Le Centre de Yoga du Marais
fondé novembre 2001.
I’m still pretty proud of that moniker as when I came to Paris, March 1, 2001 (my 15th birthday is around the corner), there were hardly any yoga centers in Paris. The ex-pat community is and always was very well organized here, so it was easy to make friends and when the word got out I was a yoga teacher I was busy, busy, busy. There were no yoga classes in English, and everyone I met was eager to get back to a yoga practice which they had abandoned when they left their community.
I was so busy in fact, that it was my fiancé’s idea to get a place for me and have students come to me, rather then spend much of the day on Paris metros giving private lessons to everyone from the well-heeled in fashion and industry to young students on trust funds who were in Paris finding themselves. I found the center when I was walking my beloved cocker spaniel Lucy, who moved to Paris with me from New York. We lived and still live in the 3rd arrondissement which I am sure we will never leave, I absolutely adore this neighborhood. Rue du Vertbois at the time was a street of rather dodgy store fronts, but we saw potential and the space we chose is just behind the renowned Conservatoire Arts et Métiers and has an unobstructed view of the 13th century tower of the Benedictine monastery, and the largest remaining portion of the ancient crenulated Roman wall which marked the city of Paris. Victor Hugo saved this tower and the fountain on the corner from demolition with his words in 1882, "Demolish the tower, no! Demolish the architect, yes!” This corner has a lot of spunk and it was for me.
The most important aspect? The ancient-beamed ceiling of the studio was just high enough for a space to reach up and stretch in. Those who know the Marais, know it is old and rooms are tiny.
This one worked. Michele, then fiancé, and I bought it together on Halloween, we opened on Thanksgiving , 2001, flew to New York 2 weeks later and got married there in City Hall. 2001 was a very big year. My Italian husband moved here to the Marais permanently in 2002.
Although, I run the center and its programs, my first love is and always will be teaching, the regular schedule, seeing the students come in every week catching up with them. I know them all by first and last names. I’ve helped a lot of moms bring their babies into the world when I headed the prenatal program for 9 years. Then the first of it’s kind in Paris in French or in English and I started Mommy and Me, as well. It’s been a profession immeasurably rewarding. I still stay in touch with many who have moved away, as this is a high-transit city, and feel happy that there is this space that people can come to, to reconnect with themselves and to just be. Many have told me that the classes at the Center was their favorite experience while they lived in Paris. I feel the Centre de Yoga du Marais is my legacy and will be here for all the beautiful teachers who want to teach there for a long long time.
