Thermes De Vals-Les-Bains & Spa Séquoia Redwood

The Thermes de Vals-les-Bains stand at 15 avenue Paul Ribeyre in the Ardeche, and they are unusual among French thermal houses in that their waters are not hot. Rain falling on the Aubespy, Moureyre and Cournialet massifs north-west of the town, at around 950 metres, sinks along faults kept open by recent volcanism, reaches 150 to 200 degrees at depth, and rises back carrying carbon dioxide, cooling on the way; what reaches the surface is cold, between 12 and 16 degrees. The commune counts 140 emergence points and 34 approved springs, and six of them carry the establishment's reputation: the Constantine, the strongest at 9 grams per litre, prescribed for overweight, slow digestion and gout; the Precieuse at 7.5 grams for liver complaints and diabetes; the Desiree at 7.78 grams, strongly magnesian; the Rigolette at 6.34 grams; the Camuse at 4 grams; and the Dominique, one of the few ferro-arsenical waters in France. All are bicarbonate-sodium, all are drunk rather than bathed in, and the operator is explicit that they count as medicines and are taken on prescription only.

That drinking cure is what made the town, which the establishment calls the diabetes spa and dates as such to 1845; a specialised hospital centre opened in 1947 and took in more than two thousand diabetic patients a year. The house today runs eighteen-day prescribed courses in rheumatology and in digestive complaints, single or double orientation, a post-breast-cancer programme and six-day mini-cures, and it belongs to the French diabetics' federation and takes part in the multicentre Maathermes study. It describes itself as a small, family-scale operation with individual dietetics consultations. The cure season is short of the full year: 16 March to 12 December in 2026, with 2027 announced to open on Monday 15 March.

The leisure half is the Spa Sequoia Redwood, 1,500 square metres on the floor above, named for the sequoia planted in the park opposite in 1867 and now 54 metres tall, and built with enough timber to count among the ten largest wood construction sites in France in 2019. Its fourteen-step sensory circuit is sold by the hour and needs no booking. The centrepiece is a drop-shaped indoor infinity pool of thermal water at 32 degrees and 1.25 metres deep, with side jets, a counter-current circuit, a geyser and swan-neck showers; then a hot bath at 38 degrees, an outdoor pool on the terrace at 35 degrees which steams in winter and doubles as a solarium in summer, a hammam at 45 degrees and 90 per cent humidity, a sauna at 90 degrees, a cold plunge at 17 degrees, an ice fountain, a herbal-tea room and a darkened relaxation space. The spa keeps a longer calendar than the cure: 14 February 2026 to 3 January 2027, daily, with children admitted only from 14 years except on Wednesday mornings.