Aix-les-Bains locally simply Aix, is a commune in the department of Savoie, in the southeastern French region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Situated on the shore of the largest natural lake of glacial origin in France, the Lac du Bourget, this resort is a major French spa town, and has the largest freshwater marina in France. It is the second-largest Savoy town in terms of population, having 28,585 inhabitants at the last census, and is part of its own urban area: The urban area of Aix-les-Bains.
| Country | France |
|---|---|
| Region | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| Department | Savoie |
| Canton | Aix-les-Bains-1 Aix-les-Bains-2 |
| Government | |
| Mayor (2020–2026) | Renaud Beretti |
| Area1 | 12.62 km2 (4.87 sq mi) |
| Population | 29,794 |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
Geography
Location
Aix-Les-Bains is located in the southeast of France, 107 kilometres (66 mi) east of Lyon. The town is located in a corridor between the mountain of Mont Revard, the first natural rampart of the Massif des Bauges to the east and the Lac du Bourget, the largest natural lake of France to the west. The town is traditionally divided into two, the lower town that occupies the banks of the lake to the west and the upper town, where the town centre is located, overlooking the Lac du Bourget.
The lake is primarily fed to the south by the waters of the Leysse, and to the east, by those of the Tillet and the Sierroz, both from the Aix territory. Native fish can be admired in the aquarium of Aix. The shore, which is occupied by Aix and Tresserve, is highly urbanized and developed along the northeastern part with the road and the railway track. Many restaurants and nightclubs are located there (mostly on the southeastern side). A nautical complex was built on its shore, this includes a swimming pool and a beach which has an Art Deco-style main entrance dating from 1936. After which is a vast esplanade, allowing walkers to stroll and special events to settle temporarily on this site. It offers a panoramic view of the lake and the Dent du Chat, where birds such as mute swans, mallards, grey herons, black-headed gulls and common moorhens can be found.
The esplanade is bounded to the north and to the south by the Grand port and the Petit port respectively, thus constituting the Aix port which is the largest fresh water port in the country with 1,500 mooring rings, having privileged places for boating on the lake, with boats having a summer or annual allocation. The festival of yachting takes place each year. This event has old boats coming from all horizons, a professional market, demonstrations and shows.
The slopes above the lake that culminate in the Tour de l’Angle Est, which overlooks the town and lake at a height of 1,562 m (5,125 ft).
Economy
Essentially a spa town until the mid-20th century, Aix-les-Bains has gradually transformed its local economy and is no longer dependent on the thermal baths which are less frequently used than before. Like the cities of Vichy, Évian and other spas, Aix-les-Bains has diversified the economy and invested a lot on tourism potential and health. In 2000, the commune had a network of 34 stations classified by the label of France Station Nautique. It also obtained the label of Station Touristique at the end of October 2013.
Transport
Aix-Les-Bains is located on the major transport axis between Chambéry and Annecy. The northern branch of the A41 motorway passes to the east of the town, allowing direct access to Annecy and then later, by the continuity of the A40, into the city of Geneva.
Aix-les-Bains is also accessible by train. It was one of the earliest European municipalities to host a rail network. Today, the city is connected to Chambéry and Annecy and Culoz. The Turin–Lyon high-speed railway will, in the coming years, bring together the cities of Paris, Lyon, Turin and Milan.
Chambéry-Savoie Airport, formerly Aix-les-Bains/Chambéry, is located at the south of the town of Aix-les-Bains, in the commune of Voglans, a few metres from the south shore of the Lac du Bourget. It serves many countries including the UK (Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh), Denmark (Copenhagen, Billund), Sweden (Gothenburg) and, internally, Paris Orly.
For travellers preferring public transport, two main bus routes and sixteen additional routes serve the metropolitan area. Two routes are also available to access the side of Mont Revard and the Chapel of the Mont du Chat.
Education
Aix-les-Bains makes several educational facilities available to residents of the town including seven nursery schools and nine public elementary schools; with a kindergarten and two primary schools under private contract.
