Thermes de Dax - Borda

In Dax, France's leading spa town, the Borda name is tied to the domain's story: founded in 1980 by Éliane Pressigout, the establishment welcomed close to 900 visitors in its very first year and became one of the station's pillars. Just steps from the shaded banks of the Adour river and the Bois de Boulogne park, Thermes Borda carries on a long-standing local practice — pelotherapy, where river silt meets the warmth of underground water.

This distinctive mud, a blend of Adour silt, thermal water and blue algae applied at 38 to 44°C, is a Dax signature found nowhere else in France. Nearby, the former Hôtel des Baignots — one of the country's oldest bathing establishments, active as early as the 16th century — speaks to the site's deep history, even though its doors closed for good in 1992.