We arrived at Roane, where we quitted our guide, and took post for Lyons. Roane seemed to me one of the pleasantest and most agreeable places imaginable, for a retired person: for, besides the situation on the Loire, there are excellent provisions cheap and abundant.

“ Autre Veüe de la Ville de Roanne [Roane], le 16 May 1610” by Etienne Martellange. 1610. Source: BnF

It being late when we left this town, we rode no further than Tarare that night (passing St. Saforin ((St. Symphorien-de-Lay, where the ascent of the Montagne de Tarare begins. –AD)) ), a little desolate village in a valley near a pleasant stream, encompassed with fresh meadows and vineyards. The hills which we rode over before we descended, and afterward, on the Lyons side of this place, are high and mountainous; fir and pines growing frequently on them. The air methought was much altered as well as the manner of the houses, which are built flatter, more after the eastern manner.

Before I went to bed, I took a landscape of this pleasant terrace ((“To take out one’s memorandum-book and make a sketch of a charming prospect, was the usual thing before the camera was invented.” – English Travellers of the Renaissance by Clare Howard -GS)) . There followed a most violent tempest of thunder and lightning.