Outing . urney anywhere. Yet he whofalls a victimto the charmsof Avignonmust do sowith his eyesopen, for she isa fraudulentlittle baggage,after all, withwhom it werewell enoughto flirt awhile,but whom itwere fatal tomarry. Therehas been a tooevident at-tempt to erectthe place intoa first-classcity of sights, and the number of turnstiles and ticketsand guide-books and cicerones is out ofall proportion to the aesthetic interestwhich such things are usually supposedto represent. With every trick and ap-purtenance of a regulation show-place,there is scarcely anything which is worthseeing. The chur
Outing . urney anywhere. Yet he whofalls a victimto the charmsof Avignonmust do sowith his eyesopen, for she isa fraudulentlittle baggage,after all, withwhom it werewell enoughto flirt awhile,but whom itwere fatal tomarry. Therehas been a tooevident at-tempt to erectthe place intoa first-classcity of sights, and the number of turnstiles and ticketsand guide-books and cicerones is out ofall proportion to the aesthetic interestwhich such things are usually supposedto represent. With every trick and ap-purtenance of a regulation show-place,there is scarcely anything which is worthseeing. The churches are insignificant,the museum a sham, and the papalpalace a hulking mass of stone that haslittle to recommend it save its vast pro-portions. The history of Avignon moves mainlyabout this ugly palace, which stands atruly fitting monument to a most cor-rupt and profligate period of papal mis-rule. It was the seat of the ApostolicSee from 1305 until 1377, and was in-habited during that time by seven rec-. TARASCON, THE HOME OF TARTARIN. ognized Popes, and then by three anti-Popes, who continued the reign of mis-rule after their legitimate brethren hadreturned to Rome. These Pontiffs and their usurpingimitators called about them a sorry courtof Italian statesmen, Italian courtiersand Italian artists, most of whom werethe very worst specimens of their re-spective kinds. Of the artistic resultsof this fourteenth-century hegira we arewell able to judge to-day, and they arecertainly deplorable enough. The cathe-dral, for instance, is very nobly plantedupon the brow of the Rocher des promontory which juts out into theRhone at this point and compels theriver to make a sweep round two sidesof the city, but is in everything else just that which acathedralought not tobe. Its portalis a bas tar dimitation of aPagan temple,and its interi-or a tawdryabomination ofov erloadedRomanesque,where even abouffe actorcould scarcelyworship atease. For our-selves, weescaped intothe sunshineaga
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
