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The hot water fountain

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The temperature of the spring is 53° and it is located in the center of the village. The origin is not volcanic. It is surface water that has infiltrated along large faults. In depth, it has warmed up and become loaded with minerals.

Description

The water comes out through two horizontal openings located about thirty meters from each other:

The small source is located 10 meters below the "SAIGNE" named after its former owner. It also bore the name of "bath of the poor": it was intended more particularly for the use of the less wealthy. Today, it is captured by the thermal baths.

The Grande Source, with a greater flow, passes under the road. It has been divided since 1829 into three branches: one, called the "source of CAQUET" delivers the public fountain and the other two are captured for treatment.

In 1840, the therapeutic virtues of these waters were accredited by Doctor Alibert, head doctor of the St Louis Hospital in Paris: "Your waters at St Laurent are one of the most precious sources I know, it is unfortunate that they are so little known and they are not at the gates of Paris, I would still send my patients there”, he wrote to Doctor Fuzet, water inspector.

The waters of Saint Laurent les Bains are classified in the group of oligo-metallic sodium bicarbonate waters. Their PH for 49.6°C is 7.3. Saint Laurent les Bains is ranked 9th out of the 60 hottest thermal springs in France.

Its high temperature of 53° is explained by the rapid rise in water along a large open fault. The depth could reach 2500 meters. The waters have no time to cool. The estimated travel time, from the infiltration of precipitation on the heights to the emergence of thermal water, is 17000 years (carbon 14 dating).

There is no wild spring. Only the fountain is free for everyone.

Opening

Open all the year round.

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Rates

Free access.

Location

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