nd there they may view the writing-table of
the author of _Le Genie du Christianisme_, and, in the bedroom he
occupied at Combourg, the bed on which he died in Paris. The chateau
of Vitre is also in a state of preservation, and is considered one of
the best specimens of military architecture in the province.
Comparatively near is the chateau of Rochers, once the home of Mme de
Sevigne, and in consequence one of the famous sights of the country.
The many letters she dated from this castle paint a vivid and detailed
picture of social life in the seventeenth century, and fortunately the
atmosphere of the time has been happily retained in the building
itself.

Another twelfth-century structure is that of the chateau of Rustefan,
near Quimperle. It was built by Stephen, Count of Penthievre, and
belonged in the next century to Blanche of Castile, the mother of St
Louis. The ruins now in existence are those of the chateau built in
the fifteenth century, and its cylindrical tower, pinnacled doorway,
and the stone mullions of the windows still remain fairly intact. The
chateau of Kerjolet, in Concarneau, is one which has been saved from
decay, restored as it was by Countess Chaveau-Narishkine and presented
by her to the department. It contains a museum in which are specimens
of all the costumes and _coiffes_ of Lower Brittany, and antiquities
of prehistoric and medieval times, which all students of Breton and
Celtic lore should see.

_Palaces of the Past_

The chateau of Tourlaville is situated among very beautiful
surroundings, and is built in the classic style of the Renaissance,
with an angular tower. On chimney-piece and fireplace throughout the
castle there are numerous sentimental devices in which Cupids and
flaming hearts and torches figure largely, with the occasional
accompaniment of verses and mottoes of an equally amatory nature.
These are all seventeenth-century examples and may be taken as
expressions of the time. In a boudoir called the Blue Chamber, because
of the colour of its draperies and decorations, many coats-of-arms are
emblazoned; but all the greatness to which these testify has become a
thing of the past, for the chateau has now been turned into a
farmhouse.

The chateau of Dinan may also be classed among the palaces of the
past, for now, despite the fact that it was built by the Dukes of
Brittany, it has become a prison. From the tourist as well as the
romantic point of view this is somewhat of a