 |
| La Roche Posay |
When C was working in Paris, she would treat herself at the end of a term with a visit to the thermal spring spa at La Roche Posay, a couple of hours train ride south. Taking a "water cure" is a big thing in France and it's adherents divide into 2 groups: fresh water and salt water.
This might sound New Agey to Americans but it fits into one of the curious cultural aspects of the French people: they tend to be hypochondriacs. Further astonishing to Americans is the fact that taking a water cure is covered under the national health insurance! Yep, ask your primary to write a prescription and you're covered! In the French view, this provides a fairly cost efficient therapy for both mind and body which may prevent in the long run more chronic and expensive conditions. Read more in depth:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/30/seeking-a-cure-in-frances-waters
I'm pretty cynical about whether such a scheme would be able to take off here. For one thing, anything like this in the past has been associated with either wealthy elites, QVC snake oil scammers (many of whom are in jail,now) and their celebrity cousins GOOP etal. I think that in the American public's mind, all the news is and has been pretty negative about this sort of thing. And, the medical and pharmaceutical industrial complexes would mount smear campaigns to discredit the viability of anything that might draw customers away from their products. You got aches and pains, lady? You want to go to a spa? Naw-here's a vicodin.
No comments:
Post a Comment