CHAUDESAIGUES

chaudesaigues, a village of central france, in the department of cantal, at the foot of the mountains of aubrac, 19 m. s.s.w. of st flour by road. pop. (1906) town, 937; commune, 1558. it is celebrated for its hot mineral springs, which vary in temperature from 135° to 177° fahr., and at their maximum rank as the hottest in france. the water, which contains bicarbonate of soda, is employed not only medicinally (for rheumatism, &c.), but also for the washing of fleeces, the incubation of eggs, and various other economic purposes; and it furnishes a ready means of heating the houses of the town during winter. in the immediate neighbourhood is the cold chalybeate spring of condamine. the warm springs were known to the romans, and are mentioned by sidonius apollinaris. chauffeur (from fr. _chauffer_), to heat, a term primarily used in french of a man in charge of a forge or furnace, and so of a stoker on a locomotive or in a steamship, but in its anglicized sense more particularly confined to a professional driver of a motor vehicle. (see also brigandage.)