Retreat-Holidays
Body Mind and Spirit:
Gréoux-les-Bains in the French Alps
This retreat-holiday offers a unique experience, combining a retreat on the Living Water with 45 treatments for your aches and pains at the “Troglodytic, Celtic, Gallo-Roman Spa” of Gréoux-les-Bains in the French Alps. There is even a little spa-related French tuition available if you want it, all included in the price. There is a choice of self-catering and half-board accommodation, all in the centre of town.
In France, spas are taken seriously as part of mainstream medicine. In fact, 550,000 people every year go to a spa in France – and many go every year. The French health service is so convinced of the value of these treatments that it reimburses two-thirds of the cost to French residents who undertake a full-length “cure”. The French word "cure" is not the same as the English one: it does not mean that you will come home cured of arthritis or whatever; however, most people do notice a considerable improvement in their symptoms, which is why they keep going back.
Treatments at the spa include various ingenious jets of this mineral water designed to pummel and infiltrate the bits of the body which ache (shoulders, backs, knees, feet, hands ...) as well as mud baths, spa baths and a fantastic automatic massage table. The precise treatments given to each person depend on individual needs and are prescribed by a doctor before treatment begins.
This retreat-holiday offers the chance to discover this wonderful resource with the help of an experienced bilingual leader. We shall be staying for 13 days in the delightful village of Gréoux-les-Bains. On nine of those days, we shall be given five treatments a day, with each treatment lasting about ten minutes.
There will be help with French, for those who want it. And, of course, this is above all a retreat experience - a chance to grow closer to God.
We are going in November to avoid the crowds and queues of busier months. It is usually sunny and often warm enough to eat out of doors at lunch-time. The average maximum temperature is around 15°C/60°F.
Gréoux is a charming place: a large villlage or a small town in the French Alps (the department of les Alpes de Haute Provence). It is dominated by its Chateau. The heart of the town is made up of pedestrian streets - you may well be able to do some Christmas shopping there.
The weekly market is very good. It takes place just outside the hotel we are using and three minutes' walk from our self-catering accommodation.
Another attraction of Gréoux is the River Verdon, which flows quite near the spa. There are lovely walks along the banks - and even a fitness trail for anyone who is gymnastically inclined.
Not your usual sort of graffito! This one, spotted by the river, could have been meant for our retreatants:
"JESUS LOVES YOU"!
Body, Mind and Spirit: Gréoux-les-Bains
Body, Mind and Spirit: Accommodation
Body, Mind and Spirit: Programme