FROM 1885 TO 2011... A PLACE AMONG PLACES.
Opened in 1885, Les Bains Douches, built and operated by the Guerbois family,
became the first and the most renowned bathhouse of the capital.
It was a temple; a space sanctified to massages and delights of Japanese, Russian, Turkish and sulphur baths.
Customers could choose to swim in the pool or take a bath as they would at home.
Marcel Proust loved to come and take steam baths, while the workers from the nearby Les Halles food market
came at dawn to shower and drink coffee and calvados after their night’s labours.
In 1978, this unique place transformed clubbing into an art and rapidly became a
cultural phenomenon; a temple of the Parisian night. It was a centre of gravity,
the eye of the storm, a crossroads of fashion, media, show business and arts.
Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Naomi Campbell,
Claudia Schiffer, Bono, Prince, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, etc. The list is endless.
In 2011, to reinvent and save this icon of Parisian nightlife, La Société des Bains was born under
the leadership of Jean-Pierre Marois... This, then, is the very first page of the new history of Les Bains.
Photos by Mr R