The Tourist in France (PT. 901)

Volume: pt. 901 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1834 Original Publisher: Jennings and Chaplin Subjects: France History / Europe / France Travel / Europe / France Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: APPROACH TO ROYAT. Monument qui transmet a la posterit6 Et leur magnificence et leur ferocite. Le Fkanc De Pompignan. Et ce jardin de la France Meritait un tel canal. La FONTAINE. At less than a league from Clermont stands the old romantic village of Royat. The road to this place lies through a succession of the most agreeable scenes, vineyards, gardens, and orchard grounds, presenting continually a luxurious interchange of every species of foliage. About half way between the two places, the tourist is attracted from his path by the lovely villa which smiles from the brow of Mount Joli, and in whose refreshing shades, not without some objects of natural curiosity, he may well let the noon-day sun pass over his head. From this spot the road leads him under an uninterrupted line of wide-spreading hazles, and every kind of fruit trees; while along the depth of the valley, which he now finds increasing in beauty every step he sets, runs a clear, deep brook, the waters of which have made their way over the rocks, and refresh the ear with their murmurs, as much as the eye with their freshness. NATURAL SCENERY. 47 Royat itself is singularly situated in the very gorge of two mountains, and its foundations rest on huge basalt rocks, which some convulsion of nature, or the action of subterranean waters, have broken into the most fantastic shapes. At the first aspect, therefore, which it presents, the stranger forms no flattering opinion either of its comforts or of its secu...