Day 64–Friday, September 1. Ax les Thermes (Another Zero Day)

8:15 came much earlier than we expected. Even after two snoozes, I couldn’t really get Pam moving. It was the threat of a cattle prod that finally got her attention. All the way through breakfast she complained about missing out on sleep, not feeling well, body aching, hips were sore, she needed another day of recovery, etc. She’s not very subtle when she wants another day off. I stopped by the desk to see if we could stay another night–we could, but we’d have to switch rooms because ours was booked for the entire weekend. We went back up to nap and chill until the new room was ready.

After we got moved into the new room, we thought that since we were up, we might as well walk around town a bit and eat some lunch (we don’t want to completely waste away). After walking for about 15 minutes, we decided to try something completely different–pizza. We started heading back up to the pizza place by our hotel and saw the French family sitting in the square. We stopped to say hi and finally get a picture with them. They are such a good looking and friendly family. This is their last day of vacation. They head back home to Brittany tomorrow to get ready for work and school on Monday.

We talked for a bit and they told us we should definitely check out the thermal baths. When in Rome, bath like a Roman. After our pizza we headed over hoping they would let us in without swimsuits. They wouldn’t, so now we have additional articles of clothing to carry. We spent two hours in all the different pools, saunas, steam rooms, showers, tubs, and baths. By the time we finished, we had devolved to invertebrates. We couldn’t stand because we were so relaxed. I have no pains at all. Pam is not whimpering any longer, but I’m sure her hip will be back to normal by morning.

To maximize time in the baths, we didn’t shower or clean up before we left (not unusual any more for us to skip personal hygiene). We just headed back to our hotel for a shower before heading out for some supper. The Chinese restaurant we found yesterday made a good impression on us so we went back and had exactly the same thing we had for lunch yesterday–spring rolls, jasmine tea, chicken curry, and ice cream.

After supper, the intention was to go straight to the hotel, pack up for tomorrow, and go to bed. Well, that didn’t happen. Walking back, we heard some live music coming from a bar in the plaza. Since it was only 8, we succumbed to beer and live music. It was a French quintet playing American folk songs from the 60s and 70s (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, etc) and they were pretty good. When they broke for an intermission, we called it a night. Packing can wait until morning.