he has done his best."

The Couvent des Recollettes, just across the Bois de Satory, was built
by Louis XIV out of regard for the _religieux_ whom he displaced from
an edifice which stood upon a plot which was actually needed for the
palace gardens. The Chateaux of Noisy and Molineaux were also affiliated
with Versailles.

The rest of the surroundings and accessories of Versailles are mere
adjunctive details of those chief features here mentioned. To catalogue
them even would be useless since they are all set down in the
guidebooks.

CHAPTER XVII

SAINT GERMAIN-EN-LAYE

Saint Germain has not the popularity of Versailles, nor the charm of
Fontainebleau, but it is more accessible than either, and, if less known
and less visited by the general mass of tourists, it is all the more
delightful for that.

Saint Germain, the chateau, the town and the forest, possess a
magnificent site. Behind is a wooded background, and before one are the
meanderings of the Seine which in the summer sunlight is a panorama
which is to be likened to no other on earth. Across the river bottom run
the great tree-lined roadways, straight as the proverbial flight of the
arrow, while on the horizon, looking from the celebrated terrace, one
sees to-day the silhouetted outline of Paris with the Tour Eiffel and
the dome of the Sacre Coeur as the culminating points.

The town itself is ugly and ill-paved, and heavy-booted dragoons make a
hideous noise as they clank along to and from the cavalry barracks all
through the day and night. Neither are scorching automobiles making
their ways to Trouville and Dieppe over the "Route des Quarante Sous" a
pleasant feature. One can ignore all these things, however, for what is
left is of a superlative charm.

[Illustration: SAINT GERMAIN]

Saint Germain-en-Laye in the first stages of French history was but a
vast extent of forest which under Charlemagne came to the possession of
the monks of the Abbaye de Saint Germain-des-Pres. The first royal
palace here was built by King Robert in the tenth century, practically
upon the site of the present edifice. In the eleventh century there came
into being another royal dwelling, and in the twelfth century
Louis-le-Gros built a chateau-fort as a protection to the royal
residence and monastery. This did not prevent the Black Prince from very
nearly burning them down on one of his bold raids, but by 1367, Charles
V re-erected the "_castel_" of Saint Germain-e