Nomadland

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#renneslesbains #aude #audetourisme #france #europe #thermalisme #thermes

Entering the village from the south, it seems Rennes-les-Bains is a a scrappy but nonetheless typical village (200 inhabitants) of the Corbières where not much seems to be happening.

That's until you exit the village in the north where normally everybody enters: a larger car park adjacent to the partial namesaking Thermes de Rennes-les-Bains, is surrounded by forests and provides an attractive place to stop and discover the village.

Rennes-les-Bains known since Roman times (link) for it's thermal waters while the sources of other waters have also gained their own following. 

The river cutting the village (the Sals) finds its origin from a saltwater source, while nearby is also the Madeleine source rumoured to have been visited by the holy Magdalena herself and a sulphurous source nearby.

Not far from the village of Rennes-les-Bains, in the Sals river lie the Fontaine des Amours, 

a great place to enjoy the salty waters.

Piping

But moreover there are thermal sources and at least one which can be described as a little wild, but certainly free. 

The Wikipedia entry in French mentions the existence of 5 thermal springs: 

'Les Bains Doux, (37 °C), Les Bains Fort (47.5 °C), Les Bains de la Reine, (40 °C), Gieules, (38 °C) and Marie (39.5 °C)'.

There's also a map with each source indicated, just follow this link.

It's the Bains Doux (lead photo) which are the source of the free hot spring pool. The English Wikipedia:

'Bathers have enjoyed the natural hot spring waters for thousands of years - they are still used today as a cure for rheumatism and certain skin problems. Today, it is a modern thermal spa with the latest equipment. Due to a microbe found in the piping of the old baths they have been closed and a new hospital built which gets its water from another source.

Due to its enormous popularity the 'Bains Forts', an old 'lavoir' where young people have bathed for the last 40 years, have been cemented in and closed indefinitely'.

The Bains Forts were baths in the center of the village which attracted quite a few soakers and - this being pre-social media times - these soakers were less concerned about keeping up appearances. 

The consequence was that local authorities decided to concrete things up. 

Here's a video explaining this. 

L'Independant (Jan. 10, 2013) also report on the struggle here where opponents of the local council "liberated" the springs themselves. But only temporarily. Or not:

helene.totole at Rennes-les-Bains. Could it be the Bains Forts?

Small hot spring (47 ° C) supervised by Naya!

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Cured

As said the village has a thermes building (Thermes de Rennes-les-Bains) where you could do a "cure". 

It's source is the source de la Reine. 

This website suggests 1400 curists per season, though it doesn't seem that at the time of my visit (mid-September) there were even close to this amount, even though this years opening season was from April until the end of October.

If staying here note that Booking.com rates it 8.3 with the pool facilities free for use in the pm, while google rated it with 3.8 stars.

So, if you are looking for the free springs, you'll find them under the Bains Doux, easy to reach in summer. 

Entrepreneurs who are also avid soakers have over the years built a 50 cm deep pool under the cascade. 

Beware in summer it will be quite busy. In winter this bath may be unreachable: you always have to ford the river to get a soak.

My visit was quite relaxing, even though it was midday, there were only two others there who didn't seem to mind clothing optionalness.

A few other notes from other blogs.

Blog de Clementine has a blog entry from 2015. Note how the current soaking set up has improved.

Hitivlog hits the springs (updated Jan. 30, 2021) with accompanying youtube vlog.

Secure

Totally unintentionally, but a recent visit to the hot springs of La Bourboule / Mont Dore (the springs themselves are otherwise known as Source Croizat) meant wading in to a highly staked controverse, concerning what to do with the source.

I had known that the hot spring was there, just waiting for me to visit; it was just a question of time. 

So I had recently arranged a visit, intending to stay nearby for two nights. Just a few days before leaving, a quick look into some more recent info (just in case) revealed that in April 2021 the local government (of La Bourboule) had decided to destroy both the tub as well as the pool along the Dordogne!

Local news outlet La Montagne (Apr. 16; translated):

'At the beginning of the week, the municipality of La Bourboule (Puy-de-Dôme) launched work to "secure" the hot water source of Croizat, located in the municipality of Mont-Dore, but of which it is owner. A project that is far from being unanimous'.

So what is meant with "securing"? Scaled up to national news a week later, Franceblue (Apr. 21 and translated):

'On April 14, at the request of the town hall of La Bourboule, owner of the source, the construction machinery came into action. The infrastructures around the source were destroyed for safety reasons because the sloping access is dangerous, specifies François Constantin the mayor of La Bourboule.

But this is not the only reason, since 2016 a prefectural decree prohibits swimming in the concrete tank and the pools built around it also because of incivility, abandoned rubbish, equivocal sexual behavior that regularly requires intervention [by] military policemen.

