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view of the magnificent country round
Chamberry. It is several stories high, each
divided into four small apartments, tastefully
fitted up with couches, pictures, looking
glasses, &c.
From Chamberry to Aix les Bains, the
road passes along a valley or basin, which
was once probably covered by the lake of
Bourget, having on the west a narrow and
lofty mountain-range, called Le Montagne
du Chat, and on the east a calcarious mountain,
called Chaparillon, presenting its steep
escarpements to the valley. The valley is extremely
fertile; the lake of Bourget is
concealed from the view by a low range of
wooded hills. The distance from Chamberry
to Aix is about ten miles. We arrived late
in the evening, and as the principal hotel
and the boarding houses were full, we were
obliged to pass the first night at an inferior
inn, where the landlady was very unwilling
to take us in, as she well knew we
should seek for better accommodations the
next morning. The town is ofien so
crowded, in the height of the season, that
invalids who intend remaining here should
endeavour, if possible, to arrive early in
the day, otherways they may be put to
great inconvenience.
The following morning we engaged to
board at L ’Hôtel de la Poste,but as the landlord
had no rooms at liberty in his house, he
procured apartments for us in the town.
Aix les Bains, in Savoy, has been celebrated
for its thermal waters from the time
of the Bomans. It was called Aquæ Allo-
hrogum, and Aquæ Gratianæ. The latter is
said to be from the emperor Gratian, who
is supposed to have repaired these baths
during his abode in the country of the Allobroges,
when he also built Grenoble.
Aix being a name given to many different
places in Europe where there are
mineral springs, we cannot doubt that it is
a contraction of the Latin accusative Aquas,
probably pronounced as the moderns pronounce
Aix. The town has often been
nearly burnt down ; the last accident of
this kind happened in 1739. Owing to
these conflagrations, most of the archives
of the town, with the vestiges of its high
antiquity, have been lost or destroyed. The
present town is built in the bottom of the
valley, under a very high calcarious mountain,
at the foot of which two abundant
sources of hot water spring up. The situation
is unfortunate, as the place in sum-
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