"Becoming Awash in Tranquility"

Sandra Caron European Spa

When Romanian-born spa therapist Sandra Caron left Paris to work at a Bay Area spa in the early 1980s, she was shocked at the advice aFrench consultant gave her.

"She said you have to educate the American people. In my place, they already know everything, so it's sort of harsh to say you have to educate someone. But she said no, you have to tell them what these things are for," Caron says. In Europe the spas are all very well established (as) the healthy approach to life all the time. Here you didn't have anything- it was just fitness."

Sufficiently educated on facials, mud wraps and massages, Caron's clientele now can learn about aromatherapy baths, hydrotherapy showers and hydro massages at her newest facility, an 8,OO0 square-foot complex in downtown San Mateo.

Soaking in the aromatherapy bath ($30 for 30 minutes for two) is already popular with couples, who often follow up with a session on the dual massage table, according to Caron. Which essences scent your bath are determined by your needs: rosemary for stimulation, chamomile and gardenia for relaxation.

In another private room, the Vichy shower ($30 for 30 minutes) bathes you in a soft, warm rain as you lie on a padded table. Add on a Swedish massage under the water - the therapist wears a waterproof apron - for just $15 more. "It's so relaxing and really therapeutic. When you leave, you feel like it's penetrated through your body, rather than just a massage," says Deborah Olson, 40, of Sunnyvale.

A devotee of spas in Europe, Olson is also one of the intrepid souls to have tried the Kneipp jet massage ($25 for 30 minutes). In this treatment, a therapist aims a hose spraying a high-pressure stream of water at the client, alternating blasts of hot and cold water.

"I love it, because I really understand it," Olson says. "When they do the hot and cold, it's really good for circulation. It feels rejuvenating."

All the new equipment came with additional costs for owners Sandra and Lionel Caron, who also operate a smaller spa in Burlingame. They had to bring in a new, higher-pressure water line, a new gas line, European electrical outlets, a water distiller and special heaters to provide instantaneous hot water. More equipment, massage rooms and a yoga studio are due March 1.