2023-07-15 06:47:00
And, suddenly, a blonde swerves into the group, sneaks between the legs of the spa guests. This Tuesday evening, the little girl who hops happily from one end to the other of the room of the casino of Salies-de-Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), where the traditional welcome drink of the thermal center is held, brings down suddenly the average age of the small assembly, situated between 60 and 70 years. ” Mom ! Mom ! exclaims the child who comes to take refuge in Johanna’s arms. “Mila! the mum whispers in his ear, a glass in her hand near the sideboard. “I called her Mila, as a miracle. She is my little miracle. This summer, her daughter will celebrate her 3rd birthday. His mother, from Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), is 44 years old. She almost despaired of being able to cuddle her child one day.
After years of trying to get pregnant, in 2019, the forties, suffering from fibroids in the uterus, landed here, in this pretty little town of 5,000 souls where she had heard of an amazing spa treatment. “The doctor was skeptical. He told me it was a waste of time, that I wouldn’t have children. Six months later, against all odds, Johanna became pregnant with Mila thanks to a PMA performed in Barcelona. She sees it as a sign. “The doctors were really surprised. They still haven’t understood how it was possible, how the baby got attached. But Mila grew up among my fibroids. During the delivery, the doctor had to keep his cool to extract it”, is still surprised Johanna who has already returned twice since then with her daughter to this place that she cherishes so much.
Water rich in trace elements
Throughout the year, the town attracts elderly spa guests, who come to treat their rheumatism with the town’s salt water, rich in 26 trace elements. Here, the story of Johanna’s miracle baby is just one of many. Even if its health benefits are not formally recognized by the medical profession, Salies is one of a handful of thermal sites in France – with Luxeuil-les-Bains (Haute-Saône), Bourbon-l’Archambault (Allier) or even Évaux-les-Bains (Creuse) – where “gynecological cures” have been practiced for decades to take care of women with endometriosis, fibroids, infertility.
In the corridors of the thermal baths, which, from 1857, seduced the great bourgeois of Paris, who came thanks to the rise of the railway to treat their “women’s illnesses” in the sun, as the posters of the time say, a entire wall, covered with announcements, is dedicated to these “grains of salt”. This is how babies born with thermal water are nicknamed. Here, we peddle all these stories with the air of fairy tales with a small knowing smile, knowing full well that, even if Salies is located a hundred kilometers from Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), miracles do not exist did.
Salies is one of a handful of spa sites in France where “gynecological cures” have been practiced for decades to take care of women with endometriosis, fibroids and infertility. P.Tohier-Photomobile/2003
“Nothing will ever be able to prove that it is our water”, slips mischievously Frédéric Moreau, the director of the thermal baths. It prevents. “I have a lot of hope,” Catherine, 36, immediately tells us, met at the Café du Chalet, the headquarters for spa guests. Employed in logistics, she took her summer vacation, swallowed more than 1,000 km by car, from Lille (North), with her poodle and her husband to settle in a small apartment and do, every morning during three weeks, his care reimbursed by Social Security. In this case, poultices of clay and salt water but also “vaginal irrigation”, which consists of introducing thermal water using a tube.
“They barely represent 10% of spa guests”
“It’s a bit of a holiday,” consoles this 30-year-old, who has already had a miscarriage after an ectopic pregnancy because of her fibroids and thinks that this cure can only do her good. “I like everything natural, I eat organic. So, alternative medicine, I believe in it, ”she says. “The simple fact of arriving there, you feel better anyway,” confirms Yasmine Candau, president of the EndoFrance association, also conquered by the magic of the place.
In the alleys of “the Venice of Béarn”, so nicknamed because of its canals, we come across these childless women aged 30 to 40 years old. So they are easily recognized. “They represent barely 10% of spa guests,” explains Odile Diard, the director of care. That is some 300 people each year.
“These are women who are very invested in their work and who sometimes forget to think about themselves. When they are there, for once, they take care of themselves. They suffered failure after failure before arriving. For them, it’s the last hope, ”clarifies Coraline Caïe, a health psychologist who organizes discussion groups at the thermal baths. Rarely do they feel truly alone. “They find themselves isolated in an old people’s cure, so they become friends, walk in groups, go shopping”, explains Mauryne Salvat, president of the Association of Salisian shops and crafts.
