RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



offices beyond, as at the Hotel d'Alluye at Blois. Sometimes a second 

 court lay behind the first, as in the house of Agnes Sorel at Orleans 

 (Fig. 19). 



SMALLER TOWN HOUSES. The term "hotel" is sometimes extended 

 to houses of the next class when of more than usual extent or richness. 

 The smaller terrace house consisted of a single block occupying the 

 whole frontage ; but in more important ones a second block lay at the 



back of a court behind it, and the 

 two blocks were connected by a wing 

 or gallery, or merely by a covered 

 way, the master's apartments being 

 in front, the servants' and appren- 

 tices' at the back. Except in very 

 narrow frontages where the entrance 

 was direct into the ground -floor 

 room, the street door was at one side 

 and gave into a passage with a stair- 

 turret at the farther end. In wider 

 frontages it was in the centre with a 

 room on each side (Fig. 20). The 

 ground floor was occupied by a store, 

 with small barred windows to the 

 street, and a living room looking into 

 the court. In tradesmen's houses 

 the front room was the shop, with 

 an arched opening closed at night 

 with shutters hinged at top and 

 bottom, so that the lower flap formed 

 a counter and the upper a shelter 

 over the goods displayed on it, as at 

 the Maison de la Coquille at Orleans 

 (Fig. 67). A great room, correspond- 

 ing to the hall in the mansion, occu- 

 pied the first floor and looked on to 

 the street. In many cases the upper 

 storey was set forward over the footway and carried on arches, piers, or 

 wooden posts, as at Dol or Chalons-sur-Marne. 



HOTEL DE LA TREMOILLE. One of the finest examples of a transi- 

 tional aristocratic town mansion was the Hotel de la Tremoille in Paris 

 (begun c. 1490, destroyed 1868). Resembling in its general aspect the 

 Hotel de Cluny, it showed Renaissance influence in the importance 

 given to horizontal friezes and the introduction of Renaissance motives 

 such as vases, medallions, wreaths, &c. 



SO-CALLED HOUSE OF AGNES 

 SOREL, ORLEANS : PLAN. 



