Paris Health & Beauty

American friends who flock to Paris in the summer months swear by this discreet Saint-Germain spa. A session in the Iyashi Dôme after a long-haul flight feels like a reset and somehow really helps with the jet lag. The long, tubelike structure is inspired by the Japanese purification ritual of burying oneself in the sands of hot springs and is said to stimulate the metabolism and accelerate the removal of toxins with infrared rays. The firming facials—using Carita products—help depuff dehydrated skin (so symptomatic of too much time up in the air).

Yoga, Gyrotonic, spinning, Reformer Pilates, and Xtend Barre all under one roof make Studio Rituel a popular wellness destination. And the location, a stone’s throw from the Luxembourg Gardens, doesn’t hurt. The Gyrotonic classes, which involve fluid movement and targeted stretches utilizing the seven natural elements of spinal movement, are particularly helpful if you plan to do a lot of walking. As the class ramps up, these stretches are more like a dance, and over time they dramatically increase your flexibility. The studio also offers holistic treatments like massage, reflexology, and Qigong.

After four years of renovations—the first closure in the hotel’s history—the Ritz Paris’s charming, traditional style is firmly intact but decidedly spruced up. The spa is as stunning as ever, aglow with gilded flourishes and newly embellished with art from the room Coco Chanel inhabited for over thirty years. The treatments are at least as luxurious: Aestheticians use sound and light to ease you into total relaxation, then they go to work. The fascia massage, in which the membranes coating the muscles of the face are manipulated to ease tension, is amazing, and getting slathered in a collagen-infused formula leaves you smoothed and soothed. When it’s all over, delay the crushing return to reality by retreating to the neoclassical swimming pool with one of the spa’s fantastic beauty-elixir cocktails.

This is Paris’s largest day spa—and the ultimate place to spend an entire day resting and relaxing. Booking two treatments gets you all-day access to the indoor pool, sauna, hammam, juice bar, and the especially deluxe sushi bar, along with the coziest robe and slippers ever. The treatments focus on traditional Balinese beauty rituals, and the Five Flowers Ritual, which combines the essences of five tropical flowers to nurture skin, is especially delightful.  

The company’s three-story flagship spa is set in a quiet courtyard off the Champs-Élysées, and no two treatments are alike. Instead, skin is meticulously examined with the Skin Instant Lab, which measures moisture, elasticity, pigmentation, and oil production. Next you’re ushered into a gorgeous, all-white treatment room, where a custom regimen of products for the facial is selected.

Take your pick from yoga (Ashtanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa, as well as sessions for kids), Pilates, meditation, massage, and chiseling bar classes at this atmospheric studio in the Marais. Subdued lighting, gorgeous earth tones, and Asian sculptures set a soothing vibe. There’s a luxurious, rejuvenating hammam; a shop stocked with essential oils, candles, yoga mats, and beautifying potions; and a café that serves incredible organic lunches.

World-famous hair-color guru Christophe Robin’s salon in the up-and-coming 2nd arrondissement has got to be one of the most quintessentially Parisian places on earth. Not only will you walk out with your best hair ever, you’ll have spent a few hours swanning around in a brightly colored silk kimono, cosseted in the Tony Duquette-inspired interiors that feel more like a home than a salon, watching fabulous Parisians in their natural habitat. Even if you don’t color your hair, go for a cut, blowout, or even a manicure. And, if you don’t have the time, stop in to have your hair shampooed for free in an amazing, Venus-on-the-half-shell basin.

Through a beautiful garden courtyard near the Paris Vendôme, every treatment at the glamorously hushed Darphin Vendôme Institute starts with a soothing pressure-point massage. The facials are off-the-charts incredible, and we like to hang out beforehand in the super soothing relaxation room. We love the Harmonizing Touch treatment, which blends soothing botanicals to lift and firm skin and the La Parisienne, an hour and a half that includes a soothing facial and a rejuvenating massage.

Plagued by stomach pains, Marine “Mirz” Parmentier found relief in yoga and became obsessed, leaving her communications job to train in India. She founded Mirz Yoga, where you can take Vinyasa, Hatha, and Jivamukti classes designed for all levels, including prenatal and children, along with a signature, beyond-fun hip-hop Vinyasa flow. Mirz also has her own yoga line, handmade with ethically sourced fabrics in France, and there's an amazingly delicious vegetarian café (the falafel bowl is especially good).

It’s appropriate that this beautiful, cozy yoga studio that focuses on patience and benevolence is in an old church.