Vichy

Vichy's springs were used in Roman times but the town as it stands was built for the nineteenth-century cure: Napoleon III took the waters here and had the riverside parks laid out, and the buildings that followed are a deliberate mix of styles, from neo-Moorish and neo-Gothic villas to the vast iron and glass Hall des Sources where patients drank measured doses and walked the covered galleries between them. In 2021 it was inscribed by UNESCO as one of eleven Great Spa Towns of Europe. The Opera in the casino building is a rare complete art nouveau theatre. Six springs still feed the pump rooms.

History

Roman legionaries returning from their defeat at Gergovia in 52 BC found the hot springs by the Allier and founded Aquae Calidae, which prospered in the first two centuries AD; in 1344 and 1374 Vichy passed to the Dukes of Bourbon, and a Celestine monastery was founded here in 1410. By the late 16th century the baths had a reputation for near-miraculous cures, the Marquise de Sévigné made them famous in her letters of 1676-1677, new baths ordered by Louis XVI were finished in 1787, and Napoleon's decree of 1812 created the Parc des Sources. Napoleon III's stays of 1861-1866 transformed the town with dikes along the Allier and 13 hectares of gardens on the old marshes; after the armistice of 1940 Pétain's collaborationist government sat here for four years, and in 2021 Vichy became part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Vichy).

The main sights

• The Hall des Sources - an iron and glass drinking hall with covered galleries.
• The art nouveau opera - a complete 1901 theatre inside the casino.
• The eclectic villas - neo-Moorish, Gothic and chalet styles side by side.
• The riverside parks - the Allier lake and promenades laid out under Napoleon III.

When to go

April to October when the parks and galleries are at their best and the opera season runs. The town is quiet in winter. Water can be tasted at the pump rooms year-round.

Good to know

The waters taste strongly mineral and warm; most visitors try one glass. Some spa buildings are treatment facilities not open to sightseers. The town has a sedate, unhurried atmosphere.

Nearby

Clermont-Ferrand lies south; Thiers is southeast.

Key facts