Just when I thought about sitting around here reading books and snoozing for the day, it turns out Lynn and Paulita had planned an outing to Ax-les-Thermes. We were told it is a spa, where you sit in various temperature water containers to relax. Hmmmmm.
Paulita drove, while we sat with Earl and soaked up all the mountain scenery en route to Ax-les-Thermes. It’s a skiing and alpine hiking destination, way up in the Pyrenees mountains, a bit over an hour from Quillan, through winding climbing roads that put our North Carolina twists to shame. The best part was the scenery down off the mountain roads: beautiful farms, expansive meadows dotted with clusters of uncut forest, and dense forests covering most of the surrounding mountain sides, except for vertical sheets of limestone rock showing through. No pics, as we were moving all the time…Paulita is a quick motorist!
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I thought this must be an asteroid or something, but it's just a big rock in the middle of foot-soaking pool by the Spa!
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Ax-les-Thermes is the TOWN, but we were headed for “Les Bains du Couloubret” right in the middle of town. That’s the cool spa we were promised. Parking by the central old church, we strolled into town for the traditional shopping session before heading for the baths. Amazingly,, we ran across a serious outdoor hiking/biking/camping shop with a 40-50% off sale going on as the summer season was winding down. I got some bike supplies and cool shorts, while Earl scored great hiking boots for their upcoming trip to Iceland. Neither Lynn nor Paulita bought stuff, go figure! 
Lunch at a nearby family-run restaurant in the French style, meant we spent a long time talking, relaxing, eating and drinking until we were ready to soak. Earl opted out, walking and exploring the town instead. So, Paulita led Lynn and me through the process of getting into Les Bains. First order of business: you must have a bathing suit matching their requirements. NO boardshorts or beach wear allowed. Guys have to use a Speedo suit OR buy a “Boxer de Bain”, like a Speedo with tight-fitting boxer length legs. So I bought the boxers as we paid our admission for the spa. The girls were all set anyhow. Then we went into the changing rooms, stowed our gear in the lockers there, took a shower, and headed for the “baths”, an assortment of spa pools.
How to describe the experience? Well, we signed up for a two hour stay. The main pool was huge, with lots of nooks and crannies with assorted versions of seating or standing areas where you could soak in heated water that was still, get blasted by underwater jets pointing at various parts of the anatomy, and/or luxuriate with water cascading down on your head, back, shoulders, etc. from fountain heads pointed down in your direction. That was a fun way to start…
Later we followed the underwater “secret entrance” to the outside pool, shaped like a giant water-filled donut. The “donut hole” was filled with furiously bubbling to water you could sit in. The rest of the “donut” was running in a furious bubbling clockwise current, so that you were carried by the water around the diameter of the “donut” without making any effort at all, except to breath above water, of course. A dozenlaps of this thing was enough, then we headed to the surrounding pool nooks for more water jets, fountain heads, and eventually a huge 10 foot high waterfall to become wetter in even more unique ways. More visits to yet another outside pool followed, then the “Frigidarium” cold plunge pool, then the hot pool, and some other places I can’t remember. We finally staggered to our changing rooms, dried off, and headed for home.
Funny how all the heated pool stuff really takes the energy out of you! We made it back home without falling asleep in the car, with Paulita thankfully staying on high alert driving us down the mountains. Lynn and I were out of gas, so are sitting around planning for tomorrow. We’re the luckiest folks alive, I believe!
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