[continued from previous post]
According to the 19th-century historian of Plombières, Jean-Dominique Haumonté, the memory of King Stanislas, le roi bienfaisant, was always held in great esteem in the town, not just for the improvements he himself made but also for the later revitalisation of the thermal station which he set in train (p.174-5). The story goes that in 1798, when the Director Reubell came to take a cure, the mayor gave him to understand that Stanislas's portrait, which used to hang in the town hall, been destroyed; Reubell observed that, although Stanislas had been a king, the portrait should nonetheless have been preserved "as souvenir of your benefactor" (p.300)
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Portrait presented by Stanislas himself to his hospital in Plombières, on display today in the salon of its modern successor. |
After the Revolution, his memory continued to be honoured. In 1860 the principal road, was renamed rue Stanislas and in 1882 the Hôtel des Dames, now transformed into a luxurious thermal establishment, became known as the "Bain Stanislas".
Stanislas's Hospital
Stanislas first visited Plombières on 14th September 1737 as part of a preliminary tour of his new territories. Like other places in Lorraine, the little spa town soon became the beneficiary of his largesse.
His first major act was the reconstruction of the Hospital of Notre-Dame, a charitable foundation which had long been inadequately funded and badly administered. In 1740 a new governing body was set up and monies deposited the Hôtel-de-Ville in Paris, to yield an annual rente of 2,500 francs. Sisters of the Order of Saint-Charles were to tend the sick in summer and, outside the season, to run a school for girls.
The existing hospital was situated on the right bank of the river, in front of the old church. In order to expand it, five adjacent houses were acquired, part of the river covered over, and the site extended into the territory of Ban d'Ajol on the left bank. The building, which survived to 1864, had "two facades, with three floors and seven croisées". There were twenty four beds in all, and patients were transported without cost from throughout the province. Haumonté calculated that some sixty individuals would have benefited each year (p.174-50).
François Géhin, fermier des Bains, recalled that in 1750, a few years after the hospital was completed, a horrible accident occurred. People were sheltering from a storm when a terrace that was being dug out collapsed on top of them. One woman was killed and eight others were buried. Gehan remembered the struggle to rescue them and take them to the hospital. ("Relation de François Géhin", Haumonté, p.361-2.)
The visit of Mesdames de France
The great events of Stanislas's reign for Plombières were the two sojourns of the Princesses Adélaïde et Victoire in 1761 and again in 1762. A visit from the French royal family had always been on the cards. There was even a short-lived scheme for Louis himself to take the waters "to purify his blood". More serious preparations had been made to bring the ailing Duke of Burgundy. The initial plan had been to send the child to the spa at Barèges in the Pyrenees, but in October 1759 the bone specialist Jean-Joseph Fleurot was sent to Versailles from Val-d'Ajol and, on his advice, Plombières was to be preferred. Arrangements were well advanced and the journey would probably have taken place in the spring of 1760 had the little Duke still been been well enough to travel. (Boyé, "Le Roi Stanislas, grand-père", p.271 nt.2).
The visits of the princesses met with better fortune. Stanislas not only took charge of his beloved granddaughters between the two traditional "seasons" of the cure; he came to the spa himself on several occasions, writing cheerfully of his intention to "block up his nose against the vapour from the fountain" (to Marie Leszczyńska, 1st June 1762)
Later historians liked to speculate as to whether the princesses were really in need of medicinal waters, or whether, as seems more likely, Louis XV was primarily concerned to distance them from Versailles and its debauchery. The young women, aged 29 and 28, both had health-problems and came to Plombières on the advice of the royal doctor Jean-Baptiste Sénac. The surviving menus from the their tables certainly suggest they might have benefitted from a period of cleansing and relative abstinence. On the other hand, they seem to have endured the protracted journey to the spa, and all the attendant festivities, with notable stamina.
The accounts inform us that on the first of their visits, in 1761, they left La Malgrange for Plombières on 5th July at half-past-eight in the morning, finally arriving at half-past seven. The journey was uneventful although a storm in the night had caused the river to burst its banks and upset the welcome preparations.
