Varennes Sur Teche (Allier)

Centre Thermal des Domes (16.7 miles)

Vichy is known for its healing spas, which attract visitors from around the world and the Thermal Centre of the Domes is no exception. From short preventative stays to longer healing stays this spa combines traditional therapy with new-age techniques to provide cures for even the most obscure ailments. The centre was renovated in 1991 and can accommodate up to 3,500 visitors a year. Read more...

The Hippodrome Horse racing track (Hippodrome de Vichy) (16.8 miles)

The Hippodrome (Horse racing track) is one of France's finest and most prestigious racecourses, just across the river on the Bellerive bank. Horse racing takes place between May and September. The Hippodrome organizes more than 40 trotting and flat racing meetings each year, the majority with the PMU (State betting system). La Grande Semaine de Galop (a week long flat racing festival) in July reunites the best horses and jockeys in France. Due to its exceptional lighting it is the only horse racing track in Europe to offer evening flat race meetings. Read more...

Palais des Congrès-Opéra (16.9 miles)

Housed in a listed Historic Monument (built by Badger in 1865 and extended by Lecoeur in 1900), Palais des Congrès-Opéra offers a surprising variety of different settings and is a unique tour through the styles of the Second Empire, the Belle Epoque and Modernism. In this building, the parliament of the French Third Republic decided to grant full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain, thereby terminating the republican regime and inaugurating Vichy France (July 10, 1940). Read more...