Architecture In France.

date is given , m the guide-books , as 1114 , and it is said not to have been altered since . Nearly every arch is pointed , and it is so Gothic in its general feeling , so advanced in many of its details , that it is scarcely possible to credit its date to be so early . M . Yiollet-le-Duc , indeed ,

considers that it was almost destroyed before 1190 , and rebuilt circ . 1200 , and that date quite harmonizes with its present appearance . The shafting to the piers is so delicate in form as almost to be painfully so in parts , those of the nave especially . The mouldings are those so well known in later

times , and much of the enrichment is beautifully gracful , though the capitals retain much of the Romanesque in their foliage . The only thing wanting to complete the Gothic is tracery to the windows ; and were the church restored in its integrity , or finished as designed , one thing more

¦ onl y ivould be required to make it almost perfect —the chevet in place of the strai ght end . Laon altogether may be described as being thoroughly Gothic in outline , with much more Romanesque in detail , than works of the same date with us . It is a marvel in art , and presents a subject well

worth the most attentive study . Only a few miles from it is Noyon , almost perfect in plan , but wanting the picturesque towers of Laon .

Farther south , and about level with each other ¦ are Senlis , between Noyon and Paris , and St . Remi , at Rheims , much more to the east , both Romanesque , but St . Remi has strong marks ( in its towers particularly ) of the German influences which ive should expect to find there . Then we

find at Paris a still more curious contrast in style and dates , for we have in the earlier parts of St . Denis a great approach towards the perfect Gothic , whereas , within a short distance of it , there remains the church of St . Germain des Pres , built twenty years laterand perfectly Romanesque . This

, curious fact was brought very prominently forward by Mr . Scott , in his Royal Academy lectures . But still rnore curious is the history of St . Germain , as told by the writers upon it ; for they give clear and positive accounts of the church having been altogether rebuilt in the seventeenth century . I

cannot account for these statements , and merely bring them forward as not to be forgotten . The church is well known to me , and I do not believe that any restoration such as this must have been could have been carried out at the date assigned to it , or even now ; but , as the church is a most important one , the statements above alluded to should be known .

A little south of Paris we get Sens to the east , and Chartres to the west ; Sens Traditional , but Chartres pure Romanesque in its sculptured porch and west front . A little farther south and we come to the nave of the great cathedral of Le Mans , near Chartres .

This , too , is one that requires very strict examination on the spot . The arches over columns have clearly been put in round , the pointed arches of

mouldings have been introduced afterwards ; and it seemed to me , on close scrutiny , from a seeming alteration in the curve of the main arch ribs spanning the nave , that they were put in , at first round nearly to the apex , and then the summit altered into a point . I have a very strong

impression that the whole of this nave was finished at or near the end of the eleventh century , and that we have in it the nearest approach in these parts to the true basilican outline of the nave , it having been altered only as we find it in the twelfth century . A very little farther south and we come

on the Loire , to Angers and Tours cathedrals , and St . Nicholas , Blois . Tours was late in the century , and the earlier part is of well-advanced Gothic . But Angers and St . Nicholas seem much earlier , and present very noteable features . Angers has the bold cross , aisleless plan of Angouleme , but ivithout its domes ,

the church , of some 50 feet span , being vaulted with hi gh domical vaults , and nearly all the arches pointed : the ornamentation very rich and beautifully carved . But Angers contains very much of early date of extreme interest . St . Serge , for instance , the

choir whereof is said to be still earlier than the cathedral , and yet is designed with an elegance and lightness that make its feeling Gothic altogether . In fact , there are very few specimens of our Pointed architecture to equal it in lightness . Then , in St . Nicholas at Blois , we find the southern dome

combined with the northern chevet , the arches partly pointed and partly round , and the dome itself most curiously formed in a half-Byzantine , half-Eastern way . Blois is just at the midway between northern and southern influences , and its architecture is influenced just as we might expect .

South a little farther , but more to the east , and out of the direct reach of inediteval traffic , is the magnificent church of Bourges . This is chiefly of later date than the twelfth century , but there still stand , little the worse for their 700 years' wear , the two grand portals , north and south , and in

them you have the stiff archaic sculpture of the time . Bourges is now in the very heart of France , but it was , at that time , an outlying post in a barren country , and one does not look for nor find much progress there . Southward again , in the direct track of trade , we come to

Poictierssouthward still of that , to Angouleme ; both too well known to need much notice here . Poictiers is northern in its domical vaulting , and southern in the want of clerestory and triforium . Angouleme has the northern chevet , theAngiovine aisleless planand the altogether southern domes .

, These domes are Byzantine altogether . And now , for my last examples , we reach Moissac , Tarascon , and Aries , all in the great southern province : no trace there of northern art ; no fine lights and shadows from clerestory and triforium ; no boldly soaring towers ; no beautifully-planned apse . . We