The town has three public collèges for lower secondary education, which are Garibaldi, Jean-Jacques Perret and Marlioz. There are three private colleges under contract namely Lamartine Catholic college, the la Ribambelle college and the Talmudic college. Aix-les-Bains has only one public lycée general, technological and professional which is the Lycée Marlioz, which also offers many post-secondary education qualifications (vocational baccalaureate, BTS notary or trade).
The town also hosts other training institutions. Examples include the professional academic section LPO Marlioz, SEGPA CLG Marlioz, the Municipal Conservatory of Music and, since 2006, the Peyreffite Graduate School.
Health
A public general hospital is located in the commune. It is ranked 16th in the national rank for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The town also has the Queen Hortense Hospital for Rheumatology.
There is also the Gustav Zander Centre for functional rehabilitation and care. This is an independent private clinic. The specialties of this centre are, primarily, for functional rehabilitation and motor rehabilitation, traumatology, orthopedics, neurology and cardio-vascular diseases.
Another institution in the Aix area is the Herbert Clinic (Générale de santé). This clinic is for specialty surgery and is particularly present in the practice of anaesthesia-resuscitation, gynecological surgery, maxillofacial surgery, plastic and aesthetics, orthopaedic surgery, upper limb orthopaedic surgery and surgery of the hand, surgery of the spine – neurosurgery, vascular, and thoracic surgery, urologic Surgery and, finally, visceral surgery.
A renowned spa town, the thermalistes institutions of the town must be mentioned many of which provide medical care. The Thermes Chevalley of Aix-les-Bains, found in this area, specialises in rheumatology and phlebology. The Marlioz Spa specialises in the diseases of the respiratory tract and throat diseases.
Local culture and heritage
Cultural events and festivities
Several festivals are organised in the town of Aix-les-Bains, with the following being the most significant:
- The Rock Musilac Festival (July)
- The Festival Aix Operettes (July)
- The Festival of Clairvoyance (August)
- The Festival of Romantic Nights of the Lac du Bourget (October)
- The Writers in Series Festival (October)
- The Aix-les-Bains Festival of Francophone Scrabble (November)
- The Festival d’Art Lyrique of Aix les Bains (November)
Each year, other events also take place in the Aix area such as:
- The Night of the Museums (May)
- The Acquascenies (July)
- The Navig’Aix (August)
- The Biennale Charles Dullin (November)
Aix-les-Bains is an integral part of the Savoy. A tourist resort, the culture is mixed between its food and its communal history. Its heritage is an anthology of influences from many historical invasions. It owes much to its status as a spa town which in the Belle Epoque allowed it to boom and offered it a rich and varied heritage capital. Therefore, it is classified as a City of Art and History.
Places and monuments
With its rich past and its recent evolution, the commune of Aix-les-Bains has an important and varied heritage. The commune has seventeen monuments listed as monument historique and over 900 listed within the General Inventory of Cultural Heritage. In addition, it has 56 objects listed in the Inventory of Historic Monuments and thirteen listed within the General Inventory of Cultural Heritage.
Places and monuments:
- Casino Grand-Cercle
- Château of the Rock of the King
- The Church of Our Lady
- The Faure Museum
Green areas
Regularly winning awards from the National Committee of the flowering of the France, since 1959, Aix-les-Bains has won several prizes.
The Parc floral des Thermes is composed of old and rare trees. This is a theatre of greenery with three thousand seats. It welcomes open-air concerts, especially in summer.
The Parc du Bois Vidal, in an area of 18 hectares (44 acres) in the heart of the town, includes woods and meadows in its midst, along with hiking trails and a sports park.
The esplanade of the lake spans the east shore of the Lac du Bourget. Bounded by two marinas, it includes a lawn and trees. The Musilac festival, as well as the Navig’Aix event, occur here each year.
The Corsuet forest stretches along the edge of the town of Aix-les-Bains in an area of approximately 116 hectares (290 acres). Many trails have been constructed. There are also sports courses and the presence of mountain bikers.
The Japanese Garden offers a composition of a design based on Kanji at its centre. It is located on the Avenue Charles de Gaulle, at the entrance of the Golden Tulip Hotel.
