Thermes de Balaruc-les-Bains

Balaruc-les-Bains sits on a small peninsula jutting into the Étang de Thau lagoon near Sète, and receives more thermal cure patients each year than any other spa town in France (around 52,000 curistes annually). The water, warmed to roughly 50°C as it rises through fault lines in the limestone, is lightly salted and rich in calcium and magnesium, and is used mainly to treat rheumatism and post-traumatic joint conditions. The site was known in antiquity under the name Maimona, and archaeological digs in the 1990s uncovered Roman-era bathing structures fed by a spring the Romans reached via a 5-kilometre aqueduct from Issanka. The modern municipal thermal establishment, rebuilt in 2015 to replace the older Athéna and Hespérides baths, includes the Parenthèse O'Balia wellness institute, where the same natural thermal water is used for spa treatments and rituals rather than medical cures.