Hôtel du Parc

Vichy is known worldwide for its mineral waters and its Belle Époque spa architecture, but for four years during the Second World War it was also the seat of the French government under Marshal Philippe Pétain, and the Hôtel du Parc is the building most closely tied to that period. The hotel stands beside the Parc des Sources, the long park lined with plane trees and covered galleries that forms the social centre of the spa town, and it was one of the largest and grandest hotels of its day, built to host the wealthy visitors who came for the cure.

In June 1940, after France's defeat and the armistice with Germany, the government left the Atlantic coast and moved to Vichy, a town chosen because it had plenty of hotel rooms and a good telephone network, and it was in the unoccupied southern zone. Ministries were installed in the town's hotels. Pétain made the Hôtel du Parc his residence and office, and the state he led, known as the Vichy regime, governed from here and from other hotels in the town until 1944. It was in the Vichy casino and opera house, not in the hotel, that the National Assembly voted full powers to Pétain on 10 July 1940, ending the Third Republic. The regime collaborated with Nazi Germany and enacted antisemitic laws, and its record remains a painful part of French history.

The building survives, but it is not a visitor attraction in the way a museum is. After the war it was converted into private apartments, and its interior is not open to the public, so a visit consists of seeing the exterior from the park and the street. For many people interested in modern history this is enough to make the connection, and to look at how ordinary a luxury hotel in a spa resort looks for a place that housed such decisions. Vichy's tourist office and local guides organise tours of the town's wartime sites, which give context and tell the story with documents and photographs, and they are the best way to understand the period.

Vichy has much else to offer. The Parc des Sources, with its galleries and fountains, is where visitors have long come to taste the mineral waters, and the Hall des Sources and the Source des Célestins are among the places where you can sample them. The Opéra de Vichy, inside the casino complex, is a fine Art Nouveau theatre, and the town's thermal baths and Belle Époque villas recall its golden age. The Église Saint-Louis, with its large dome, and the Boulevard de la République are other points on a walk, and Vichy pastilles, small mint sweets, are a local souvenir.

The site suits readers of history and travellers who want to see how the town's past is layered. A short stop is enough, but combining it with a guided walk makes sense.