Spa Afternoon

For my birthday present this year, I spent an afternoon in a day spa here in Antibes with my friend Osi. She had found this spa a couple of months ago in a random search for a pedicure. So we decided to take the afternoon off work and go get pampered. As an added bonus, they are having a 50% off all treatments through the end of August. Um, yes please!!

The spa is located in some very ugly, nondescript buildings near the motorway in Antibes. But when you walk inside the spa, it's a gorgeous, tranquil space. Really nicely decorated. And the owner is a cute little French woman with really good English (although we did try to speak French as much as possible).

I had a 90-minute hot stone massage, which was amazing. I've had other types of massage before, but this was my first hot stone massage. Also my first 90-minute massage. Sheer bliss.

Just after that, I had what's called "pression therapie". This was a 40-minute treatment to help improve circulation. I was put in these light cotton stockings that went from my ankles to my upper thighs. The stockings had been soaked in some sort of eucalyptus/mint solution, so they were immediately cooling. Then these huge blood-pressure cuff-like things were put on each of my legs, full length, followed by booties. Then a bustier-type one went around my body. The treatment then was for this machine to inflate each section of the "cuffs" starting from my feet to the top of the chest in sequence. It was kind of funny--I was joking with the aesthetician who got me all hooked up in it. You sort of feel like an astronaut or something. But it was nice anyway, if a bit bizarre.

After that treatment, I put my fluffy bathrobe on again and went to sit on a nice sofa for my aromatherapy treatment, the final treatment of the day for me. For this, I put on a funky headset thing with a little tube that was positioned a few inches away from my nose. The tube puffed oxygen mixed with aromatherapy scent in my face for 20 minutes. It was OK, but not really as relaxing as I'd hoped.

I waited on the sofa for Osi to finish her hot stone massage, and she came out of the room all mushy and relaxed. We sat on the sofa for about 1/2 an hour, sipping herbal tea and chatting. Actually, it was mostly me chatting because I felt all energized after the relaxing massage followed by the stimulating pression therapy.

An excellent way to spend a Friday afternoon!!!