drive, but the railway is more convenient to travellers encumbered with
half-a-dozen trunks. The railway, moreover, cuts right through the
beautiful valley of the Moselle--a prospect which is missed by road.
Remiremont is charming. We do not get the creature comforts of Gerardmer,
but by way of compensation we find a softer and more genial climate. The
engaging little town is indeed one of nature's sanatoriums. The streets
are kept clean by swift rivulets, and all the air is fragrant with
encircling fir-woods. Like Gerardmer and La Bresse, however, Remiremont
lies open to the sun. A belt of flowery dells, terraced orchards, and
wide pastures, amid which meanders the clear blue Moselle, girds it round
about, and no matter which path you take, it is sure to lead to inviting
prospects. The arcades lend a Spanish look to the town, and recall the
street architecture of Lons-le-Saunier and Arbois in the Jura. Flower
gardens abound, and the general atmosphere is one of prosperity and
cheerfulness.

The historic interest of this now dead-alive little town centres around
its lady abbesses, who for centuries held sovereign rule and state in
their abbatial palace, at the present time the Hotel de Ville. These
high-born dames, like certain temporal rulers of the sex, loved battle,
and more than one _chanoinesse_, when defied by feudal neighbours,
mounted the breach and directed her people. One and all were of noble
birth, and many doubtless possessed the intellectual distinction and
personal charm of Renan's _Abbesse de Jouarre_.

There are beautiful walks about Remiremont, and one especial path amid
the fragrant fir-woods leads to a curious relic of ancient time--a little
chapel formerly attached to a Lazar-house. It now belongs to the
adjoining farm close by, a pleasant place, with flower-garden and
orchard. High up in the woods dominating the broad valley in which