Evian: Water babies

When they opted for a parent-and-child bonding weekend at Evian's elegant spa hotel, Lauren Booth and her daughter weren't quite prepared for the luxury of it all. But, being the thoroughly modern women that they are, they jumped in at the deep end...

My idea of the perfect family holiday has never wavered: flaking out on a beach, keeping one eye on the baby, the other on a trashy novel. Yet, holidays with toddlers (and our fantasies of what they should be like) may be transformed for ever if ideologists such as Jacqueline Favre spread their doctrine throughout the resort world.

Jacqueline is an ex-pro swimmer and coach, a doctor of psychology and the inspiration behind the week-long "baby awakening" course at Les Thermes Evian. For mummies not content (or too guilty) to simply farm their little ones off to a hotel crèche, this course promises the chance to "share special moments of new experiences with babies and toddlers up to the age of three". To be honest, my own selfish inner infant was groaning "What about me?" before we even set foot in France.

On Monday at 4am, we set off. Two hours of hell sprinting around Gatwick's north terminal with an irritable 20-month old in tow were finally rewarded, around midday, as we drew up outside The Royal Park Hotel, Evian. Alexandra's mouth shaped into a perfect "O" and she made a single sound – a new one, by the way – that summed up our first impressions: "Wow". Actually, I may have been a tad more erudite could I have found my voice and said something like "Oh-dear-God-I've-died-and-come-back-a-Getty", but the rolling parkland behind us and the splendour ahead had winded me somewhat.

The Hotel Royal was built in 1909, during the Belle Epoque in honour of King Edward VII on the understanding that he and the élite of his entourage should be its first guests. It has 154 lush rooms, each overlooking luscious flower beds, lawns and the Alps in the distance. On the other side Lake Geneva sparkles brightly.

Despite the expansive grandeur of the main entrance, I tried to temper my excitement with the knowledge that our room would not be anything like as palatial. It was billed as "standard". However, at this level of French accommodation, Four Star-plus, there is no such thing as bog-standard and arriving at our third floor "room", my daughter darted off through one door and I dived curiously through another. I found myself in the centre of a living room, before a long terrace complete with wrought-iron table and chairs. Through yet another curved mirrored door, I could hear my daughter in the distance squealing with delight and running around. Dragging myself from the breathtaking view, I finally found the elegant bedroom, boasting yet another terrace.

Then there was the splendour of the bathroom to contend with. White and cream floors and tiles, two showers and a separate lavatory confirmed my worst fear; joining my daughter to bounce gleefully on one of the twin beds I said "this is bigger than our home, isn't it?" "Yes, yes, yes," she laughed. We were already having more fun together than we had ever had. Our first part of the Evian "Eviel" course was the next afternoon and after a splashing, giggling swim in the outdoor pool (which appears to merge seamlessly with the lake itself) we shared a happy dinner together among the sweet-smelling azaleas in warm, evening sunshine. Already a question was forming in my mind; could a "formal" course really provide a more rewarding experience for mother and daughter than the adventure of exploring one of the world's top resorts together?

On the first day of the course Jacqueline, the "mentor", introduces mothers of younger babies to the joys of baby massage and the importance of a deep and maintained sensory awareness between mother and child. For the toddlers Monday is "senses" day. A range of herbs, spices and other natural ingredients are laid out and the children encouraged (but never, no never, urged) to close their eyes and savour the different smells from lemon to garlic, honey to orange.

Les Thermes is a well equipped health spa, used by locals as well as tourists for beauty treatments and the usual array of massages, facials and gym work. The difference here is that you not only drink Evian water during your day, you bathe in it, shower in it and are sprayed with it during the hydromassage too. Mme Favre's baby courses have run for five years now, offering mummies (and daddies, though they are rare) a combination of activities with their child and plenty of time to be pampered by hydrotherapists and beauticians. Parents come back year after year.

Alexandra and I joined two other mums in a bright, all window room at the side of the adult gym. Our children would enjoy 45 minutes of "free play" here on a range of obstacles. Mothers were advised to sit down and keep out of the way, an instruction I found a bit odd because I thought the whole point of not simply dumping our babies with strangers and heading for the pool or the Jacuzzi was that we played with them. Not today. "We all just watch them for this bit and let them discover their own abilities," smiled one of the helpers noticing my frown. She had misread my thoughts though. What concerned me was the equipment I saw. It was shockingly poor. Having worked in crèches and nurseries in the UK I knew that not one single area of this play space would pass even a basic safety inspection in the UK. "Steps" from the adult classes were propping up a plank of what looked like white MDF to create a shaky slide/ramp with sharp, squared-off edges. There was another "station" that used more steps to uneasily support what looked like a wooden garden gate to create an unstable, crawl-across ladder.

