This article was written by Jan Benzel for the New York Times travel section.
It’s about her struggle to find places to practice yoga after moving from New York City to Paris, and provides lots of great teachers and studios in case you are planning a trip to Europe!
Excusez-Moi, Parles-Vous Yoga?
PARIS — When I moved to Paris from New York last year, about the first thing I did was seek out yoga. The city, job, language, food, telephone numbers, currency, even the way the milk was labeled: every element of my life from the most major to the tiniest details, had changed. Sure, it was thrilling, but it was also exhausting and humbling. At least on a yoga mat, I thought, I could feel at home.
An Internet search led me to Rasa, an airy, skylit studio near the Sorbonne entered through a massive wooden door from rue Saint Jacques and across a postcard-gorgeous stone courtyard. Classes were offered in English and French. “Ah, good for my rusty French!”’ I thought. I chose a class with a teacher exotically named Rajeev. Turned out he was from Chicago, né Aaron. His English was impeccable.
Yoga knowledge in Paris is spread mostly by word of mouth and fliers. At Rasa I learned of Marc Holzman , a teacher newly arrived in Paris from Los Angeles who was offering Saturday classes at the American Church on the Quai d’Orsay. From that class I learned of a newish studio in the 14th Arrondissement called Be Yoga, a cheerfully painted little neighborhood place adorned with a string of prayer flags and some bells outside the entrance.
Many other studios dot the city; yoga events are drawing ever-bigger crowds. On Oct. 2 some 3,000 people turned out at the Eiffel Tower for la White Yoga Session, led by Elena Brower, identified in the weekly French magazine Marianne as a grand priestess of “new-yorkaise yoga.” Ms. Brower is the founder of Vira Yoga in Greenwich Village.
