French Lick IN: Jasper and the French Lick Hotel

We arrived in French Lick during the evening of August 7, 2021.  I picked up a brochure advertising a German festival in nearby Jasper that evening, and I wheedled Dave into making the 30-minute drive.  We were glad we did.  In addition to all the bratwurst and dirdnls and rock music, we met LDS missionaries and told them about Annie, who will be joining their mission next week.  This part of southern Indiana is in the Louisville Kentucky Mission.  

I asked the missionaries if they had potential converts.  “Yes, there’s someone about fifty miles from here who’s interested in the Church,” one missionary said.  That didn’t sound terribly promising!  The missionaries asked why we had chosen French Lick as a vacation spot. "That sounds kinds of random," they said.

The Midwest is filled with communities settled by immigrants from Central and Northern Europe--Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Norway and Sweden.  I remember attending a Polish festival in Chicago with Jonny, and I wasn't surprised to find Jasper IN celebrating its German heritage.  

I love the old courthouses and other historic buildings of rural US towns.

As we parked our car and walked to the festival, we passed this branch office of Dentons Bingham Greenbaum, one of the firms in the Dentons "collaboration" which my law firm, Durham Jones & Pinegar, has joined.  I was not impressed!

During our week at French Lick, we explored the town and its history.  The town is named after a salt lick discovered by early French explorers, but it gained renown as a mineral bath resort during the late 1800s and early 1900s.  There was once a railroad line leading directly from Chicago to French Lick, so stylish travelers could "take the waters".  The hotel was previously called the "West Baden Springs Hotel," suggesting German "bath" resorts such as Baden Baden.  There is now a casino attached to the old hotel.

The French Lick Hotel is still an elegant place which hosts special events of one sort and another.

Inside, there is a lobby with a two-story atrium, chandeliers, and Renaissance-style paintings on the ceilings.

The closest Dave and I got to all that finery was eating a bowl of ice cream in the lobby.

I did envy the hotel guests who lazed on rocking chairs lined up on the veranda.  Dave and I retreated to our modest, but comfortable, unit in the "French Lick Villas" on the hill behind the hotel.  The villas were screened from view of the hotel by a high hedge of trees!