sentiment from one's eyesight; therefore, Aix seemed an exquisite place to me.
Now that I knew how knight-errantry in some of its branches was likely to affect Mr. Dane's pocket, I resolved that nothing should tempt me to encourage him in the pursuit. ”

“ Aix was the home of politeness, the theatre of the courts of love, which in the valley of the Rhone can never be platonic—and there were held fêtes and tournaments, and life was all a song. It is not always the well-known objects which attract one most in these old mediæval towns but the quaint bits and corners, fountains and monuments unnoted in any guide-book. Yonder stately façade was surely the dwelling of some one of importance in the old days. To-day it is occupied by many of a far different order. An arched portal gives entrance to a courtyard with an old fountain. ”

“ In France I always reckon that a town of less than fifty thousand people is likely to retain untouched its medieval character, or at any rate its atmosphere of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Exceptions of course occur—I make one in the case of Aix-en-Provence, which seems to have been mostly rebuilt, though in very delightful fashion, as late as the eighteenth century. ”

“ So ended the revolution of Aix-la-Chapelle.
Aix-la-Chapelle is still a venerable old city, especially when seen from a distance, [227] and its very name is connected with imperial ideas; Charlemagne and his chivalry, Kings, Emperors and Popes, wars, congresses and treaties, all of which have, at one time or another, been associated with its name. But it has now few objects of great interest within itself—its interest is with the past. ”

“ But Miss Marryat was quite equal to the occasion, being by no means new to travelling, and her French stood the test triumphantly, and steered us safely to a hotel. On the morrow we started again through Aix-la-Chapelle to Bonn, the town which lies on the borders of the exquisite scenery of which the Siebengebirge and Rolandseck serve as the magic portal. Our experiences in Bonn were not wholly satisfactory. Dear Auntie was a maiden lady, looking on all young men as wolves to be kept far from her growing lambs. ”

“ From Aix to the Mediterranean the south-eastern highway passes through a land of ever-increasing loveliness. East of Aix the bare-peaked mountain of Sainte Victoire dominates the fertile valley for long miles. Then the hermit-haunted range of the Sainte Baume unfolds its wooded flanks to the south, the highway skirting them as it gradually mounts to the plateau where the town of Saint Maximin in clusters about its unfinished Dominican church—a remarkable example of northern Gothic strayed into the classic confines of Provence. ”

“ The face of the country, between Aix-la-Chapelle and the Rhine, without being picturesque in any degree, is proverbially rich and luxuriant, especially the ancient Duchy of Juliers, now extinguished, which surrounds the fortified city of the same name. ”

“ All these Alsatian souls were touched. Three hundred villages of their own country lay below them scattered about amidst the young green of the cornfields. They were sleeping to the sound of the bells. Each was only a rose-red spot. The river, near the horizon, showed like a bar of dusky silver. And beyond rose stretches of country, whose shape was vanishing rapidly in the fogs which still hung above the Rhine. Quite near by, following the slope of the fir plantations, one saw, on the contrary, the smallest details of the forest of Sainte Odile. ”

“ The next morning the tourists took the train for Dusseldorf, where they spent the forenoon in examining the pictures of the School of Art, which has its headquarters in this place, and in a walk through the beautiful Hofgarten. From this place a ride of two hours brought the party to Aix-la-Chapelle, where they dined at the Hôtel Grand Monarque.
"Aix-la-Chapelle was the birth-place of Charlemagne, who also died here," said Professor Mapps, after dinner. "The German name of the city is Aachen, which is derived from Aachs, meaning a spring. ”