Here and there the rocks push out like architectural
adornments. Streamlets issue from the fissures, where the roots of
stunted trees are nourished. Farther on, a few rocky slopes, less
perpendicular than the rest, afford a scanty pasture for the goats. On
all sides heather, growing from every crevice, flings its rosy
garlands over the dark, uneven surface of the ground. At the bottom of
this vast funnel the little river winds through meadows that are
always cool and green, lying softly like a carpet.
Beneath the castle and among the granite boulders is a church
dedicated to Saint-Sulpice, whose name is given to the suburb which
lies across the Nancon. This suburb, flung as it were to the bottom of
a precipice, and its church, the spire of which does not rise to the
height of the rocks which threaten to crush it, are picturesquely
watered by several affluents of the Nancon, shaded by trees and
brightened by gardens. The whole region of Fougeres, its suburbs, its
churches, and the hills of Saint-Sulpice are surrounded by the heights
of Rille, which form part of a general range of mountains enclosing
the broad valley of Couesnon.
Such are the chief features of this landscape, the principal
characteristic of which is a rugged wildness softened by smiling
accidents, by a happy blending of the finest works of men's hands with
the capricious lay of a land full of unexpected contrasts, by a
something, hardly to be explained, which surprises, astonishes, and
puzzles.
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