The Friday Ball and the Cuckold Train
One of these desperate women, who came in 1972, left a vivid memory in the memory of the inhabitants. His photo now stands, in black and white, in all the beauty of his 30th birthday, at the Salt Museum in the center of the town: it is the singer Françoise Hardy. An experience that this mother of an only son, Thomas Dutronc, born in 1973 a few months after the cure, recounted frankly in her autobiography, released in 2008 (Éd. Robert Laffont). “I can still see his long silhouette in the streets of Salies,” recalls, with a touch of nostalgia, Annie Hourdebaigt, member of the Association of Friends of Old Salies.
Singer Françoise Hardy gave birth to her only son, Thomas Dutronc, in 1973, a few months after her cure. Christophe L collection via AFP
By taking the time to chat with the inhabitants, we also hear about another story, less miraculous, but just as tasty. “In Salies, at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a ball on Friday evening. All the guys from Salies were there to make the bourgeoises who arrived alone from Paris dance, ”we whisper at the bookstore. “Let’s say that it wasn’t just the water that allowed them to get pregnant,” says Annie, from the Friends of Old Salies, before mentioning the weekend train in which the husbands disembarked. In the area, he was nicknamed “the train of cuckolds”! All these stories are well known, including by the current management of the spa center. “It certainly played in favor of fertility”, comments, not fooled, Odile Diard, who also has fun with the legend.
Still, the Friday evening ball has not been organized for ages and the stories of “grains of salt” continue to circulate en masse. In recent years, they have even given rise to two books. “Everything was beneficial in this cure, but the most striking was the close relationship with the other girls”, says Florence Kanban, in “I’ll be Mom! (Éd. Mediaspaul), released in 2020.
With other curists, the young woman from Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) suffering from endometriosis even wrote a song in 2013 “Les Graines de l’espoir”, still listening on the Internet, and remains a member of a collective called “Sisters of the Moon”. Another example to date: Aude Ferbos, a journalist from Sud-Ouest, who published in the spring of 2022 (Sud-Ouest editions) a novel, “Seeds of salt”, where it is about two friends, Lucia and Brune, both suffering from endometriosis and who come to Salies to clear their minds. A novel from the “Feel so good” collection, we learn on the cover.
“The atmosphere is very nice here when you meet up with women,” confirms Justine, a 32-year-old bachelor. P.Tohier-Photomobile/2003
“The atmosphere is very nice here when you meet women, confirms Justine, a 32-year-old single from La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime). There are intimate subjects that bind us very quickly. In 2022, during my first cure, I had met lots of girls in my situation, who were looking to have a child. In the afternoon, we did activities together. We even created a WhatsApp group which is still active, ”says this dynamic young woman with curly hair who returned this summer before a new attempt at PMA solo. “Since I have endometriosis, I prefer to do it early,” she slips.
Doing a cure a few months before your PMA, this is a rather common profile at the thermal baths of Salies. “I’m going back to the course at the end of August and I wanted to do the cure to put the odds on my side”, also confides Cécile, a 36-year-old teacher who, too, expressly asked her doctor for a prescription, precious sesame to come on site.
“There is little valid clinical research on the impact of spa treatments in gynecology”
“Even if they are approved by the Regional Health Agency (ARS), our cures remain decried by some of the doctors”, deplores the director of the thermal baths, who does not give up for all that. Frédéric Moreau has undertaken a vast project to make Salies, from May 2024, a reference site in France in terms of women’s health. This clear-eyed forty-something who is teeming with projects also intends to offer stays for couples. “Women’s health problems are also stories of families, households, everyone is concerned,” he defends.
Another major challenge to come: the study, in project, of the Bordeaux obstetrician gynecologist Jean-Luc Brun, who soon intends to look into the case of Salies-de-Béarn. “There is little valid clinical research on the impact of spa treatments in gynecology”, explains the doctor, convinced of the “relaxing and anti-inflammatory” properties of the salt present in the water of Salies. “This releases vascular and ligament tension in the small pelvis. But Salies is also a place where there is listening, an exchange between women. All this contributes to a favorable general atmosphere, ”he develops. From there to assert that there would be no miracle to report, there is only one step.
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