These former public baths in the centre of Avignon
are open to visitors for the first time.

This is Avignon’s 6th municipal museum, quite different from the beautiful town houses that hold the city’s artistic, archaeological and naturalist collections.

In a modest alleyway close to Les Halles market, it’s a former public bathing establishment, run between 1890 and 1972 by 4 generations of the Pommer family, which has been given a new lease of life 50 years after the last echoes of its users died down.

The restoration of the Bains Pommer has taken several years of work since the last descendant, Elisabeth Pommer, donated it to the town in 2017. But what a result! A double-flight staircase under a splendid glass roof, private bathing cubicles with earthenware and art deco mosaics, solid wood benches, a profusion of green plants in turquoise vases, a large clock, sparkling copper taps… all this Belle Epoque decor was fortunately in a remarkable state of preservation thanks to Mrs Pommer, who had tended it with care since it closed in 1972. Explanatory panels (in French and English) now guide the visitors, and (sub-titled) videos of testimonials from former users can be watched in some of the old shower cubicles.

With its enamel signs full of instructions and warnings from another age and its displays of old care products, it is an unusual and fascinating testimony to hygiene practices at the end of the 19th century and early 20th. The site is much larger than it appears, with a machine room for pumping and heating the water, a sulphur gallery, a washhouse and a terrace to dry the linen. At the end of the tour, take a stroll through the shady garden for a break away from the hustle and bustle of the city.