“It’s obligatory that this continues”: in Plombières-les-Bains, a historic Vosges spa town, the future of the thermal baths, which was the subject of a hearing at the Bobigny commercial court on Wednesday, worries residents and traders.
The court will rule on January 29 on the fate of these thermal baths, managed by the company Avec, which is experiencing financial difficulties, Bernard Bensaïd, the group’s president, told AFP.
The baths are in receivership, with the risk that a judicial liquidation will be ordered.
At the bottom of the Vosges valley, the town “with a thousand balconies” hosts the elegant Second Empire style thermal baths building, which was still in operation during the last thermal season, until the beginning of December.
But for this year, no reservations have been taken.

The building of Thermes Napoléon in Plombières-les-Bains, January 13, 2025 in the Vosges / Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP
In the heart of this small town of 1,600 inhabitants, on this January day, few businesses are open and few residents brave the rain, but all those met by AFP are categorical: the closure of the thermal baths would be a disaster for the local economy.
“Thermal activity is central to Plombières”agrees the mayor of the town, Lydie Barbaux. “It has always been a spa town, since it was created thanks to the hot waters, which were discovered by the Romans. » The city itself was built “around these waters and their uses”.
Mixed economy company?
Montaigne, Voltaire, Joséphine, Berlioz… Without going back to the famous spa guests of past centuries, a retiree remembers the years when “the soldiers came, all expenses paid, to treat their illnesses” after the Algerian War.

The interior of the Thermes Napoléon in Plombières-les-Bains, January 13, 2025 in the Vosges / Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP
At that time, “there were around thirty cafes” and the hotels were all full, he emphasizes.
Today, many hotels are still present, but “most are closed”points out a trader, who does not want to be identified.
In November, the Nouvelle société des Résidences Napoléon, a company in the Avec group responsible for the hotel and catering industry, was placed in liquidation. The Grand Hôtel, which adjoins the spa center, had to close its doors, as did its restaurant. Two other residences suffered the same fate, leaving around ten employees unemployed.
For Bernard Bensaïd and François Vannson, president of the Vosges departmental council, the thermal baths could escape this sad fate with the creation of a mixed economy company (SEM), where the communities would make, alongside Avec, the investments necessary.

The interior of the Thermes Napoléon in Plombières-les-Bains, January 13, 2025 in the Vosges / Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP
But the town hall and the inhabitants “no longer want to see the group Avec and Bernard Bensaïd in Plombières”summarizes with AFP Guy Laurent, member of the collective “Action for Plombières”which has already led several mobilizations to save the thermal baths… but with a different manager.
Bernard Bensaïd claims to have injected “13 million euros in 13 years” in the spa. And the two companies have lost on average 500,000 euros per year, according to him, since 2011.
Investments that the mayor says she does not see, deploring the state of the buildings owned by the group.
“Psychological shock”
For two years, Avec has no longer paid the rental of thermal waters, which belong to the municipality, specifies Ms. Barbaux.

The Calodaé balneo-Roman center, January 13, 2025 in Plombières-les-Bains, in the Vosges / Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP
Calodaé, a balneo-Roman center open to the general public and which brought life to the city center every weekend, closed in 2020.
“The people of Plombinois find it difficult to plan ahead without thermal activity. When thermal activity is in danger, it is a psychological shock for the inhabitants”explains the mayor, referring to “a collective depression” in 2020, when the thermal baths closed during Covid.
Since then, the situation has been complicated. The cures, which accommodated 400 people simultaneously, now only accommodate 100 following work carried out but poorly scaled, for which Avec refuted, in December, being responsible.
The thermal baths, already placed in liquidation in 2011, were able to revive thanks to their takeover by DocteGestio (now Avec). But since 2021, the accounts have no longer been published, points out Guy Laurent.
Plombières has long been the leading spa resort in the Vosges, still welcoming around 4,000 spa guests per spa year in the 2010s.
Generally speaking, cures were still struggling in 2023 to regain their pre-health crisis success.

The “Source des Dames” fountain in the Buvette Thermale in Plombières-les-Bains, January 13, 2025 in the Vosges / Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP
They are offered in nearly a hundred cities in France. Despite the skepticism of a large part of the medical profession, they promise to cure various illnesses thanks to the supposed benefits of local waters, as well as physical exercise and physiotherapy programs.
“We are at the bottom of the wave, it’s difficult, but let’s take advantage of it to imagine the future”wishes Lydie Barbaux.