Spring 2022

The history of Evian
The curative virtues of the water in Evian were
first discovered in the late eighteenth century
by a French aristocrat. The Marquis de Lessert,
whilst out walking in the town in 1789, took a
drink from a natural spring. He was much taken
with it pronouncing it to be ‘easy to drink’. It
started a trend and an enterprising local started
to sell bottles of it. People were wowed by the
water’s qualities. If it was good enough to drink,
it was certainly good enough to bathe in. The
first “Hydropathetic Establishment” (thermal
spa) opened in 1826. Hotels, restaurants, and a
casino followed, keen to cash in on the visitors
who flocked to the town.
What to see in Evian
From the hotel it’s a downhill stroll and
twenty minute uphill cardio-vascularly
challenging hike back to the town of Evianles
Bains. It’s a surprisingly culturally rich town
with a medieval hospital and a thirteenth
century church. The Belle Epoque stye is
obvious with a lake front 1878-built casino
and a theatre with a neo-classical façade
which was built in 1885, the 1900-built Palais
Lumiere, and the 1826-built Cachat Pump
Room (which is being restored). The funicular
railway was completed in 1907. At the Cachat
Source, Sainte Catherine’s Fountain, built in
1903, the locals fill up their bottles with free,
magnesium-rich, sand-bank filtered water.
A French count fleeing from the French
Revolution, suffering from gallstones was said
to be cured by drinking the water from this
source daily. It flows year round at a constant
temperature of 11.6°C.
Tranquil.
Sans gaz.
62 | The Good Life France