Thermes de Rennes-les-Bains

Thermes de Rennes-les-Bains in the Aude département is one of France's smallest and most singularly atmospheric thermal establishments — a village of a few hundred inhabitants in the Pyrenean foothills whose cold sulphate springs, emerging at 11–21°C in the forested valley of the Blanque river, have been enjoyed since Roman times and became fashionable in the 18th century. The waters, unusual for their cold temperature and sulphate character, are traditionally associated with relaxation and circulatory well-being and taken principally as a drinking cure. Rennes-les-Bains sits in the orbit of Rennes-le-Château, the mysterious hilltop village whose 19th-century priest Bérenger Saunière allegedly discovered a great treasure and whose story has generated an entire industry of esoteric literature, most famously inspiring The Da Vinci Code. The Cathar castle ruins, hidden forest valleys and southern Pyrenean landscape give this tiny spa town an atmosphere of historical intrigue unlike any other.