Our First Hammam (Lyon, France)

On Monday, while in Strasbourg, France, we had our first hammam experience. While hammams are typically not co-ed, the one we went to, La 7eme Source, had a Monday promotion for couples and we couldn’t resist giving it a try.

Our youngest kid (Theodore) had raved about the experience in Paris so I reached out to Theodore to understand what to expect. While Zeke asked for details about what to bring, the answers he got were incomplete. Theodore provided me with the following: “when I did it, I went in, got undressed, shower, applied the black soap, steam, got scrubbed, shower, steam, cold dip, shower, hang out with mint tea, dressed, exit.”

TLDR: And that was it in a nutshell except we didn’t have a cold plunge and we got massages before the tea.

We’d arrived early, to a locked door so we walked around until a few minutes before 2 PM and returned to the same locked door. We tried the various numbers after looking up how to call a French number from our phones and finally reached a gal who said she was on her way.

When she got there, it became apparent very quickly that neither she (Nadege) nor the owner spoke English so we had to rely on my French and pantomime to take us through what turned out to be a 3 hour experience that I’d love to do again before we leave on Tuesday. Zeke agreed to do it again in Morocco.

After handing us each a bath towel (serviette), we were escorted upstairs to this lovely relaxation area where we were instructed to change into our bathing suits and leave our clothes and bags in lockers. I handed my key to Zeke to put into his pocket and we followed Nadege back downstairs, still unclear on what to expect.

We were directed to a room where we were instructed to shower before being ushered into the tiled, what I will call ‘wet’ area. There were 6-8 sinks with stools and a raised. tiled, resting platform.

Nadege used her hands to apply the savon noir (black soap) to our bodies, first on mine and then on Zeke’s before we were instructed to spend 15-20 minutes in the steam room. We were also told that we could come out to cool off with the water from the sinks but under no circumstances were we to touch our eyes our mouths with the soap.

While I am generally not a fan of steam rooms or saunas, mostly because I get bored and restless, I was determined to get the most out of the experience. Zeke on the other hand loves a good steam/sauna followed by a cold plunge as you might recall from our Stockholm trip last year.

The perspiration dripped into my eyes and I resisted wiping it away for fear of the sting from the soap. After about 10 minutes, I couldn’t take it any longer and we exited the steam and I triple rinsed my hands before rinsing my face. We laid down on the tiled platform where we discovered that it was comfortably heated and spent a few minutes there before going back into the steam room.

After less than 10 minutes, we returned to the tiled platform until Nadege asked if we were doing ok and if we were ready for the next step., the scrub or gommage.

She had me lay face down on the tile which was slightly uncomfortable with my shins extending off the platform. She then put on a scrubbing mitt, and after asking me to take my bikini top off, proceeded to remove the top 3 layers of my epidermis. I love a good scrub, whether it’s sugar or salt, and thought it was great.

She then instructed me to go over to one of the stools and use the cup to pour water over my body to rinse off.

Once she was done with me, she had Zeke lay face down and she did the same for him. After Zeke saw the crap coming off my skin, he was looking forward to the wellness effects associated with this new (to him) experience.

Once he’d rinsed off, I was once again instructed to lay face down and she took another bowl of stuff, mixed it with her hands, and applied it to my body, first my back and then my front.

Then it was Zeke’s turn. He was smart enough to ask to lay the other direction so his full body was on the platform.

She then had us lay side by side with our heads toward the end of the platform, and she applied a face mask to each of us, first with a brush before rubbing it in with her fingertips. This was another first for Zeke.

We were then left to marinate for about 10-15 minutes before we were sent to the shower to rinse off.

At this point, we were unclear as to what was next. Was there going to be a massage? Did we already have it? Was one of us going to get massaged by Nadege, while the other waited or would the other woman get involved?

Also, were we supposed to put our bathing suits back on?

Eventually we realized we were supposed to put our bathing suits back on (just the bottom for me) and follow them upstairs to the massage area. Why the confusion on the bathing suits? The woman kept saying what sounded like ‘seche’ and I thought she was asking if we were dry. Maybe she was saying siège which means bottom. Nadege kept saying it was fine with her if we were naked but then the other woman kept contradicting her. Eventually, we put our bathing suit bottoms back on and I told Zeke to remind me not to forget my top in the shower room.

We thought the massage was supposed to be 30 minutes (as part of the package) but it felt closer to an hour. We weren’t complaining. This was the first time I’d had my chest massaged which was fine, but I love a good abdominal massage and without my top on, I got one! With a regular massage, because of the modesty coverage, the belly gets left out and I think that’s a shame.

Nadege massaged Zeke and while it was relaxing, he appreciates more intense pressure because of his various back and hip issues. Because of the language barrier and not understanding if the massage was supposed to be relaxing or therapeutic, he didn’t ask her to adjust the pressure.

Mine was great…just the right pressure from the woman I am assuming is the owner.

I asked Zeke if when he gets a massage he typically gets his chest and abdomen massaged and he said no which I thought was odd, but I was also glad otherwise I was going to be envious of his typical experience.

After the massage, we were led back up to the relaxation area, instructed to enjoy the mint tea and small snacks, and change back into our street clothes.

We did as instructed while taking a few pictures and a video and walked back downstairs to pay before telling the owner it was a 5 star experience.

At one point during our experience, I told Nadege that I didn’t think we had any hammams in the Bay Area and she suggested we open one and bring her over to run it. I responded that it sounded like too much work and would interfere with our travel. But' I’d let her know if we changed our minds.

Afterward, Zeke confirmed with a google search that there are no hammams in the Bay Area and suggested we go to one in Marrakesh instead. He’s trying to convince me to include Morocco and Tunisia in our spring trip. More to come on that!