| West of Carrouges, the spa town of BAGNOLES-DE-L'ORNE is quite unlike anywhere else in this part of the world, attracting the moneyed sick and convalescent from all over France to its thermal baths. The layout is formal and spacious, centring on a lake with gardens, from where horse-drawn calèches take the clients to an enormous casino. With so many visitors to keep entertained, and spending money, there are also innumerable cultural events of a restrained and stressless nature. Whether you'd actually want to spend time in Bagnoles depends on your disposable income as well as your health. Furthermore, the town as a whole operates to a season that lasts roughly from early April to the end of October; arrive in winter, and you may find everything shut. The numerous hotels are expensive and sedate places, in which it's possible to be too late for dinner at seven o'clock and locked out altogether at nine, and the three-star campsite, De la Vée (tel 02.33.37.87.45; closed Nov–March), south of town, is rather forlorn. The tourist office on place du Marché (April–Oct Mon–Sat 9am–1pm & 2–6.30pm, Sun 10am–12.30pm & 2.30–6.30pm; Nov–March Mon–Fri 10am–noon & 2–6pm; tel 02.33.37.85.66, www.bagnoles-de-lorne.com) will give details on accommodation in Bagnoles and its less exclusive sister town of TESSE-MADELEINE. Despite its ugly would-be-Deco exterior, the Cetlos, on rue des Casinos (tel 02.33.38.44.44, [email protected]; €40–55), is the best of the hotels, bedecked with balconies and terraces overlooking the lake. Cheaper alternatives near the central roundabout in Bagnoles include the Albert 1er at 7 av Dr-Poulain (tel 02.33.37.80.97; €30–40; closed Nov–Feb), which has excellent menus from €13, and the Grand Veneur at 6 place République (tel 02.33.37.86.79; €30–40; closed Nov–March). Alternate spellings:: France, Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, Bagnoles-de-l'Orne
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