During their stay, they lodged at the hôtel belonging to the dames of Remiremont. This was the only residence that had been deemed adequate by Morin, Maréchal-des-Logis du Roi (Delespine, Relation du voyage de Mesdames Adélaïde et Victoire à Plombières (1761), p.21). The 19th-century historian of the royal sisters, Édouard de Barthélemy, managed to unearth an inventory of their furniture in the archives of the Abbey of Remiremont. Orders had been given to the tapisseur to chose appropriate items from the "best furnished houses" belonging to the Chapter. The list included thirteen upholstered chairs, two armchairs; two canopied beds, two chests of drawers, a writing table, three gaming tables including one for piquet, plus an assortment of lamps and wall-hangings (Édouard de Barthélemy, Mesdames de France (1870), p.179)
These personal items seem relatively modest but, according to the fermier Géhin, the princesses' sizeable entourage stretched the resources of the little town to its limits; temporary kitchens and stables had to be built, whilst a company of guardsmen, recruited from the local militia, were forced to camp out on the hills (See Reading below)
The official accounts do not allow us to trace in detail the princesses' treatment, but seems quite likely that they did not use the baths, only drank the spa water, as was common practice. We know that they brought with them their doctor Bourdelin, their surgeon Cousteneaux, to say nothing of the apothecary Zamor and his assistant. Delespine informs us that, before taking the waters, they were both bled, Mme Adélaïde on 6th July and Mme Victoire on the 7th. They were also accompanied by their Jesuit confessor, which gave the energetic Father Menoux an excuse to visit and gain their good graces. Time passed agreeably, with social gatherings and visits to Luxieul, the Val d'Ajol, to Remiremont and its abbey. We learn that everyone in the town was allowed in to watch the princesses eat; also that their generous almsgiving earned general good will. (A letter published by Fréron tells a particularly mawkish tale of how the comtesse de Civrac rescued a young mother from eviction with funds supplied by Madame Adélaïde.) The young women relished their relative freedom. Géhin saw them happily walk to Mass each morning at the Church of the Capucins, even pausing on one occasion to pet a particularly unprepossessing dog. They wandering in the countryside and surrounding hills - so much so that their hapless bodyguards often lost sight of them altogether.
A letter from Madame Adélaïde's survives from their time at Plombières. It is addressed to Mgr. de Nicolaÿ, Bishop of Verdun, the chaplain to the Dauphine, and is dated 7th September 1761, that is during the second part of their cure. Adélaïde warmly regrets the absence of Nicolaÿ who had been with them earlier:
The fountain has become very sad for us since you left and we barely stop for a cup of coffee with cream there. You can see how much you need to come to bring back the gaiety. I hope you will at keep your promise to me and I shall at least have the pleasure of seeing you at La Malgrange. It is a politeness that you cannot refuse. Farewell, my dear Bishop; I cannot refuse that name, through the friendship I bear you.
Cited in Casimir Stryenski Mesdames de France, filles de Louis XV, documents inédits (1911), p.126,
[ ... coffee with cream?? I am not sure not sure the doctors would approve!]
The 8th September was the jour de fête of the princesses. An avenue of fir trees was set up all the way to the Capuchin church, with placards proclaiming "Long live Mesdames de France!". In the evening, against medical advise, the young women mingled with the crowd by the light of the lanterns.
Despite the heat Stanislas journeyed three times in 1761 to see them. He lodged "with M. Grillot at the hôtel des Deux-Saumons". On the final occasion there was an unfortunate accident, when one of the guards escorting the carriage, fell and injured his mouth. It is reported that the King made his companion, the chevalier de Listenay, give up his seat for the man.
Above: The "hôtel des Deux-Saumons", now no.4 place du Bain Romain, is immediately adjacent to Stanislas's Maison des Arcades. About 1750 the property was acquired and rebuilt by the apothecary and surgeon. Sébastien Grillot and was a popular meeting place for well-to-do visitors to Plombières.
The Maison des Arcades and the Crucifix Fountain
On 24th September, Mesdames left Plombières for Paris. They returned the following year, arriving at Plombières on 29th May 1762. In the interim Stanislas set about improving the facilities. Engineers drew up plans for the "Promenade des Dames" to the east of the town, overlooking the river Augronne:
In the main street the the principal fountain, the "Fontane du Crucifix", was enlarged and incorporated into a handsome new building with a sheltered arcade where visitors might congregate. Géhin, who had personally encountered the aged King, admired the work and regretted that Stanislas had not lived enough to supervise the major reconstruction of the town necessitated by flood damage in 1770.
