Louis-Eugène Bagot, a marine doctor, was passionate about climatology.
After a stay in Somalia and a trip to Guadeloupe he set up as a GP in St-Pol-de-Leon, Brittany in 1887 and created an additional practice in Roscoff a few kilometres away.
In 1899 Doctor Bagot started looking for land to build a ‘Marine Institute’. He chose to build the first thalassotherapy centre in Roscoff because of the setting and quality of the air and water.
Doctor Bagot replaced the informal nature of the treatments with rational therapeutic ones founded on the bracing effect of the climate and the physicochemical richness of seawater.
In 1903 he perfected his hydrotherapy treatments for Rheumatism: movement in warm seawater.
Kine-balneotherapy was born.
His son Dr René Bagot took over in the 50s and combined marine hydrotherapy with reflexology massage to create the palpating-rolling technique, a unique therapeutic combination.