Bon Voyage! Vacation the French Way
The word August, the eighth month of the year, is derived from the old Latin origin “augos” which means “increase.” It was later changed to “Augustus” in the sense of “great importance, dignity.” The emperor Julius Cesar added it to his name for this reason.
By analogy and trying to apply this meaning to wellness and prevention, what can we specifically do in August to “enhance” our general health and fitness level?
One way could be the “French way!” Take 3 weeks of vacation to restore your health.
This month, Dr. Dominique Fradin-Read is inviting you to follow her on her various trips to countries she visited, and to share her experience of what she called “her health vacation” combining rejuvenation treatments with various kinds of fun and unusual activities. She is happy to take you on tour with her.
First, a quick reminder for those who do not know the story: Dr. Read’s grandparents used to live in Vichy, one of the major hot springs in France. From a younger age she was encouraged to drink hot sulfuric water of the Source Chomel that would detox her body and keep her liver healthy. She saw a crowd of people come from all over the world and stay three weeks in the various hotels of the city to get treatment at the Thermal Complex.
Les Thermes des Dômes (Vichy, France)
No wonder she decided to enroll in a residency program focusing on preventive medicine and the use of natural hot spring waters and their derivatives (algae, active mud, etc.) to treat the body. Dr. Read worked as staff physician and medical advisor for the group Chaine Thermale du Soleil and had her own practice in the magical setting of Eugenie les Bains in the Southwest of France.
During this period Dr. Read benefited from the hot water springs treatments, and at the same time had the opportunity to work with the famous French chef Michel Guerard promoting the benefits of the nouvelle slimming gastronomic cuisine. Her patients would come from all over the world and stay in the hotels of the small village of Eugenie les Bains for 10 days to three weeks to get treated at the establishment. The benefits of these stays on their health were obvious and many would come back every year.
Let’s review a little bit of history: The tradition in France “to go to the water” became popular at the end of the 19th century after Eugenie de Montijo, the last empress of the French and spouse of Napoleon III, started regularly visiting different hot springs as she strongly believed in the benefits of the mineral waters to keep her young and healthy. When you realize that she passed away in 1920 from natural causes at the age of 94, you cannot refute that these treatments had made an impact on her health. Especially when we know that the life expectancy in the early 1900s in France was 47 years!
Now let’s start our travelog!
Here are the places Dr. Dominique Fradin-Read went in August to rejuvenate her health. These are places where she enjoys a thalassotherapy program, a daily combination of body treatments with various types of sea water showers, algae and mineral mud application, massages of all kinds, and aerobic exercise in saltwater pools. She often alternated the use of saunas and Turkish baths followed by the cold-water plunge during her stays. The whole program lasted three hours each day. You can also add beauty and aesthetic face rejuvenation treatments if you wish.
Originally when Dr. Read was still living in France, her main destinations were Northern Africa: Morocco, Tunisia, or Djerba.
Below are her recommended locations. Check them out!
The Sofitel Agadir Thalassa Sea & Spa
Dr. Read traveled a few times to Cap Skirring, Senegal and to the Ivory Coast, Côte d'Ivoire. Between the various treatments at the spa, she enjoyed following a stage of the Paris Dakar race in a big Range Rover. She is there in the car with the dark glasses!
She went once to the French Caribbean Islands, St. Lucie and La Martinique. This was more a sailing trip than her usual thalassotherapy stay, but it was fun in a different way. At one point Dr. Read participated in a production of “New York, New York.” She had to rehearse a few times for sure!
Since she moved to the US, Dr. Read continues to go to various establishments each year in August where she benefits from thalassotherapy treatments. She usually stays in France so that she can combine her stay with a visit to her family near Paris.
Her French recommendations are below:
Quiberon: A nice resort in the south of Brittany with fresh air and fantastic fish dishes. You could at the same time visit the site of Carnac which has an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic stones with intense spiritual messages.
Biarritz-Anglet: Another resort near the Spanish border in the Basque country with a huge 350 m2 (3767.37 sq ft) of heated salt water and multiple jets, so good for underwater massage. Just be careful as the pressure could well make you spiral all over the basin before you know it! You could watch the sunset from a pretty little beach nearby called La Chambre d ’Amour. The success of this beautiful beach is linked to the legend of a young couple of lovers who would have been surprised by the tide.
And recently, the favorite place for Dr. Read to go is Cabourg in Normandy, close to the famous city of Deauville where the American Film Festival takes place every year, and the landing beaches of World War 2.
You might want to spend a day in Honfleur, a picturesque fisherman village a few miles north on the Atlantic Ocean.
And do not forget to try the Normandy style apple pie with or without cream!