The "Maison des Arcades" still exists today. Stanislas's coat-of-arms, transferred from the pediment of the old hospital in 1864, adorns an upper storey and a marble plaque recalls his benevolence.
See: Base Mériméé - "Maison dite des Arcades"
One of the few recent happy news stories from the town has been the return of water to the Crucifix Fountain, which flowed again last year for the first time in many decades [see
Vosgesmatin.fr, 20.09.2025].
The Stanislas Fountain
A final, evocative reminder of King Stanislas in Plombières is the so-called Stanislas Fountain, situated in the wooded hills three kilometres or so to the west of the town.
According to Géhin, during his final visit to Plombières, Stanislas staged an open-air celebration for his granddaughters near a farm owned by Adélaïde's dame d'atours, the comtesse de Civrac. It was on this occaion that he learned about a curious spring in the hills above. When he had himself carried there in a sedan chair, he was immediately enchanted, and was said to have exclaimed: "It is one of the beauties of Nature and I want it to bear my name" (p.187).
The location was indeed a strikingly one. Water once gushed from a fissure in the rock where a single oak tree leaned over as though to provide shelter. Between 1752 and 1754, a fountain was built with the intention of supplying water to the local population. Until the mid-19th century, visitors had to approach by a winding path from the vallée de l'Augronne, but in 1857 a new walkway was created allowing a pleasant stroll from the town.
The Domaine Fontaine Stanislas, the old hôtel on the site, has been recently been purchased and renovated as a tourist venue by the proprietors of a local restaurant. The Fountain itself is a few metres from the house.
Today the rock below the fountain sports no less than four inscriptions in honour of Stanislas. One was engraved in 1766, the year of his death, and another composed in 1813 by the Chevalier de Boufflers, who himself came often to Plombières. (To the left a head, sculpted on a little rock recalls that Berlioz wrote his opera Les Troyens here between 1856 and 1857.)
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| Les Vosges pittoresques et historiques (1862), p.165. |
References
Office de Tourisme, Remiremont / Plombières
Readings
Princesses Adélaïde and Victoire at Plombières
A few days later two commissioners arrived because the Dames de France were coming to take the waters, and they were looking for lodgings. At that time Plombières was still in its antiquity. The roads were very narrow; there were not enough carriage sheds and no stables or kitchens that were sufficiently large. Temporary wooden kitchen buildings had to be constructed near the mill behind the hospital. Sheds and stables were put in the field where the promenades are today. Two days before the arrival of the Dames, there was a storm at 10 o'clock in the night. All the wood put ready for the sheds and stables was carried away. Fortunately the storm did not last very long and the wood and planks were retrieved from the fields behind the Forge. The building work was soon completed and everything was made ready for the arrival of Mesdames Adélaïde and Victoire. They arrived on 7th July 1761. Louis XV, who did not want it said that the French Crown had been ruined by the wars with Hanover, made sure his two daughters travelled in style, and Plombières rose to the occasion. Not all the carriages could be accommodated; some had to be taken to the surrounding barns. A little military camp was established on top of the mountain, where the cemetery stands. 200 men from the militia served as guard, since all the other troops had not yet returned from the war. The society of Plombières shone with all the beau monde of the Court. The two princesses lodged at the maison des Dames and the whole town was filled with the courtiers and their retinues.
King Stanislas came three times to visit his granddaughters. One day when he was sitting opposite the Fountain of the Crucifix with some gentlemen, I went up close to listen
to what was said. These were the King's words: This fountain is too narrowly confined between these houses. I want the space to be wider. I have seen a site above Plombières where I will build a promenade as I want my granddaughters to come again next year. I was with several other boys of my own age. The bodyguards wanted to chase us away. The King said: Let the children be; I really like children. I can still hear all that being said. The King came three times that year and there were always celebrations. The Dames would go to Mass at the Capuchin church every day at 7 o'clock in the morning and I went almost every day to listen to the music. The Dames stayed three months at Plombières. In that time they spent a fortnight at Lunéville between Seasons. They left Plombières only on 28th September.
