Saint-Honoré-les-Bains

Saint-Honoré-les-Bains in the Nièvre département of Burgundy draws from oligomineral springs in a small spa town at the edge of the Morvan Regional Natural Park, where the granite massif of central Burgundy provides the ancient geological foundation from which the thermal springs rise in an area that has been a recognised mineral water source since Roman times and a fashionable provincial thermal resort since the nineteenth century when the proximity to the ducal estates and forests of the Bourgogne gave the spa an aristocratic clientele seeking both rest and hunting. The lightly mineralised spring water of Saint-Honoré, enjoyed within a long thermal tradition associated with well-being at a thermal establishment, offers a thermal stay in a town whose parkland, casino, and elegant villas preserve the character of a late nineteenth-century provincial resort in the quiet grandeur of the Morvan countryside. The extraordinary landscape of the Morvan, with its granite lakes, ancient Celtic hillforts, and the famous Époisses and Saulieu cheese traditions of the surrounding Burgundy, provides an exceptionally rich natural and gastronomic context for this quiet northern French spa.