Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [226]
SPA HARNN & THANN Map
01 40 15 02 20; www.harnn-spa.fr; 11 rue Molière, 1e; massage from €75; 11am-9pm Mon-Wed, Fri & Sat, 11am-10pm Thu; Pyramides
This relaxing ‘natural home spa’ is another heady one for the senses. Masseuses soothe muscles with traditional Thai massage techniques and an aromatic mix of plant and essential oils. Particularly inventive are its Wednesday Les Petit Duos – a 30-minute massage for one worn-out mum or dad plus kid (aged six to 12 years) – and its after-work bien-être (well-being) deal for couples, which includes a foot bath, massage en duo and dinner at a neighbouring Thai restaurant. A 20-minute lounge in the peacock-blue hammam costs €20.
SPA NUXE Map
01 55 80 71 40; www.nuxe.com; 32 rue Montorgueil, 1e; massage from €75; 9am-9pm Mon-Fri, 9am-7.30pm Sat; Les Halles
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PARKOUR & FREERUNNING
Should you be stopped dead in your tracks on the streets of Paris by a feline figure scaling two buildings with a death-defying leap, vaulting a statue or springing off a lamppost, no sweat: that’s Parkour. Throw in a 360° backflip and triple somersault and you have its more flamboyant acrobatic brother, Freerunning.
Born in the Parisian suburbs, the craze of getting from A to B without letting anything get in your way has since gained a cult following in cities worldwide. And anything really means anything, be it a stairwell, metro station entrance, Vélib’ bike stand or 25m gap between rooftops. One YouTube video tags it as ‘dudes fiddling around with buildings’ (a fair enough assumption), but this is a discipline fusing sport, art and philosophy with serious backbone. Plain dangerous, in fact, whether you do or don’t know what you’re doing.
Two godlike men with a cinematic screen presence and muscles to die for are behind the French-bred discipline, which some say was the natural progression of New York’s 1970s breakdance: David Belle (b 1973; http://kyzr.free.fr/davidbelle) and Sébastien Foucan (b 1974; www.foucan.com). The two played together as kids growing up in the Parisian suburb of Lisses, 40km south of the centre, and in 1989 as fearless adolescents they put a name to their increasingly dare-devil street antics – Parkour, from the French military’s ‘parcours du combattant’ (obstacle courses).
But in the 1990s, then a fireman, Foucan found his outlook shifting subtly away from Belle’s as the philosophical lure of martial arts and yearning for greater freedom of expression kicked in. Thus, in 2001, he came up with his own, more expressive brand of Parkour called Freerunning. While Belle and his followers (known as les traceurs) ruthlessly track the shortest, most efficient route from A to B, Foucan’s team focuses on aesthetics and creativity of movement – hence the gravity-defying stunts and acrobatics choreographed in most Freerunning movements. As much a mental as physical challenge (indeed, ‘obstacles’ are not always what they seem), both brands advocate the extreme sport as a way of life in which inner balance plays as crucial a role as physical prowess.
Naturals when it comes to the silver screen, Belle and Foucan are both film stars. A black belt in Gong Fu, Belle struts his stunts as a do-gooder ghetto kid in Luc Besson’s Banlieue 13 (2004), aptly set in a drug- and gun-riddled Parisian suburb in 2010. Among Foucan’s spellbinding credits are James Bond movie Casino Royale (2006) and Madonna’s 2006 ‘Confessions’ world tour.
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A regular in Elle and other French glossies, this Zen spa lounging in a medieval wine cellar with old stone walls and wood-beamed ceilings is where stars and supermodels find peace. An orgy of 45-minute massages (Thai, Chinese, Californian, Yoga, Shiatsu), including rhythmic ones to music (€80); skin treatments; French pedicures and manicures; and so on.
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GYMS
Many Paris gyms and fitness clubs allow one-off or short-term memberships.
CLUB MED GYM
08 20 20 20 20; www.clubmedgym.com, in French
In addition to 13 gyms, Club Med runs ‘Club Med Waou’ (basically, ‘Club Med Wow’) centres offering