INTRODUCTION
Most hotel bathrooms are designed for speed: a strong shower, a bright mirror, a towel within reach. Ours have those too. But every one of the seventeen also has a bath deep enough to lie down in, and we would like to make the case for using it properly at least once.
By properly we mean slowly — an hour, not ten minutes, with the lights off and nothing to do. It is the simplest ritual in the house, and the one guests most often tell us they had forgotten. Here is how we would go about it.
CHAPTER ONE
Begin with the light
Turn the lamps off first. Every bathroom in the house has candles in the cupboard, and they are there to be used. A bath lit by two or three flames is a different thing from one lit by the ceiling: the water goes dark, the room grows smaller, and the day starts to leave.
CHAPTER TWO
Water, then warmth
Run it hotter than you think, and give it ten minutes to settle. Pour in the oil from the spa — cedar and bergamot — while the tap is still running, so the water carries it. Then get in slowly and do nothing. No telephone. The point is not to relax. The point is to stop.
CHAPTER THREE
Afterwards
Get out before the water cools, not after. Wrap yourself in the heavy robe on the back of the door and sit for a while before you dress; the body takes its time to come back. If one bath is not enough, the spa downstairs runs the same ritual at a larger scale, with basalt, steam and the thermal pools, and someone to draw it for you.
Rituals
2 min read
The slow bath
A bath, done properly, takes an hour. This is how we would spend it.
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