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Vichy (, ; ) is a city in the central French department of Allier. Located on the Allier river, it is a major Spa town and resort town and during World War II was the capital of Vichy France. As of 2021, Vichy has a population of 25,789.
Known for its since the Roman times, Vichy had become a major destination for the French nobility and the wealthy by the late 18th century. The town developed further under the patronage of Napoleon III. Following the 1940 armistice, the pro-German Vichy France headed by Philippe Pétain was set up at Vichy, which remained the de facto capital of the French rump state for the next four years. After the war, the city experienced a period of great prosperity but went into decline from the 1960s.
In 2021, the town became part of the transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name "Great Spa Towns of Europe" because of its famous baths and its architectural testimony to the popularity of spa towns in Europe from the 18th through 20th centuries.
The name Vichy may be pronounced or in either American English or British English;.. its usual French pronunciation is . The pronunciation of the Occitan name Vichèi is .
In French, the present-day demonym for a female resident or native of Vichy is Vichyssoise, f sg ( Vichyssoises, f pl) and Vichyssois, m sg for a male, and Vichyssois m pl for a mixed group of both sexes. Until the 18th century, it was also common to use Vichois( e), which derived from the Occitan name of the town. The cold soup vichyssoise is also named after the town.
The historical existence of Volcanism in the Massif Central is somewhat visually evident. Volcanic eruptions have happened for at least 150,000 years, but all volcanoes there have been dormant for at least 112 years. Volcanic activity in the area is the direct cause of the many thermal springs that exist in and around Vichy.
The famous Mineral spring in Vichy are rich in trace elements such as lithium and fluorine, and high in sodium bicarbonate. The temperatures of the spring range from 73 degrees C at Antoine Spring to 14 degrees C at Lafayette Spring. In total, about 289 springs have been charted in Vichy and its surroundings. These springs are derived from infiltration through Oligocene-period sedimentary rocks, part of the Limagne Graben collapse basin.
In 1527, the House of Bourbon was incorporated into the French Kingdom. By the end of the 16th century, the mineral baths had obtained a reputation for having quasi-miraculous curing powers and attracted patients from the noble and wealthy classes. Government officials, such as Fouet and Chomel, began to classify the curing properties of the mineral baths.
In 1799, Letizia Ramolino, mother of Napoleon, came to be cured with her son Louis Bonaparte. Under the Empire, Le Parc des Sources, was created on the Emperor's orders (Decree of Gumbinen of 1812).
Under Charles X, the great increase in patients wishing to be healed at the springs led to an expansion of the Hydrotherapy facilities. Princess Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte expanded the Janson buildings under the plan of Rose – Beauvais (work completed in 1830). From 1844 to 1853, theatrical and poetry recitals were performed for the wealthy in the comfort of their own homes by .
After the Second French Empire, the Belle Époque marked the second large construction campaign in Vichy. In 1903, the Opera House (l'Opéra), the Hall of Springs and a large bath designed in the eastern style were inaugurated. In 1900, the Parc des Sources was enclosed by a metal gallery which came from the World Fair of 1889. long, it is decorated by a frise de chardons and was completed by the ironworker Emile Robert. Many private mansions with varied architectural styles were erected during the first half of the 20th century.
Vichy welcomed 40,000 curistes in 1900, and that figure had risen to nearly 100,000 just before the onset of the First World War. La vie thermale had its heyday in the 1930s. The success in treating ailments that was attributed to the Vichy Baths led la Compagnie Fermière to enlarge the Baths again by creating the Callou and Lardy Baths. The Art Nouveau-style Opéra, inaugurated in 1903, accommodated all the great names on the international scene. Vichy became the summertime music capital of France, but the war of 1914 would put a brutal end to that development.
German forces had taken the city unopposed on 19 June, but departed with the Armistice. Vichy had the country's second largest hotel capacity, and a modern telephone exchange and post office built for its international visitors. The city was in the unoccupied zone 45 km south of the Demarcation Line, relatively close to Paris (4.5 hours by train), and surrounded by productive agricultural lands. Pierre Laval, soon to be Prime Minister, hailed from Châteldon, a village 20 km south of Vichy. The city was, in any case, expected to be only a temporary seat of government until signature of the peace treaty.Nazi Germany was never to sign a peace treaty with any of its defeated opponents, but this was not foreseen in 1940-41. The armistice arrangements with France perfectly satisfied its military, economic, and administrative requirements.
