ROYAT TO BOURGES
Ages, but to an exuberant northern mediaevalism
far removed from the Gallo-Roman tradition of
central France. The cathedral of Nevers, with
its ornate portals and fantastically decorated
clock-tower, has, in the old ducal palace across
the square, a rival more than capable of meeting
its challenge on equal grounds: a building of
really gallant exterior, with fine angle towers,
and within, a great staircase commemorating in
luxuriant sculpture the legendary beginnings of
that ancient house of Cleves which, in the fif-
teenth century, allied itself by marriage with the
dukes of Burgundy.
At Nevers we found ourselves once more on
the Loire; but only to break from it again in a
long dash across country to Bourges. At this
point we left behind us the charming diversified
scenery which had accompanied us to the bor-
ders of the Loire, and entered on a region of low
monotonous undulations, flattening out gradu-
ally into the vast wheat-fields about Bourges.
But who would wish any other setting for that
memorable silhouette, throned, from whichever
point of the compass one approaches it, in such
proud isolation above the plain?   One forgets
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