Hotels
Among other tall buildings in Aix-les-Bains, the luxury hotels must be listed. Now though, they are vestiges of the Belle Époque, and have been mostly converted into collective housing. However, they maintain their impressive exterior façades as well as their masterful entries, adorned with most of the awnings from the time and with canopies of wrought iron. These palaces are the Beau-site, the Grand Hotel, the Bernascon, the Splendide, the Royal and the Mirabeau, etc. Not to mention the Astoria which is the only grand hotel still in operation.
- The Splendide luxury hotel (1884) built by Gaudens Antoine Rossignoli
- The Excelsior luxury hotel (1906) built by Gaudens Antoine Rossignoli
- The Bernascon luxury hotel (1909) built by Jean-Marie Bernascon with its annex villa Regina
- The Royal luxury hotel (1914) built by Louis Rossignoli
- The Mirabeau luxury hotel (1910)
- The Grand Hotel (1858) built by C-B Pellegrini with a “Les Ambassadeurs” annex in 1877
- The Hotel of the Globe (1868), today Hôtel de l’Europe with its annex Villa Victoria (1883) to receive the Queen
- The Beau Site Hotel (1883)
- The International Hotel (1893), burned in the years 1985-1995, now renovated
- The Hôtel des Iles Britanniques [Hotel of the British Isles] (1903)
- The Astoria Hotel (1904)
- The Panoramic Hotel
Gastronomy
The cuisine of Aix-les-Bains is typical of Savoy, based on products of the local soil and mountain meadows, essentially the Bauges. In addition to its famous fondue, there is the pleasing main course of potato doughnuts, and also crozets, péla, tartiflette, diots, polenta and rioutes. For dessert, there are bugnes, confiture de lait and blueberry pie. Aix tables feature Savoy cheeses such as Abondance, Beaufort, the Bleu du Mont-Cenis, Savoy Emmental, Savoy Gruyère, Persillé des Aravis, Reblochon, Abbaye de Tamié, Tomme de Savoie and still many others.
However, the presence of the Lac du Bourget, and the rivers such as the Tillet and the Sierroz, offer a variety of freshwater fish, to Aix cooks, which make up good number of local dishes. The local trout, Arctic char and the vendace are pleasing to eat. Also fishing and frying pike delights the taste buds of the inhabitants of Aix-les-Bains. The surrounding forests and mountains of average altitude, such as Mont Revard, offer popular produce. There are fungi, for instance, and the reputation of cèpes, boletes of Revard, continues unabated. Several vineyards around the Aix-les-Bains commune produce wines used in many specialities, such as Savoy fondue, by the use of white wine. Thus, the vineyards of Saint-Innocent and of Saint-Baldoph are found near Aix-les-Bains, and the area generally enjoys most ofthe wines of Savoy.
Cultural heritage
The presence of the Casino Grand-Cercle allows the municipality to have a theatre. More original still, Aix-les-Bains enjoys an outdoor theatre called the Théâtre de verdure in the city centre, in the park known as the Parc Floral des Thermes. One of the main halls of the commune is the convention centre of Aix-les-Bains. Exhibitions, congresses, concerts, live comedy, and many other artistic and cultural events are organised here.
Today it has no less than three cinemas which are the Victoria, the Rex, and the Les Toiles du Lac of Aix-les-Bains.
The Musée Lapidaire is available to visit, next to the town hall. This ancient Gallo-Roman temple, called the Temple of Diana, was converted into an archaeological museum. The building contains many statues and antique objects, including items from the Bronze Age.
Sport
Aix-les-Bains is a very active city in the field of sport. There are about eighty-two associations in direct connection with sport. More than fifty different sports can be practiced in the commune. Among others this includes waterskiing, motor sports, Taekwondo, tennis, archery, sailing, volleyball, water polo and handball, etc.
Horse racing takes places at the Hippodrome de Marlioz racecourse and the Société des courses of Aix-les-Bains [Racing Society of Aix-les-Bains].
The municipality operates several sports services such as the municipal sports school, the municipal office of sports, this sports office should not be confused with the previous service, and finally the centre nautique municipal, the beach and pool of Aix-les-Bains.
