With the Government advocating two alcohol-free days a week, we sent our writer ANDREW EAMES to enjoy the ultimate 48-hour rehydration spa break

THIS is the time of year when we contemplate our Christmas tummies and feel faintly guilty about the sight of our recycling boxes overflowing with empties.

So it's not surprising that this week MPs suggested that we should all try to spend two days a week off the booze.

Well, dear reader, I am happy to say I'm already ahead of the game, having just spent two days at a spa in France, drinking a shedload of water. Despite it being quite a long way to go for a glass of H²O, I have to say I feel like a new man. Literally.

I rehydrated at a rate of five litres of Evian a day and on the basis that our bodies are 60 per cent water, I reckon I am around 25 per cent new man, although nobody has been able to identify which 25 per cent.

Evian, on the southern shore of Lake Geneva, was recognised as a place to drink back in 1789 by a certain Marquis de Lessart, who was suffering from liver and kidney problems. He drank from a nearby spring and his recovery was so dramatic that others flocked to the Evian springs.

Today one spring, the Cachat, provides sufficient water to fulfil the demands of 143 countries served from an Evian bottling plant on the lake shore.

The water revitalised the Marquis (and me) and it did wonders for Evian itself. What was once a small fishing village became a prosperous spa town, with the typical ingredients of a casino, theatre, hotels and hydropathic establishments where a variety of water therapies were offered.

The architecture is sumptuous belle epoque, cream-cake style, with art-nouveau stained glass, yet the casino is a copy of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Evian is not quite the resort it was then but it is still blushing with health.

In front of it lies Europe's largest lake, behind it mountains including Mont Blanc and Alpine pastures where cows feed on mineral-rich grass and produce delicious cheeses.

This hinterland is Evian's carefully monitored "impluvium", the 14 square mile catchment area where the water's journey starts.

Its mineral content means it is still recommended by French doctors as a cure for those with liver and kidney complaints but the town has developed a more pamper-oriented kind of break.

It was in this setting, in the palatial H´tel Ermitage, with lawns, Japanese gardens and all manner of curative delights, both on the spa and dinner menus, that I did my best to absorb as much water as I could during my 48-hour detox.

I sat in Evian Jacuzzis and had it rubbed over me in body scrubs, before repairing upstairs to drink Evian "Mocktails" (alcohol-free concoctions).

While preparing for dinner (a special spa menu of baked scallops and snails), I could use an Evian facial spray and come down to eat lightly sheened.

Whenever I wanted total immersion, I could go for what they called "hydrocontact" in the spa's pool. For that, read swimming up and down.

I found it reassuring to be able to walk to the Cachat spring and join the line of people queueing to fill their empties for free.

THE KNOWLEDGE

Expedia (0203 027 8672/ www.expedia.co.uk) offers a two-night spa break at H´tel Ermitage from £209pp (two sharing), room only.

Includes return flights from London to Geneva.

Avis (0844 581 8181/ www.avis.co.uk) offers threeday car hire from £180.

French Government Tourist Board: 0906 824 4123/www.franceguide.com