A lovely new Art Deco Spa in the Western Sierras
just a few hours from LA or SF.

This fabulous new spa at the “Château du Sureau” a gold Relais et Château in the small township of Oakhurst in the western foothills of California’s Sierra Mountains (just miles away from Yosemite National Park) is a marvelous addition to the land of gourmet self indulgence. Done faithfully in yester-year Art Deco, you are transported back to an era of graceful and tranquil living. The tones are hushed in color and sound. It is physically small which promotes personal attention and intimacy.

It can be so intimate, in fact, that you can even enjoy a his and hers treatment lounge. We say lounge because this is not so much a room as an environment that in addition to sporting a gauze separated set of treatment tables, has two club chairs and coffee table in a half circle around a blazing fire place, a corner built in settee and a free standing built for two jacuzzi of black arranged in front of French doors that look out over the pine covered hill sides!

There are three other treatment rooms for one and a couples sized water and mud treatment enclosure from Australia that give the old skin covering a good work out that can be shared with a significant other. There is a small cozy lounge also with a fire.

The treatments themselves cover facial, massage, nail and body care and other treatments that will make you glow from the inside out from top to bottom. They offer three traditional European Kurs: Thalassotherapy (marine therapy. You'll have to ask them to explain that.), Kräuter (herbal baths) and Thermal Mineral (mud & medicinal elements).
Once you get settled, your start with their signature item, their Elderberry Foot bath to provide a relaxing, refreshing prelude to the menu that follows. The staff are expertly trained and licensed therapists and in the time we had to spend at the spa (the finishing touches were being applied when we were there) are also quietly friendly as suites the calm elegance of the establishment and its decor.

The spa just opened it's doors in 2006. It is part of the “Château du Sureau” five star hotel and the very fine "Erna's Elderberry House Restaruant" so you have top class accommodations and an excellent restaurant to maintain you if you wish to stay one or more nights. (See our coverages of both; links just above). We are delighted to be informed my Erna, that on opening, the Spa offers a lunch with the Salon du Sureau treatment as well as with the all the Kurs treatments. The menu consists of a bowl of delicious soup followed by a delicious and healthy salad - sample: smoked artichoke soup with artichoke ravioli, roasted yellow peppersoup with a red pepper timbale etc... field lettuce served with an apple/shallot vinaigrette, roasted pistachios, fresh roquefort and shredded pippin apples ....etc. followed by hot or cold Elderberry tea with our wonderful mini "Ischler Tartlet" for a decadent finale. This is complimentary but only with these treatments. Otherwise there is a modest but very pleasant Japanese restaurant in town just minutes away but hardly the place one wants to go dressed in terry cloth, slippers and open pores. But if this is not an issue, all your wants are met.