WELLNESS CULTURE COMES TO PARIS
From the back, she was all Parisian: messy blond hair, cap-sleeved white tee worn under a scooped-back baby-doll dress, chunky platform sandals paired with ankle socks and a powderblue Versace satchel.
But instead of lighting a cigarette, she was carefully contemplating which 100-per cent organic, plant-based, gluten-free, unpasteurized, zero-additive snack to order.
These days in Paris, wellness and cleansing is the new wine and cheese.
Leaving one’s hotel or Airbnb dwelling wearing sneakers — whether for a picturesque run along the quai or to withstand hours at the Louvre — is finally à la mode, and vegetarians no longer have to go hungry while their carnivore friends eat the likes of foie gras and tête de veau.
Nowhere is this change more evident than at Wild & the Moon, a veggie-pushing haven in the Marais and the setting for the aforementioned scene. Tables are wooden. Light bulbs descend from the ceiling. Ferns drape over ceramic pots. Reggae plays softly, interrupted only by the occasional rumbling of the blender making the likes of spirulina smoothies.
Opened in February 2016, it quickly became the place for the healthy hipster set — both French and otherwise — to detox on juice, socialize among friends and “thrive on love and energize in sun rays,” as its website says.
“That French paradox of the Parisian girl who dresses all in black, eats everything, drinks, smokes and doesn’t exercise; that can be true of a few girls, but not for most of us,” says Victoire Louapre, an expat Parisian who writes about food in California. “Before, we were frowned up-
on if we went to the gym every day or practised yoga and meditation.”
Now, even hotels are making it their business to offer more than a basic fitness centre with a few treadmills to both guests and locals.
On a Monday night, around 7 p.m., I was the only non-French adventurer sliding my hands into boxing gloves in the lower level of Hotel Parister, which opened in October in the 9th arrondissement. The words “Mind, Body, Soul” loom large on a wall at the far end of the cavernous room where CYD (Conquer Your Day), a grassroots fitness phenomenon that started as a Facebook group, is heading up the hotel’s workout program that is accessible to both Parisians and hotel visitors. About six classes are offered daily, including yoga, core strengthening, swimming and trigger point, a DIY targeted muscle massage.
“We believe in the benefits of practising wellness on a regular basis,” says Grégory Mollet-Viéville, co-founder of CYD, who credits this increased interest in “bien-être” (well-being) to generational changes. “I’m 45, [and come from a time where] our parents told us to make some money. Today, I have two daughters, and I’d say, ‘Be happy,’ which is very different.”
Romain Rainaut, his business partner, adds: “You can take care of yourself without restricting yourself. The French don’t want to be told to stop doing something, but to change or add something — that can be OK.”
In “The New Paris: The People, Places and Ideas Fuelling a Movement,” which was published in April, author and journalist Lindsey Tramuta writes: “You can’t change their almost genetic predisposition to carbing, but Parisians are open to new things once they see they can be done well.
The difference between the way in which Parisians now approach veggie-centric diets and the way most Americans do is that they come from an intrinsically more balanced background with food. It’s less radical (cut out everything!), more sound (give it a try; learn something new).”
To wit, before Kristen Beddard, author of “Bonjour Kale,” reintroduced the farmers of France to the forgotten cabbage — which has become so globally popular that it is now featured in chip form at the London-based international sandwich shop Pret A Manger — they considered it a war food or something that they’d feed their livestock. But as a result of her efforts, the French started to appreciate the idea of making something old new again. For the first time in decades “chou kale,” as it’s affectionately known in France, appears on “eat smart” menus all around town — from Green House in the 11th arrondissement to the aptly named Miss Kale in the 2nd.
“People are finally understanding that health is linked to what you eat,” says Emma Sawko, owner of Wild & the Moon, which debuted its third standalone outpost near the Palais Garnier in November. “This is pretty new here in Paris. Eating a lot of cheese and good wine is sort of our culture, but now we’re all more informed. If I would’ve opened four or six years before, I’m not sure it would’ve worked the same way.”
Julie Aubert, one of two 30-yearold co-founders of the year-old workout studio-cafe hybrid Chez Simone, also feels that she is on the forefront of a movement in which the French are following what the Americans, British and Australians have known for years: athleticism paired with avocado wholegrain toasts, with a side salad of chou kale and maybe a detox cold press juice, is très trendy.
After my hour-long California barre class in the light-filled studio, I retreated to the locker-room where, post-shower, I accidentally moisturized my body with makeup remover.
I suppose I was just shocked that either one was available for free use — and from a chic brand like Fresh, no less!
Once I was properly primped, I gathered around the juice bar with fellow exercisers to discuss the merits of energy balls, which the house sells for one euro a pop.
“We’re slow learners,” says Aubert, “because we have a very rich culture related to food and are therefore more reluctant to open our minds, but it’s coming slowly.”
And, perhaps, literally, with Paris’s first Bar a Meditation, a centreyour-chakras centre that opened last year to offer group and individual sessions. Unfortunately, I arrived a half-hour late for the afternoon group class.
The bar’s location near department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps on the Right Bank, however, make it a perfect place for a pre- or post-shopping breather, so I’ll definitely go back.
“There has always been an appreciation for a life balance in France,” says yoga teacher Cole Zaccaria, a New Yorker who now teaches in Paris with CYD at Hotel Parister, “and we are now entering a time where this includes moments of staying present, slowing down and being mindful.” And maybe finding the City of Light within.