Bourbon-l'Archambault

Bourbon-l'Archambault in the Allier département is the ancestral seat of the Bourbon dynasty that eventually provided France with its royal family and Spain with its current royal house, a medieval town whose oligomineral springs rising from ancient Hercynian granite were already valued by Ambroise Paré, physician to four French kings, and frequented by Molière, who visited three times within a long thermal tradition. The lightly mineralised spring water is enjoyed within a long thermal tradition, traditionally associated with relaxation, at a thermal establishment whose grand Salle des Sources retains the architecture of the nineteenth-century spa golden age, set within a medieval town of remarkable historical integrity that preserves the towers and walls of the Bourbon ducal castle where the first Bourbon lords ruled before ascending to the throne of France. The extraordinary dynastic historical significance of this quiet Bourbonnais spa town, combined with its genuine thermal tradition and its setting in the gentle rolling landscapes of the Allier valley, makes it one of France's most historically weighted thermal destinations.