An ancient spa town still thriving, Dax is located in the southwestern French Gas Gas history.
Dax has been known to Roman hot springs since, and there is a fountain in the center that pumps out thousands of liters of hot water every day. The town’s ancient past shows up in all kinds of surprising ways, whether it’s the ancient walls in parks or a subterranean museum with a monument found in only a couple of places in the Roman world. And if you come in mid-August or September, you'll be living with the colors, joys, and traditions of an authentic Gascon festival, with outdoor parties and bullfighting. Discover the best things to do in Dax.
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1. Musée ALAT
If military hardware is your thing then you need to be at this museum military museum. Simply put, it has one of the finest fleets of helicopters and planes in Europe. These are on show in a 3,000-square-metre hall crammed with machines employed by the Aviation Légère de l’Armée de Terre, the French army’s aviation service.
There are 32 aircraft in total, many of which are classics, such as the Sikorsky H-19 Chicksaw, Alouette II and Morane 505 observation aircraft listed in history. There are lots of army memorabilia to go with the planes, gathered from the Second World War and the French war in Indochina.
2. Arènes de Dax
Dax bullring is one of the top seven locations for bullfighting in France. These events take place during the Fêtes de Dax festival in August and the Toros y Salsa festival in September.
The arena was built in 1913 in the Moorish Revival style and can accommodate 8,000 spectators. If you aren’t in Dax in time to watch the bullfights, or if bullfighting isn’t your cup of tea, you can still come to poke around this listed monument.
Simply refer to the travel office for details of the next guided tour, which will take you to the chapel where warriors ask protection from a temple to the Virgin.
3. Crypte Archéologique
When these mysterious ruins were found during the construction of buildings in the 70s, most people thought they were the foundation of a Roman temple.
But that idea has changed, and the new conclusion is much more interesting: Currently preserved and illuminated as a museum is a 2nd-century civilian church, a building where all the Civil activities and meetings, including trials.
There are many places like throughout the Roman world before. Two guided tours a day are held in peak season, and all of the artifacts recovered during the dig (coins, ceramics and a statue of Mercury) are in display cases.
4. Borda Museum
Installed at the Carmelite Chapel, this museum features ancient scientific instruments, busts, paintings, sculptures, archaeological artifacts and more. It was founded more than 200 years ago with the curious content of 18th-century polymath and Dax natives, Jean-Charles de Borda.
It is fitting that the subjects here should be very diverse, as Borda has in hand everything from the navigation tools to the French voting reform. This hoard is so large that it has to be displayed in rotation but covers fields as diverse as natural history, paleontology, archaeology, fine arts, and graphic arts.
5. Fontaine Chaude
On a chilly day, you can see the water vapor wafting off Dax’s hot fountain in the center of town.
It was closed by a portico completed in 1818 under the reign of Louis XVIII, and the entire region, along with its Roman vestiges, is preserved as a historical monument of France. The water comes out at 64°C, and for hundreds of years was used by locals to cook food.
One story that harks back to the Roman period is the tale of a legionary’s ailing dog that was cured of its rheumatism after being thrown into the Adour River and drinking these waters. There is a statue in the streets of Rue Saint-Vincent of the soldier and his happy dog.
The spring is still claimed to have a range of health-giving properties, apparently helping pulmonary and joint complaints.
6. Dax Cathedral
After a downfall in 1646, a section of the Dax Thermal church needed to be rebuilt, which made it a haven of styles. The newer, 18th-century sections like the western entrance and towers, as well as much of the nave all, have a stern Neoclassical look.
But there are exciting signs of the original 13th-century building: Approach the cathedral from the north and you’ll pass under the Portail des Apôtres, which has a tympanum bursting with beautiful Gothic sculpture.
In the choir, the carved wooden stalls are from the 1500s and were salvaged from the earlier building.
7. Parc du Sarrat
You can tell that a lot of love has gone into this public garden a few streets down from Dax’s center. The park blends a solemn French layout with a lax English landscape. And for botanists, it’s a journey of discovery as there are more than 1,270 trees from 27 families.
Some are very rare in France, such as Cappadocian maple and Chinese mahogany.
And what’s more, there’s a real kitchen garden. If you come on the right day the keeper will explain the organic principles at play here like crop rotation and composting.
And folded into greenery is a modern home by architect René Guichemerre, a homage to Frank Lloyd Wright.
8. Gallo-Roman Walls
The fate of the Dax walls in Gallo-Roman is a bit sad: In the 19th century, they were praised by archaeologists as the most beautiful and most complete in France. But much of these defenses were torn down by the municipality that same century to redevelop the town.
The walls were put up in the 4th century just as Rome was converted to Christianity. Four meters deep, they enclosed Dax for more than 1.4 kilometers, with 46 watchtowers. Fortunately, there are traces of these strongholds in several places around Dax.
What remains intact can be seen at Place des Salines and Parc Théodore-Denis, both of which have several round towers.
9. Fêtes de Dax
The town’s festival bursts into life in the middle of August each year. It’s all an exuberant expression of Gascon identity and brings more than 800,000 people to Dax. If you need a comparison it would be San Fermín at Pamplona, to the extent that revelers at the Fêtes de Dax also wear the white outfit with a red belt and scarf.
On weekends, the outdoor parties can be very husky, and it is true that bullfighting is the top event. If you want to avoid the corridas there are still a lot of things going on, like parades, traditional dances, and exhibitions of Basque pelota.
The second day of the festival has a lot of things for children to come and the whole event is closed with a big fireworks display.
10. Toros y Salsa
The Dax's party takes place with a bang in mid-September for Toros y Salsa. At Arènes de Dax there are three days of live music and bullfighting. The crowd is smaller than during the Fêtes de Dax, but the atmosphere is also a little less wild and more convivial.
That has a lot to do with the Spanish-style casetas, which are tents with food, drink, traditional music, and dancing. Once again, you could easily skip the bullfights by day and just come for the eight free salsa concerts in the evenings.
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