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Source thermale du Fayet (Saint-Gervais-les-Bains)

Saint-Gervais-les-Bains (Le Fayet)

Dimensions
Naturally captured spring at about 39 °C; the water reaches nearly 100 °C at around 3,000 m depth (tourist office)
Period
1806 (analysis of the water and purchase of the land by Gontard); 1807 (opening of the first establishment); 1815 (inspecting physician); 1892 (disaster); 1961–1964 (cure of Janine Charrat)
What stands there
Temperature: about 39 °C (tourist office: patient's guide, brochure and orienteering trail; Wikipedia EN). Patient's guide (rank 2): ‘Maître Gontard has the water analysed’ in 1806 and buys the land, small establishment opened in 1807, Dr Mattey (Matthey elsewhere) in 1815 on skin diseases, new establishment about 1 km further than the first baths. The same guide dates this new establishment to 1914; Wikipedia EN writes that the baths reopened 1 km downstream in 1894: date not settled, therefore not written. The shepherds' account (greener grass) and the four wooden bathtubs come from Wikipedia EN alone. No Roman use or old legend found. Number of dead in 1892: ‘more than a hundred’ (leaflet). Wikipedia EN places the spring in the gorges of the Bonnant, hamlet of Le Fayet; the exact position of the present emergence is not given.

In the gorges of the Bonnant, at the hamlet of Le Fayet, the source de Saint-Gervais is naturally captured at about 39 °C. According to the tourist office's patient's guide, it is rain that fell 6,500 years ago on the summits of Mont Blanc; it descends to 3,000 m, where it reaches nearly 100 °C, then rises again, dissolving gypsum and rocks of the massif. According to Wikipedia, shepherds noticed that the grass grew earlier there than everywhere around. No early use is documented: the history of the baths begins in the 19th century. In 1806 the notary Gontard had the water analysed and bought the land where it flows; in 1807 he opened a small establishment, with four wooden bathtubs according to Wikipedia. In 1815 Dr Matthey, inspecting physician, noted the effects of the water on skin diseases. In 1892 a mudflow destroyed the baths and killed more than a hundred people; it is attributed to the sudden emptying of a pocket of water in the glacier. The baths were rebuilt about a kilometre further on. The dancer Janine Charrat, seriously burned in 1961, spent four seasons of treatment here and returned to the stage in 1964.

Office de tourisme de Saint-Gervais — Guide du curiste (PDF) ↗

Further reading

Getting there: The parc thermal du Fayet (allée Gontard) is public and an exhibition kiosk ‘Petite histoire thermale’ is freely accessible, open every day in 2026 according to the tourist office (sheet updated 28 June 2023, opening hours not guaranteed). The baths (Thermes de Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, 355 allée du Docteur Lépinay) are a paying establishment, open from 9 am to 9 pm according to the tourist office (prices not verified). Coordinates: ‘Parc Thermal’ marker in OpenStreetMap; it is neither the original spring nor the catchment itself.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

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In the same department

All places — Haute-Savoie (18).