No sooner had they departed, than engineers arrived to make plans for the promenades and arcades. The works began at the end of October 1761. The promenades, the arcades and the great walls of the parapets were all built in the space of eight months. The Dames were expected on 1st June 1762 and on the day they were due there were still two hundred men at work. But everything was ready in time and the route dusted by the time they arrived at 5 o'clock in the evening....
For this second year, there were 150 cavalrymen at the camp used previously. Once the Dames had arrived, there was again much celebration. The King of Poland only came twice this time to see his granddaughters. He arrived on the octave day of Corpus Christi. He joined the procession on foot; his porters walked behind him and he carried a candle. The first time the Dames de France attended Mass at the Capuchins, they presented a fine set of ornaments embroidered by their own hands - a chasuble and stole, an altar cloth and two braided kneelers. They had noticed the poverty of the convent the year before.
The Dames were not proud. I was in front of our house when they passed by on the way to Mass. They stopped beside an old woman who had a really horrible dog that they wished to stroke. They asked why its paws were bandaged. She replied that someone had tried to kill it... Our lodger and I were surprised and terrified, since since it had been us who had wanted to kill the revolting dog ; fortunately we were not found out. I do not understand how the Dames could have petted such a disgusting beast.
King Stanislas came out from the house where he was lodging with his gentlemen. It was the house "aux Deux Saumons", 26 rue Stanislas. He was leading a small child by the hand. It was Sébastien Grillot, who was a fine-looking infant. I followed them. When they arrived at the entrance to the Grand Promenade they stopped. The King said: I am pleased with this promenade. Now I am going to have a road constructed which will lead to it without climbing so steeply. I will move the church and site it where the houses are on the left. I was next to these gentlemen when the King said that. I was very pleased to hear it; I looked forward to seeing the new building work which would have embellished Plombières. It was a pity that the King died so soon afterwards. It was a great misfortune for Plombières. Had he still been alive when the town was destroyed by floods, it would have been rebuilt completely differently.
"Relation de François Géhin, Ancien Fermier des Bains" in Jean-Dominique Haumonté, Plombières, ancien & moderne (1905 ed.), Appendix IV. 361-87, p.364-7.
The Stanislas Fountain
p.367: The final time that the King came to Plombières to see his grand-daughter, they held a fête at the Grange Civrac, in the woodland beyond the fields of Plombières. The King was there. He heard that there was a curious fountain in the wood above the grange. The King had himself carried there to see it. When he saw it he said: I want this fountain to have my name. It is one of the beauties of nature. I was there at the same time that the King was and saw almost all the fêtes that the dames gave. It would make the account too long to recall them all. They did much good for several poor people. One day when they were walking near Val-d'Ajol, they arrived at a house where they saw a poor woman with her spindle. Madame Victoire stopped and asked her to show her how to spin.
Madame Adelaide wandered off alone. She strayed from the paths, through the fields, so that the bodyguards had to run after her and ask the peasants if they had seen her. She had rejoined her sister who was still spinning. When they were ready to leave they asked the woman whether it was her house; she replied no; she had land but no money to build a house. The princesses had one built for her....
When the Dames returned to Plombieres
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bd6t541803661/f451.item
"Relation de François Géhin, Ancien Fermier des Bains" in Jean-Dominique Haumonté, Plombières, ancien & moderne (1905 ed.), Appendix IV. 361-87, p.364-7.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bd6t541803661/f238.item.r=Civrac
The Stanislas Fountain
Iwo days later ... we had to haul ourselves off to the Stanislas Spring. To get there, you start by following a pretty and quite easy track, recently laid out on the Emperor's orders, and since the rest of the route is through woods, it's at least shaded, if not exactly cool...
When we reached the spring, whose trickle of water was so meagre as to be almost imperceptible, we found another magnificent view, along with more milk and verses. Here are four about King Stanislas which I took from a rock with a weeping naiad beneath it. I pass them on to you quite fresh.
Happy with what's left to me,
Good king, could I each day reclaim
The tears due always to your name,
Then less would be my modesty.
To get to the Stanislas spring by the new path you have to cross an immense accumulation of grey rocks, a chaotic mass of boulders of every shape and size, jumbled and heaped on top of each other, which looks like some gigantic ruin and has a vivid effect on the imagination....
Berlioz, Les Grotesques de la musique/The musical madhouse, Translation by Alastair Bruce (2003), p.96
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