Villes D'eaux

Paris: Dexia : Impr. nationale, 2002. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). Quarto;176 pp: illustrations (some color), maps; 30 cm. Fine(-) to near fine(+); extremely slight wear to covers, else a very clean and tight copy. Paperback. ISBN: 9782743303426, 9782911065378

A refined survey of Europe’s historic spa towns, tracing how landscapes of mineral springs evolved into sophisticated architectural and social theatres of leisure, health, and urban modernity. Toulier situates these places within broader currents of medical theory, aristocratic travel, and the rise of bourgeois tourism, while attending closely to their distinct urban forms—promenades, bath complexes, hôtels, casinos, and landscaped parks that together shaped a unique civic typology. The result is a lucid synthesis that treats spa towns not merely as curative destinations but as laboratories of architectural style and social ritual across the eighteenth to twentieth centuries.