116 A I X L E S B A I N S . T H E R M A L S P R I N G S . 117
mer is extremely close and hot, from the
quantity of warm water constantly running
through the streets. Had. the town been built
on the rising ground a little above the baths,
this inconvenience would have been avoided,
and it would have commanded a fine view
of the Lake of Bourget and the surrounding
country.
Aix was formerly a walled town, with
three gates. Excepting La Grande Place,
the streets are very narrow, and most of
the houses small. It contains about 1600
inhabitants. The antiquities entitled to
notice consist of a Boman archway, called
the Arch of Campanus, behind the church;
a square building, supposed by some to be
the temple of Diana, by others the temple
of Venus, adjoining the ruins of the chateau
of the Marquis of Aix, and the remains
of a vaporarium, or vapour bath, with
the seats formed of bricks and covered with
marble, which have lately been discovered
under the house of M. Perrier. A stone,
with a mutilated Latin inscription, is placed
inversely in the wall of the ancient chateau
of Aix, which shews the little attention
paid to Boman antiquities at the period
when the chateau was built. Part of this
château was till lately occupied as a convent
by the sisters of St. Joseph, but the
community is now broken up.
The two thermal springs rise within about
300 yards of each other. The upper spring,
or Source de St. Paul, improperly called the
the Alum Spring, gushes from the rock
beneath an antique archway. It has nearly
the same temperature as the lower or sulphur
spring, and is taken by some of the
patients as a gentle aperient. It is occasionally
used for douches. It flows in a
stream, sufficiently large to turn a mill, and
supplies a large bath or reservoir below,
now used for the purpose of douching
horses that have the lumbago or stiffness
ofthe joints. The poor animals stand very
quietly under the stream, which falls from
a considerable height on their bodies, and
the warmth of the water is evidently grateful
to them. The sum paid each time is fifteen
sons. This bath was formerly called
le Bassin Royal, from Henry IV. of France
having bathed in it when he had possession
of Savoy, in 1600.
The lower spring is called le Bain de
rEau de Souffre, or sulphur bath. The
source is very abundant ; its temperature is
I 3
'kl
IN ' JI