Alexandra made her way happily enough to the trampette, also borrowed from the adult gym and surrounded by thin, insufficient mats. Perhaps, I reasoned, this was a test for the parents. Was I being over-protective, anal, intent on stifling my daughter's need for adventure and risk? It took about five minutes for Alex's unattended jumping to answer my question. She tumbled backwards and smacked her head on the floor between the mats. After a few moments' screaming from her and tender words from me, we both felt less "awakened" than tense. Thankfully, it was time for a change of activity.

But we were whisked in different directions. The rest of the afternoon while Alexandra enjoyed the well equipped (and safe) nursery with her new playmates, I went off to my aquagym class. I wish I hadn't. The uninterested instructor turned up 15 minutes late and gave an apology in superfast French. Without asking whether the three of us mums were all fit, pregnant, or even French for that matter, she started shouting out a series of ludicrous instructions making me feel like an inmate from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. After 40 minutes' foolish, pointless thrashing about in the pool, I was bored and irritated. It was in this grumpy frame of mind, that I realised I was missing my daughter, too. Next, though, came an adult treat. A therapeutic, hour-long, "Zen" massage. As the skilled masseuse worked my back muscles, I began to relax. At 4.30pm I was booked in for a facial and had the creeping realisation that most of our "mother-baby" holiday would be spent apart unless I put my foot down. So, in a moment of surprising unselfishness, I moved my facial to the next day and took my daughter back to our hotel.

As soon as the taxi drove through the Park's gates we both perked up. Instead of being driven all the way to reception, we chose to run about under the garden's vast sprinklers and get soaked. Then, we rolled down a grassy hill and, holding hands, went to sit quietly beside the aviary and watch the birds together until dinner time. Bliss.

The next morning (somewhat reluctantly) we arrived for the next part of the course at the spa. This time Jacqueline led the activity – painting. We all sat in a relaxingly oriental-style room, where there were mats on the floor and Japanese screens on the walls. The lighting was pale indigo and made everything look dreamy and unreal. Alexandra, stripped to her nappy, was soon daubing myself, another child and the mirrored wall with specially made yellow and blue paint. It was a fun hour and fulfilled the proclaimed course objective of helping us to discover and observe our children at play without pressure to perform or "do" or "achieve" anything specific. I felt ridiculously charmed and flattered that my daughter chose me as her canvas. Every time she plunged soapy/paint goo into my hair I laughed and said, "Well done." She was amazed that Mummy was not her normal growling "stop it" self.

Our course ended with a pleasant, supervised swim. Jacqueline gave gentle advice on how to keep up our "contact" with the children in the pool by singing to them and turning them not outwards but towards us. Everything she said made good sense, although for me, a mum who already attends a Steiner toddler group with her daughter, there was nothing new or earth-shattering here. Really we could have done the same swim, sing and play activity on our own.

Our break combined the luxury of a top-class resort with lots of special activities for a toddler and my relationship with my daughter has changed as a result. It is more affectionate now, more fun. But it wasn't the course that reawakened my joy at motherhood. Alexandra's Mummy simply relaxed in the effortless comfort of the Royal Park Hotel, with nothing to do but eat swim and laugh. I have realised that if I lived like an heiress full-time and had this level of comfort on every holiday, I would be the best mum in the world. So, Royal Park Evian I have already started saving; and for my daughter's sake, I will be back next year.

The Facts

The Mother and Baby Programme is for babies up to the age of nine months and the Baby Awakening Programme is for babies aged nine months and over. From 5 September, Wentworth Travel (01344 844622; www.wentworth.com) offers six-night packages, departing Monday, returning Sunday, from £1,621, including return flights with British Airways from Heathrow, private transfers and half-board accommodation at the Royal Park Hotel in a standard room. The itinerary includes five treatments per day for the mother and special activities for both mother and baby, including discovering music, swimming, gentle massage and fun gym.