François Constantin also points to the over-frequentation of the site "This source has long been the secret of Bourbouliens and the inhabitants of the Sancy massif, but from the moment we created easier access, people came more and more and we talked about it on the internet to such an extent that last summer we counted 25,000 people on this site which is only a few tens of square meters, it had to stop even if I regret it, it was becoming too dangerous we would have had serious problems! " A year, according to the mayor, 35,000 people come to bathe in these arsenical waters known for their beneficial effects on asthma and the skin.

So authorities unilaterally decided to destroy the hot springs. This way they need not manage the soaking site. Problem solved.

Opposition sprang up and probably more than authorities had envisaged. 

A petition on change.org (background interview) has as of October 4, 34,000 signatures, while a special Facebook page (Sauvons la source Croizat) now has 4,300 members. And on Tripadvisor very unpleasant reviews were left, as well as comments on the news stories linked above.

Blogger Christian Barbier notes:

'Friday April 14, 2021 - La BOURBOULE, destruction of the Croizat hot spring site

What blind imbecility has struck again?

How to deprive yourself of a natural heritage, an emblematic place, a unique curiosity in the Sancy massif'.

thibs_photo

"Mais rien de cette nature n'est définitivement acquis. Comme une eau, le monde vous traverse et pour un temps vous prête ses couleurs. Puis se retire, et vous replace devant ce vide qu'on porte en soi, devant cette espèce d'insuffisance centrale de l'âme qu'il faut bien apprendre à côtoyer, à combattre, et qui, paradoxalement est peut-être notre moteur le plus sûr." Nicolas Bouvier

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Modèle : @estellesm19

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#zen

Nude

But being streetwise enough, I quickly saw from the photos published of the destruction, that a new pool would not be unimaginable. A sandbag here or there et voilà, a new soaking pool could come into existence.

Visiting beginning of September this was indeed what had happened. The denuded direct natural landscape now played host to a pool with quite some mud around, but a pool it was. And good to soak.

Twice visited, once early morning, I had the place very much to myself, second time around there was another group soaking their legs in the pool.

The direct surroundings are very natural and serene and access is easy from a footpath between both named villages. The demolition though had resulted in a wider path.

Assassination

However after my visit the situation changed yet again. 

Apparently authorities dissatisfied with what they had achieved,  did a bigger destruction and sought to cement the direct surroundings and divert the waters. 

But 2 days after starting, somehow they demolished what work had been done and retreated. 

Speculation is that the public outrage reached higher authorities who had different opinions of what can be done adjacent to a UNESCO protected natural site of the Dordogne. For up to date info see the Save the Source Croizat Facebook page:

Though at the moment of publishing this blog, again a new makeshift pool has been constructed by those damned soakers!

Discovery

Let's leave this as it stands and see what more we can add to our knowledge on the source of Croizat.

EHTTA had an overview of La Bourboule's history. 

Here's interesting piece of the history of the Croizat source, though the translation does help very much. This central part of France is quite well known for it's volcanic origins and both La Bourboule and Mont Dore have bathing facilities with thermal waters as source.

Somehow the source Croizat had yet to be discovered, which took place early last century:

'The source was discovered during construction work on the railway line linking Laqueuille to Mont-Dore. It has a Ministerial Operating Authorization Decree dated April 28, 1912 and a Declaration of Public Interest of February 12, 1935 which establishes a protection perimeter with an area of ​​7.2 ha.

It was bought from its inventor, Mr. Croizat, by the Compagnie des Eaux minérale de la Bourboule, which was seeking to increase its resources. Croizat water, very strongly mineralized, hot (40 ° C) and above all very abundant (flow rate of more than 100 liters per minute) could constitute an important complement to supply the baths, swimming pools and showers of the station'.

It also mentions the existence of the Felix source, 500m downstream, which might qualify as just warm hot spring. Depending on the season.

Final shot (note it also a couple of older photo's), translated:

'Today, like many Auvergne mineral springs, the Félix and Croizat springs are abandoned. The Félix establishment, property of the General Council, is in a state of advanced ruins, but the Croizat source (whose outlet of the gallery was summarily refitted by the same General Council) is [was?] very busy. In all seasons, swimming in its hot and salty waters is very popular'.

A note to myself: the much older photos show a lot less natural backdrop; so some things do improve in time. 

This website has photos and descriptions from the last 25 years.

Following is what the source looked like in better times:

mams2girls

This morning it was the discovery of a hot spring. 40 ° c. 🏞️

#sourcechaude #eauchaude #montdore #sourcecroizat