Back-to-school season is here, and the nights are getting cooler in Montreal—even if it’s still tropical during the day. It’s time to break out the long pants, blue-light-blocking glasses, notebooks, and socks to peek out from patent leather loafers. It’s exciting, but going back to work is stressful.
Just two hours from Montreal, the Nordik Spa Village in Chelsea is like anoasis forthose who are stressed and need a day of relaxation with apumpkin spice vibe(or water and cucumber, or spruce needles).
It’s more than just a spa—it’s an entirevillage ofrelaxation in the middle of the forest, and it’s absolutely delightful… Plus, you can wander around barefoot (in your favorite flip-flops, which would otherwise be tucked away in the closets).
COLD WATER, HOT WATER, BOREAL FOREST
The Nordik Spa Village in Chelsea draws deeply on the healing properties and emotional introspection offered by the boreal forest—the northern forest that covers Quebec. Ancestral Indigenous knowledge has categorized all of its plants—the medicinal ones, the dangerous ones, those that reveal the truth, and those that induce prophetic dreams.
These elements blend with the Finnish sauna ritual and its culture of introspection, filled with the scent of wood and essential oils. The ARBORÉAL ritual features birch branches, essences from backcountry plants, and the dry heat that makes you sweat in the hot-stone sauna.
We’ll also take part in an AUFGUSS, a Germanic ritual that combines thermotherapy and aromatherapy in a ceremony similar to a guided meditation—also in a sauna.
You can move through several saunas, hot and cold baths, and various relaxation areas (quiet or otherwise) to complete a cycle of meditation, relaxation, and introspection. Staring into space with your eyes on the spruce trees, your head cool and your belly warm—that’s just what you need to survive the start of the school year.
EVENING RITUALS, HOPE
After a day of meditative relaxation, you can enjoy a glass of wine (natural?) while drying your hair and admiring the spectacular view of the boreal forest, which is turning increasingly red and gold. The area where you can eat and have a drink, by the way, is calledPanorama.
It’s the mostluxuriouswaywe’vefound to reconnect with nature, from theBiergartento the cold plunge with a waterfall.
PRACTICAL INFO
Where? Nordik Spa Village Chelsea, 16 Chemin Nordik, Chelsea, QC
When?Open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
How?You can book on the website—chelsea.lenordik.com
