ABSTRACT
Urban modernisation during the Second Empire and Belle Epoque, together with the promotion of hydrotherapy by business and medical interests, propelled it into prominence as an international spa tourist destination. Following the Middle Ages and the wars of religion, Vichy emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a spa centre. More critical to its spa tourism trade, however, was the end of the Empire, which together with a discrediting of water cures among the medical establishment, virtually dried up spa traffic to Vichy. For Vichy, it is significant that the spa trade took off only after the end of the roving bands that characterised the French countryside during the Middle Ages and into the wars of religion of the late sixteenth century. Vichy has a temperate climate and historically has been sufficiently large a town to supply the complex service system that a spa requires.
