La Baie / Bath Scenes

The bath house was over 100 years old. . . Very little seemed to have changed since it was first built, except that the wooden buckets which were given out to each bather were replaced with plastic ones. The men filled their buckets with cold water as they walked into the steam room (“arbur”). There were rows of wooden benches as in an amphitheater, the highest one was the hottest, naturally. The cold water in the bucket was used to refresh one’s face and cool off a little as the steam began to get unbearable. A shrill bell rang several times calling the bathers from other parts of the bath house to the steam room. Often, the room was so full that people were literally sitting on top of each other. The bath attendant opened the small iron door of the floor-to-ceiling stove. Cups of cold water were thrown over the red hot stones to let off more steam, and the men on the benches perspired more and more. Warm waves of steam floated about. The more hardy souls sitting on the upper benches would shout out, “Heat up the bath! (“Incalzeste baia).” Then the whole process would start again.

- Laurence Salzmann