Ax-les-Thermes, France: The Adventure Gets Short & Sweet

Ax-les-Thermes was only ever meant to be a pit stop. A way station. A stopover. Neatly positioned halfway between Andorra la Vella and our next destination, Foix, and home to an enticing bath complex, Ax was allotted just a few hours for soaking on our mid-trip travel day.

• Andorra la Vella, Andorra
• Ax-les-Thermes, France
• Foix, France

But the more I revisited this part of the journey during the planning phase, the more I realized giving over a bit more time to the town was warranted. Initially, I was merely trying to avoid that rush, rush, rush feeling of packing too much into too short a time period, but, we would later discover, Ax-les-Thermes merits more time in its own right.

Nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Ax-les-Thermes—a moniker that basically means “hot springs water” in a combination of Latin and French—sits at the confluence of two rivers named, almost unbelievably, L’Ariège and L’Oriège, causing one to wonder at how many mix-ups have occurred over the centuries owing to tiny errors in pronunciation or misperception. (“No, I said we should meet at the mouth of the Aaaariège, you idiot!”)

For our one night in town, we stayed at Le Chalet, a family-run establishment with small but tidy rooms and a typical (read: delicious, local, homemade, high quality) French breakfast buffet. We requested a room overlooking the river, which provided nice views by day and the perfect level of sleep-inducing white noise by night.

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  Apricot Clafoutis originated in the nearby region of Limousin.

As I said, our main reason for adding Ax to the itinerary, much like Andorra, was its spa. There are two in town, actually, but the one adjacent to our hotel seemed to be more for prescribed medical treatments.

Thermes du Teich.
If spa treatments are prescribed by doctors here, I might just have to move to France.

Our destination was Les Bains du Couloubret, but since they didn’t open until 2:00pm, we walked around a bit to get a taste of the town. Soon we were enjoying an amuse bouche that turned out to be more of an amuse pied, right in the center of town. 

It’s a good thing my brother had gone back to Paris by that point, because his reaction to these pictures was #funguspool after calling it the equivalent of a communal town toilet. Honestly, how could I be related to someone with that reaction?! The husband—a chemist—said the sulphur should kill most of the gribblies, and anyway, I know the secret of getting rid of plantar warts, so I wasn’t worried.

Oui. L’eau est très chaude: Ax-les-Thermes has the hottest spring waters in the Pyrenees.

Finally 1:55 rolled around and I dragged the husband to the bath complex where there was already a long line.

Taken while bidding adieu to les bains

After waiting in the slow-moving queue for 20 minutes, we noticed a sign showing an array of acceptable and forbidden swimwear. Slapping his head, the husband reminded me that the French are very particular about their swimming costumes. Speedos® may have originated in Australia, but the French have embraced them with vigor. In other words, no baggy swim trunks allowed.

Though the husband is all over his British flag Speedos® when swimming laps back home, all he brought on this trip was a pair of baggy trunks that would make any self-respecting Frenchman cover his eyes and shout, “Sacre bleu!” A quick check with the nearest employee confirmed that these were hard and fast rules and not merely suggestions, so we got out of line and headed to a nearby sports shop where the husband grumpily purchased a pair of body-hugging swim shorts that would pass muster with the exacting French overseers.

Happily, the line was shorter when we returned. After another 10 minutes of waiting, we purchased our two-hour pass, wasted some of that precious time trying to figure out the locker system, and finally waded into the thermal bliss.

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  My poor but unstaged shot

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  Source: https://www.facebook.com/bainsducouloubret/photos

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  Not sure what makes this bath “Irish-Roman,” but it was heavenly. Source: https://www.facebook.com/bainsducouloubret/photos

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  Source: https://www.facebook.com/bainsducouloubret/photos

Though nowhere near as large or elaborate as the Caldea Spa we’d luxuriated in back in Andorra, Les Bains du Couloubret contained a delightful variety of indoor and outdoor pools, baths, saunas, and other water features, and was easily worth the wait, the superfluous purchase of swimwear, and the strict adherence to their rules.

Sensing this place would not take kindly to late exiters, we made sure to get out on time, and thank goodness, because the digitally timed turn-style exits ensure that the slow, the confused, and the sneaky pay up.

Suitably loosey-goosey after our soak, we had an open air dinner in the town square, replete with a musical concert performance in the corner of the square. It was idyllic.

One of our best evenings the entire trip

The next morning, our run took us all over the small town where I “pulled a Toulouse” and stopped every few feet to photograph a pretty door. We also happened upon what we called “an old person’s parcourse,” something my joints and I desperately need near my house.

We finished our time in this sweet little town with a stroll around their weekly market, where the husband used the fact that our knife set is missing a member (how does one lose a steak knife? I dunno, but we managed it) to purchase an entire new set.

The knives join their culinary brethren, les petites bread boards, which we picked up on our last trip to France.

And then, all too quickly, our 24 hours in Ax-les-Thermes came to a close. A much needed balm after some of the Andorran burns, we would speak fondly of Ax even as we made our way to our next destination . . .

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Toute l’aventure:

• Toulouse, France: The Adventure Begins
• French Pyrenees: The Adventure Gets Scenic
• L’Expédition Pyrenees [Objectif Tourmalet]: A Blog Takeover by The Husband
• Andorra: The Adventure Encounters Some Ups & Downs
• Via Ferrata, Andorra Style
• Ax-les-Thermes, France: The Adventure Gets Short & Sweet
• Foix, France: The Adventure Gets Historic
• Camon, France: The Adventure Gets Officially Beautiful
• Carcassonne, France: The Adventure Gets Epic
• Toulouse, France: The Adventure Comes to a Close