All the Yoga News That’s Fit
A 4-day yoga event in a historic monument and Olympic-adjacent experiences to prime you for the Games
The Olympics are everywhere you look, and no one is more blasé about it than your typical Parisian. Not sure what it’s been like in other host cities, but here the mood is definitely “don’t care” or some version of a nonchalant pftt.
The local Monoprix has had a stand on display filled with Olympic flip-flops, mugs, t-shirts, bucket hats (called ‘bobs’ en français) and its racks are just as full this week as they were 15 days ago. Every Parisian I’ve talked to is either:
Skipping town
Skipping town and renting out their apartments on airbnb for €€€
Staying put but complaining incessantly about how impossible everything is and will be, now and forever (Parisians love the dramz)
To gauge by how many wellness, fitness and yoga activities keep popping up, week to week, many businesses are ignoring the local grumbling and instead brainstorming new ways to experience Paris. This is fantastic for visitors, less so for those of us who just want to cycle along the quais, or visit a favorite café in a red or gray zone that requires special QR codes or laissez-passers… The known-unknowns are causing a bit of anxiety, but there’s a solution for that: yoga 😂
Below we tell you all about a yoga event in a Paris landmark with a storied past, and share a list of art, fitness and movement experiences to prime you for the Olympics Games…
Organic Alchemy at La Conciergerie (Paris)
with Organic Alchemy
Four evenings with Maricha Dumont, Ola Jas and friends that will plunge you into the world of well-being in the Middle Ages. Far from medieval, many of the treatments used back them such as baths, herbal tinctures and plant remedies still have wellness currency today. Each yoga session is preceded by a guided tour of La Conciergerie to help you understand—and perhaps embody—living history.
Maricha and Ola will be joined by Celad (music), Mika (yoga and music), Alexandra (sound bath), and Julia (artist), and each evening’s program is unique: Wednesday features Yoga Flow or Yin and Meditation; Thursday’s focus is Yang and Yin; Friday highlights the sacred feminine with a poetic practice followed by a sound bath; and the event closes on Saturday with Yoga Flow and a sound bath. Full programme details here.
Wednesday May 29th through Saturday June 1st, 2024
19h15-20h15 and 20h30-21h30 (two one-hour sessions per evening)
29€/1 session per evening, 55€/2 sessions aka La Soirée, 222€/Full Pack (all yoga sessions)
All fees include access to La Conciergerie as well as a guided tour of the monument. First tour takes places before the first yoga session, from 18h30-19h; second tour will be held 19h30-20h, except on Saturday June 1st).
Students get 50% discount, and members of the Organic Alchemy community receive a 10% discount.
OLYMPIC MANIA IS CONTAGIOUS AND BEGINNING TO OVERTAKE PARIS
Media outlets were all over the news that the Louvre is offering fitness, dance and yoga classes during the Paris Olympics, but those journalists filed their stories way too late because sessions have been sold out for months.
Catch Olympic fever: from Tuesday May 28th through Tuesday July 30th, Le Moderne Yoga is hosting morning indoor mobility or run and yoga sessions at La Samaritaine. Le Moderne Yoga is the teacher training branch of Samuel Urtado’s duo of studios, Somasana (which we featured in our Paris Studio Spotlight.) Samuel is an osteopath and yoga teacher whose book, Le Yoga des Bons Hommes, is a yoga guide written for all sorts of yoga-sceptics, not just those of the male persuasion.
There’s a really fun show at the Musée du Luxembourg which sits at the northwestern edge of the jardin du Luxembourg: Match investigates the relationship between design and sport, and the impact they have on each other when it comes to innovation and performance. This would make a nice companion visit to Palais Galliéra’s La Mode en Mouvement which looks at fashion and sport, and which we wrote about here.
This Sunday May 26th from 10h30-12h, join Flora Bouteille, artist, and Charlotte Lecuit, dancer, at the Musée d’Art Moderne for “Faire corps avec le musée,” a workshop that explores how our bodies inhabit spaces, particularly spaces filled with art. Expect discussions as well as movement.
There isn’t an official Olympics-branded yoga mat for sale, but that didn’t stop Carrefour from producing one…