Thermes de Rochefort

The Thermes de Rochefort stand on Avenue Camille Pelletan in the old naval arsenal town at the mouth of the Charente. The water was found by accident: Napoleon ordered an artesian well sunk in 1808 because Rochefort had no drinkable water, and when the drilling finally succeeded in 1866 what came up at 816 metres was hot, alkaline and useless for the town supply. The bore was completed in June 1868 with the water rising ten metres above ground at 43 °C, then lost in 1888 when a broken drill rod blocked the shaft, and the spring was written off in 1892. A new bore in 1953 brought the water back at 41.4 °C and the source was named Empereur; the state approved the station in 1959 and the present bathing establishment opened to insured patients in 1960. Three wells have been sunk since – Empereur, Blondel in 1987 and Lafayette in 2000 – and only Lafayette is in use, the first having been plugged in 2009 and the second idle since 2021.

The water reaching the building comes from 854 metres and has been dated by carbon-14 to rainfall around 30,000 years ago. A 2020 laboratory analysis puts it at 43.2 °C at emergence with a pH of 7.0 and 6,035 mg of dry residue per litre, carrying 3,250 mg of sulphate, 1,050 mg of sodium, 550 mg of calcium and 105 mg of magnesium per litre along with iron, lithium, arsenic, boron and manganese. It leaves the tap clear and faintly gassy, clouds within hours, and settles a rust-coloured ferruginous deposit. The house also makes its own peloid: fluvio-marine clay from the estuary, thick with algae, matured for months in thermal water at 40 °C.

Rochefort is a prescription spa rather than a leisure bath, accredited for rheumatology, phlebology, dermatology and diseases of the mouth and tongue, plus dual-orientation courses. A course runs eighteen days of treatment over three weeks with no treatment on Sundays, up to 72 individual treatments prescribed by the spa doctor. Alongside jet showers, aerated and immersion-jet tubs, mud packs, thermal-water compresses, full-body misting cabins and a drinking fountain, there are treatment pools: group mobilisation with physiotherapists takes place in thermal water at 32 to 34 °C, while the phlebology circuit uses a walking corridor cooled to 29 °C with pebble paths, plantar showers and an 18 °C cold bath. The 2026 season runs from mid-February to early December, including public holidays.