Les Bains du Couloubret is a fabulous new spa centre in the thermal resort of Ax-les-Thermes and yesterday – purely in the interests of the blog, you understand… – a friend and I went to try it out.
It’s modelled on a typical Roman baths and has been beautifully done. The thermal waters are between 33° and 38° and you can swim from the internal pool through a little tunnel to the outside ones.
Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day in Ax but far too cold to be out of the water. Yet in the water was just gorgeous – lounging around with various jets, walls of water and whirlpools whilst gazing at snow still on the surrounding mountains.
There’s a wide variety of baths – the only one we didn’t try was the Frigidarium which is just as it sounds and seemed a bit masochistic to us…
My favourite was the Bain Irlando-Romain where you lie down on specially shaped ‘beds’ in the pool with headrests and jets come over your whole body.
We felt we ought to try out all the facilities so we also had a massage each in the very luxurious ‘Wellness’ suite.
Do look at the website: www.bains-couloubret.com – it really is as good as the brochure and, in our view, not at all expensive for such an impressive facility.
Hmmm… didn’t try the Frigidarium? Is that really complete research? After this long winter I’d want the gommage. The spa sounds lovely.