The Sherpa supermarket is the best place to pick up some two and a half Euro shampain – Sire de Beaupre. Not strictly from the champagne region, but it does fire the plastic cork out at an obscene rate of knots due to the low atmospheric pressure here – some 2.3km above the level where it was bottled.
R: Shall we neck some Sire de Beaupre, drink of kings before the sauna?
Me: Er. Probably not the best idea to neck the fizzy piss now. Not when it’s warm and we’ve got no glasses. Let’s use the sauna first. My muscles need time to recover.
We arrived at the sauna.
R: We’d like to use the sauna
Sauna jerk: It’s eleven Euros to use the pool, hammam, sauna, jacuzzis, blah, blah, blah….
Me: Does it get cheaper later?
Sauna jerk: Yes, it is only nine Euros after six thirty. In ten minutes.
Me: OK, we’ll be back then, thanks.
Eleven minutes, an exploding cork, and one bottle of warm Sire de Beaufre later, we presented ourselves to the sauna.
R: We’d like to use the sauna.
Much sweating and dizziness later, we collapsed. I managed to get out of bed the next day in time for the sixth and final afternoon lesson.