and at the same
distance from Ville-aux-Fayes, on an elevation radiating from the long
hillside at the foot of which flows the Avonne, stands the little town
of Soulanges, surnamed La Jolie, with, perhaps, more right to that title
than Mantes.

At the foot of the hill, the Thune broadens over a clay bottom to a
space of some seventy acres, at the end of which the Soulanges mills,
placed on numerous little islets, present as graceful a group of
buildings as any landscape architect could devise. After watering the
park of Soulanges, where it feeds various other streams and artificial
lakes, the Thune falls into the Avonne through a fine broad channel.

The chateau of Soulanges, rebuilt under Louis XIV. from designs of Jules
Mansart, and one of the finest in Burgundy, stands facing the town; so
that Soulanges and its chateau mutually present to each other a charming
and even elegant vista. The main road winds between the town and the
pond, called by the country people, rather pompously, the lake of
Soulanges.

The little town is one of those natural compositions which are extremely
rare in France, where _prettiness_ of its own kind is absolutely
wanting. Here you would indeed find, as Blondet said in his letter, the
charm of Switzerland, the prettiness of the environs of Neuf-chatel;
while the bright vineyards which encircle Soulanges complete the
resemblance,--leaving out, be it said, the Alps and the Jura. The
streets, placed one above another on the slope of the hill, have but few
houses; for each house stands in its own garden, which produces a mass
of greenery rarely seen in a town. The roofs, red or blue, rising among
flower-gardens, trees, and trellised terraces, present an harmonious
variety of aspects.

The church, an old Middle-Age structure, built of stone, thanks to the
munificence of the lords of Soulanges, who reserved for themselves first
a chapel near the chancel, then a crypt as their necropolis, has, by way
of portal, an immense arcade, like that of the church at Lonjumeau, and
is bordered by flower-beds adorned with statues, and flanked on either
side by columns with niches, which terminate in spires. This portal,
often seen in churches of the same period when chance has saved them
from the ravages of Calvinism, is surmounted by a triglyph, above which
stands a statue of the Virgin holding the infant Jesus. The sides of
the structure are externally of five arches, defined by stone ribs and
lighted