[La Vienne] Switzerland 3

The spa in Suisse was quite something. The night before last I stayed in (I am now living alone in Muriel’s apartment in Paris while she is in Venezuela on vacation windsurfing) and organized my postcard collection gathered so far this trip. I came across the images of the spa: it is simple, clean modern lines, organic imprints (the lines that water leaves on the wall from continual flow, wet foot prints), skylights design to let the sunlight in in rays like the hand of God. Squares, rectangles, water, light… The stone is dark gray with horizontal lines. Well, it is better if you look at pictures of it (there are lots of photos online, but these images were biggest that I found after a brief search. I know the spa has its own web site with photos, but I will have to tell you it later. For now, here are someone’s photos): http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/global/scrapbook.html.

There was a warm indoor central bath, an outdoor pool with fantastic views and water pouring down so that you can give yourself a back massage with it and places to sunbath, a hot pool (not quite big enough or hot enough in my opinion, but very nice), a warm pool with flower petals in it, numerous other warm, cool, and cold pools, steam rooms, showers that started several meters above you, a place to drink the water, a quiet room for a rest, etc.

We were there for several hours, and finally left to return to the hotel (which was completely adorable and on the town square). That night all of us were famished and exhausted. It was Isabelle’s birthday. We had a nice meal of hunting game in another restaurant on the square. They brought us cakes with sparklers for Isabelle’s birthday, but getting people to sing was a challenge. The (maybe) Italian migrant workers at the next table were more excited about singing than my group. It must be cultural.

The next day we hiked the nearby mountains. They were unbelievably beautiful, but I already described them to you in an earlier posting. I would like to add a few highlights… Along the path, we stopped to pick wild blueberries. That has never happened to me before, and it was the best thing ever. Wild blueberries. We enjoyed this activity for a very long time, and then we noticed huge frogs (about the size of my fist) hopping through the blueberry patch. (Anyone know where there are big impressive frogs in the states?). I thought I saw a row of bicycles available for free or hire (? but we were dedicated to walking).

We reached a huge, cold-looking lake which reflected the pristine blue sky and green mountainsides, and crossed a damn to the other side where we stopped for a beer. Other activities in Vals are skiing in winter and mountain biking. I could easily be persuaded to return there any time (it might be amazing in winter for skiing with the spa and everything). The walk back to the village and car was an old roadway with long creepy tunnels through the rock. Their air was cool and water dripped through the rock. I’ve read a few books lately where the main character goes into another world (death or drug induced) and relives moments in their lives, and, well, if that had to happen to me and I could choose, I would certainly pick this day.

We drove back to France from there, stopping briefly for a dinner of pumpkin soup and chocolate cake. I think I slept most of the way.