A claim to fame

The village has one or two claims to fame. The thermal spa is one and the time spent here by Nobel prize winner Rudyard Kipling is another. Rudyard Kipling visited Vernet-les-Bains with his wife, Carrie, in 1910, 1911 and 1914, to ‘take the waters’ for her rheumatism.' Of Vernet, Kipling wrote…. “Vernet is a lovely, cheerful place, surrounded by high mountains on which snow still lingers in March.The sun is Spanish and stabs through the gorges like a knife. There is a pleasant English Club, with all the papers. Our rooms are very comfortable. Carrie takes her sulphur baths, drinks her sulphur water and had a drastic course of massage sous l’eau that made her swear yet made her better. On the whole, she found great good out of her course of baths.”
The weather has been warm today. We went out with friends last night and tried a new restaurant. The starters and the mains were quite expensive but the pasta dishes and pizzas fairly reasonable. We all went for the pasta and pizzas and they were both excellent, probably the best pizza I have ever had. I slept in late this morning after two days of vigorous tennis matches. That helped me recover sufficient energy to join the tennis practice in the afternoon. There were eight of us which was perfect as we were able to rotate doubles pairings.