Rennes-les-Bains
Deep
River
The
river had cut a deep, straight-sided gorge in the rock. But there was a hot spring
nearby, and another, and another that smelt of iron
and witchcraft.
And the flat land was fertile and the hills densely wooded for fuel and construction.
Perhaps they cut a shelf in the rising ground first - wide enough to provide a track for an ox cart, high enough above the water to stay out of reach of the floods. Then came the first houses, low, two-storey affairs, people above, animals below.
The houses overlooked the river for sanitation - waste went out the window, back in came heavy timber buckets, hauled on wet hemp ropes, sloshing with cold crystalline melt-water for drinking, cooking and so on.
But the families grew and rooms were added, above and below, down into the gorge ... Modern Rennes-les-Bains.
