The lobby at the French Lick hotel is bonkers. I always feel criminally under-dressed. (Even though, in my professional outfits, I'm usually one of the "fancier" dressed folks.)
Every time I'm there (usually, once a year, for a conference), I notice something new.
After wandering around the grounds, I decided I was in the mood for Second Dessert, so I went to the steakhouse and had a creme brulee - that had a FANTASTIC crack! (I'm so used to cremes brulee in the US having little more than a few sprinkles of caramelized sugar on top...)
I was seated near the windows you saw to the LEFT of the center section in the last set of pics.
The exterior of the French Lick hotel. It is built of yellow brick - which are actually yellow and not just painted that way. The really fancy section in the center used to be a mineral water bar/spa.
The stairs currently lead to nowhere, and the room is part of the steakhouse inside.
What secrets lie behind this weathered door in the stone wall? What whispers has the ancient wishing well heard? The ferns aren't telling!
Photo 1: I honestly don't know what the room behind this door used to be. (And, heck, in years past, it was even more Secret Garden-ish and was covered by a curtain of ivy.)
Photo 2: Remains of the Proserpine Spring
Photos 3 and 4: Ferns growing nearby!
The World Famous Pluto Spring, with its er... fragrant mineral waters. Not only was it available to drink straight from the source (in special cups and everything), it was also bottled and shipped everywhere. For DECADES. Then, in the early 1970s, it was discovered that the water also contained trace amounts of lithium, which is a controlled substance in the United States.
I'm going to do a big photo dump set of posts when I get home tomorrow and can work off of my computer, but here's a taste.
Behold, the world famous Pluto spring! It smells delightfully of rotten eggs. And people used to come here for decades to pay good money to drink this stuff.
I'm working a conference at the French Lick Springs hotel, and I've got a pretty great view from my room!
The only downside is that I am at the tippy-tip of this end, and the conference area is waaaaaaaaaay over in the tippy-tip of that wing on the other side of the garden.
Stay tuned tomorrow or so, for pictures of famous Pluto Spring, source of the waters the Victorians flocked to drink, because it made them poop!
#FrenchLickSprings
#VictorianHotels
#PlutoWater
#ItMakesYouPoop
Ludibriumventis