On 9–10 July, 670 of the 846 members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies met in the Vichy Opera House, where they overwhelmingly voted full powers to Philippe Pétain and authorized him to revise the constitution. The new regime called itself simply the French State ( État Français), but it quickly came to be known as Vichy France. While Paris remained the official capital and much of the bureaucracy stayed there, Vichy was the de facto capital. It was home to Pétain's cabinet, top civil servants, the diplomatic corps, and the neutered parliamentarians. As the volume of individuals engaged in government activity adversely affected locals and the spa business, a system of residence permits was established that permitted only five days' maximum stay between 1 June and 30 September." Circuit Vichy 1939-1945," Vichy Mon Amour Vichy
Following the Anglo-American Operation Torch in November 1942, Germany occupied the Free Zone, including Vichy. The Pétain government remained, albeit with an even smaller range of effective action. The city became a center for Gestapo and the Vichy milice. After the Allied breakout from Normandy in August 1944, the Germans took Pétain and his entourage to exile in Germany. The Swiss Ambassador, Walter Stucki, arranged for the peaceful withdrawal of local German forces and the milice. The FFI liberated the city on 26 August without bloodshed.
The term "Vichyste", which designates partisans of the Pétain regime, should not be confused with "Vichyssois" which designates the inhabitants of the city.
From June to September, so many French-Algerian tourists were arriving that it almost seemed like there was an airlift set up between Vichy-Charmeil and the airports of Algeria. Mayor (1950–1967) decided to create Lake Allier (10 June 1963) and Omnisports Park (1963–68), giving the city its current look.
Vichy Pastilles (made in Vichy) are octagon-shaped candies made from soda contained in the spring waters.
The health and beauty business, with the laboratories of the L'Oréal company, also make it possible to publicize the city's name to a worldwide audience under the Vichy brand.
Unlike the neighbouring communes on the Allier such as industrial Montluçon and administrative seat Moulins, Vichy's economy is centred on the tertiary sector, with companies like the Compagnie de Vichy developing the health and well-being sector to mitigate the decline of medical hydrotherapy. The local market, open on Sundays, attracts shoppers from tens of kilometres around.
The closing of two important local employers, the Manurhin company and the Sediver company, has reduced employment in the Vichy basin. Job creation by developing companies such as the NSE electronics company or the Satel call center company may not completely compensate for the removal of jobs, despite the internet tour operator Karavel's establishment of a new call center in May 2005.
Nevertheless, the two most important employers of the city belong to the public sector: the hospital (1,120 employees), and the town hall (500).
Since 1989, Vichy has been one of the seven sites of the European Total Quality Institute ( Institut Européen de la Qualité Totale).
The Pôle Universitaire de Vichy (previously called Pôle Universitaire et Technologique Lardy), born from a project of thermal waste land rehabilitation and launched during the mid-1990s, is an economic priority. This campus accommodates 600 students in the downtown area, in ten areas of study including the fields of biotechnology, international trade, multi-media and languages.
The CAVILAM – Alliance Française (Centre of Live Approaches to Languages and the Media), receives students from diverse countries who want to learn French. Created in 1964, under the impulse of the Universities of Clermont-Ferrand and the city of Vichy, CAVILAM – Alliance Française joined the international network of the Alliance Française in 2012. After the Covid lockdown, the center developed online courses for FLE teachers, FLE ressources pages, and foreign language courses for locals.
The Palace of the Congresses is a venue primarily for the conferences of trade associations and learned societies. The structure is in area, including two plenary rooms and fifteen multi-use rooms. With 25,000 visitors yearly, the conferences must carry the economic role once held by the hydrotherapy industry, which today counts only 12,000 patients each year. The hydrotherapy business will now have to reorganise itself to take a less strict therapeutic-only role, and adapt to patients' stays shorter than the traditional three weeks.
The city is situated from the and from the A89 autoroute.
The A719 autoroute, connecting Vichy to the A71 to Clermont-Ferrand, opened in January 2015.
In 2014, only regional two-lane highways ( routes départementales) pass through the urban ring of Vichy. The D2209 is the principal axis of circulation for heavily loaded trucks, from the west (via Gannat) or the north (via Varennes-sur-Allier or Saint-Germain-des-Fossés) ; other important routes are the following (listed in the clockwise order):
The D67 is a loop to the north of the city created to limit traffic jams (access to Creuzier-le-Neuf, afterwards by the D907, Lapalisse and the N7).
"Mobival" is an on-call transportation service for Vichy and its neighborhood. This service offers the local communes a reliable transportation service for areas that are not served by the MobiVie network. Created in October 2004, it has ten lines.
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