Coming up ·
Russian banya with a pool near Toulouse - 30 October
- When
- Friday 30 October 2026, 19:00-00:00
- Where
- Russian banya with a pool (private venue, address sent when you book) · Noé
- Cost
- €35 a head, split between everyone: the banya for the evening and the meat for the shashlik; the rest of the table is whatever people bring
20 places and not one more, since that's the banya's limit, so booking is required - in the community chat.
On Friday 30 October, 19:00 to midnight, the community takes over a Russian banya outside Toulouse: a steam room with oak veniks, a big cold pool, tea and banya ceremonies, shashlik and a shared table. 20 places, all the banya holds; €35 each, booked in the chat. The opening night of the Slavic Weekend.
What kind of banya
A proper Russian banya, which is something you’ll struggle to find anywhere in Occitanie. That’s exactly why the Slavic Weekend (Slavyansky dvizh, as it’s called in the chat) opens with it. Russian-speaking owners built it not long ago in the commune of Noé, twenty-odd minutes from Toulouse, and the hosts, a couple of people, will spend the whole evening with us.
The point of it all is the contrast. Thick steam and oak veniks in the steam room, and right outside the door a very big cold pool. Not a one-person plunge tub: a genuinely big pool. The announcement puts it honestly: “that thick banya steam, the smell of oak, and the feeling when you come out after a good round a completely different person”.
New to the banya? A venik is a bundle of leafy oak twigs, softened in hot water and used to whisk the steam over your skin.
How the evening goes
From 19:00 until midnight, with no minute-by-minute schedule. You steam, rest, and go back in. Ten or twelve people fit comfortably in the steam room per round, so while half the group is warming up, the other half is in the pool, by the samovar or at the grill.
- Tea ceremonies. A samovar, good tea and nobody in a hurry. It’s a part of the evening in its own right, not a cuppa squeezed in between rounds.
- Banya ceremonies. Steaming with veniks done properly: unhurried, with rests between rounds.
- Shashlik. While some people steam, others grill the meat, pork and beef. The table is shared: whatever people bring goes next to the shashlik.
- Talk. The changing room, the table, karaoke and a guitar. A normal community evening, just with steam.
The price, and why only 20 places
€35 a head. It’s a whip-round: we chip in for the banya for the whole evening and for the meat. The community is non-profit and makes nothing on the night, and everything else on the table we bring ourselves.
There are 20 places, plus the hosts. That isn’t scarcity for show. The banya simply can’t take more people, and the evening is meant to be cosy enough that everyone gets their share of steam and a seat at the table. So booking is required, in the community chat, under the Slavic Weekend announcement.
Getting there
Noé is a small commune south of Toulouse. The banya is private, and the address goes to the people who’ve signed up. Toulouse folk make their own way; guests from Montpellier and other cities share cars, with the line-ups sorted in the chat as on every trip. For out-of-towners the organisers are renting shared lodging for the whole weekend; the details are on the Slavic Weekend page.
The rest of the weekend
The banya is the first of four evenings. Saturday 31 October brings Anti-Halloween with Slavic folk tales at Bistrô XIII, the biggest night of the weekend. Sunday afternoon is a hike to a lake to catch crayfish, and in the evening there’s Mafia with Katerina at a villa. Each one is booked separately: come to one, or come to all of them.
The community has already had shashlik over a fire twice this year, at the Shashlyndos in May and at Dacha Day in September. A banya, though, is a first.