Viviers Post #2 - Vals-les-Bains

Vals-les-Bains has been designated as « Un des plus beaux détours de France », and it is definitely worth a "detour" !

People have been coming to Vals-les-Bains since the seventeenth century to enjoy its thermal and mineral waters.  It actually boasts of 145 sources of different mineral waters some of which are bottled commercially. Today it is a picturesque spa resort town with "Belle Époque” buildings and a lovely park with more than 300 trees and more than 1000 shrubs of 40 different species from all over the world.  The park is on either side of a river and also includes the “Intermittente,” a geyser that erupts every six hours or so.  There are lovely walking paths, children's play areas, benches and picnic areas in the park.

A view of the river running through the village

One of the playgrounds with a view of the other side of the river.

We arrived in this lovely village just in time for lunch.  After a short drive around the part of town with the Casino and luxury spa hotel, we drove over to the other side of the river.  There we found a large facility we assumed was a bottling plant for some of the waters.  

Looks like a large bottling plant to us!

We parked the car and walked back into the village past one of sources of water.  This particular source is available to people during specific hours each day. Here are photos we took of two of the water sources.  The bottom one is the one open to all during certain times of the day.

Then we chose a restaurant with seating above the river.  As usual, we were most likely the only Americans in town and certainly in the restaurant.  We had no reservations and were fortunate to find a table in the shade; the place was soon filling up.  The service was excellent – in fact when a table overlooking the river became available, the head waitress moved us to that table.

Enjoying a simple lunch.

A view of the dining area from across the street.

The main restaurant across the street from our dining area. 

 All the food and drink came from here.

After lunch we took a short walk to take a look around “our side” of the river and then a short drive around the part of the village on the other side of the river.   Here are some of the photos we took of this very picturesque village:

The weather was starting to heat up, and it was time to return to the AC and pool at the auberge.  But, we will likely return to walk around some more - hopefully, in cooler weather.