“LA GERBETIERE” 139 
ramparts of stone. On higher ground stood the wind- 
mills, characteristic of Brittany also,—stalwart towers 
of stone, with broad arms of latticed wood ever ready 
to take the sails. 
The small station for Couéron lies in the commune 
of Sautron, and at this isolated point the traveler will 
sometimes find a country conveyance to take him to the 
village. While we were raising the dust from this old 
Couéron pike on the eighteenth day of August, swallows 
hawking with characteristic energy for their insect prey 
were the only birds we saw to remind us of the orni- 
thologist, who as a youth had doubtless passed this way 
many times, over a hundred years before. The most 
direct approach to the old Audubon place from Sautron, 
as we afterwards learned, is by a path which diverges 
on the right and leads through stubble fields and cab- 
bage patches, along hedgerows and stone walls. We, 
however, fared on to the town and soon began to pass 
shops and small modern houses. On the side of the 
village the traveler’s eye is certain to be arrested by a 
great crucifix in stone,” which rises high above the street 
from a lofty pedestal, and is approached by tiers of 
stone steps. Nearly opposite stands the secrétariat, or 
official bureau of the commune, where a solitary clerk, 
who seemed to welcome my intrusion in a place where 
business was utterly stagnant, closed his office and with 
characteristic courtesy cheerfully showed me the way. 
This led directly westward to one side of the center of 
the town, and after passing down a street of old houses 
2There is also the grand calvaire, which stands on an eminence in 
the village. This was erected in 1825 on the foundations of the chateau 
of the dukes of Brittany, the last of whom, Francis II, died at Couéron 
in 1488. His tomb is in the nave of the cathedral at Nantes; the grand 
calvaire was restored by two Couéron families in 1873, and is a very elabo- 
rate structure. 
