Casino d'Aix-les-Bains

Aix-les-Bains is a spa town on the shore of the Lac du Bourget, the largest natural lake entirely within France, and for most of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth it was one of the most fashionable resorts in Europe. The Casino Grand Cercle is the building that best expresses that era, a large neoclassical structure on the edge of the town centre, with a long colonnaded facade and gardens that look towards the lake and the mountains. The casino was a place to meet, dine, listen to music and gamble, and it formed the social centre of a town whose main business was the care of the sick and the entertainment of the rich.

The Grand Cercle was founded in the 1820s as a private club, and the present building dates from the middle of the nineteenth century. At that time, Savoy was still part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the building was inaugurated in 1850 by King Victor Emmanuel II, who visited the spa. After Savoy was transferred to France in 1860, the resort continued to flourish. The casino was altered and enlarged in later decades, and a renovation in the late twentieth century restored its main spaces. It has remained in use as a casino to this day.

The interior preserves features of its heyday. A dome decorated with mosaics from the Salviati workshop of Venice, a firm famous for its glass tesserae, crowns one of the principal rooms, and period stained glass and decorated ceilings add to the atmosphere. A theatre in the Italian style, with tiers of boxes and a painted ceiling, hosts concerts, comedy and other performances. Gaming rooms offer slot machines and table games such as roulette, blackjack and poker, and a restaurant serves meals. Guided tours are offered to explain the history of the building and to show the theatre, the foyers and the mosaic ceilings, and they provide a way to see the interior without gambling. Smart dress is expected, and visitors must carry a valid form of identification.

The town offers many other sights connected to its spa past. The Thermes Nationaux, the spa baths, are built over the hot springs that were used by the Romans, and the Roman remains, including the Temple of Diana and the Arch of Campanus, are visible in the town. Queen Victoria visited Aix-les-Bains several times in the late nineteenth century, and the town still celebrates the connection. The poet Alphonse de Lamartine, who met his love here in 1816, wrote the famous poem Le Lac about the Lac du Bourget, and the lake's shores are lined with promenades, beaches and boat trips. The Abbaye de Hautecombe, a Cistercian abbey and the burial place of the House of Savoy, can be reached by boat. The Église Saint-Sacrement is another landmark.

The casino suits visitors interested in the social history of spa towns, in architecture and in entertainment. A guided tour takes around an hour, and the evening is the best time for the theatre. Opening times and tour schedules vary, so check before you go.