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