The rise of longevity clinics, a new vein of healthy aging

Along the road that stretches from the old town of Lausanne, in the Swiss canton of Vaud, to Clarens, "a small town at the foot of the Alps" where Julie, the heroine of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's New Heloise , experiences an impossible love affair with Saint-Preux, Lake Geneva displays its soft turquoise hues on this sunny June morning. On the opposite shore, you can see in the distance Evian-les-Bains, in Haute-Savoie, whose "miraculous waters," as the Marquis de Lessert said in the ^18th century, had cured him of his ills.

Nestled a few meters from the small port of Basset on a wooded estate offering a plunging view of the lake and the mountains, the Clinique La Prairie does not possess water with magical powers. It nevertheless possesses an asset highly prized by its wealthy international clientele: "the secret of longevity" , as it states on its website.

During the high season, from May to the end of October, many people come to stay at the "Château" , the five-star hotel with around thirty suites and rooms adjoining the main building, to enjoy for seven days and six nights "the ultimate experience of well-being and rejuvenation" of the establishment's flagship program, the "Revitalization" treatment.

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