Operating the spring

In 1769, the Granier family purchased the Bouillens estate. Alphonse Granier was the first to take an interest in the spring, in 1841, but commercial operation really took hold only in 1863, when Napoleon III signed a decree acknowledging that the spring water was a natural mineral water. Thanks to numerous scientific studies confirming the water's virtues, the spa welcomed its first health-seekers.

Six years later, in 1869, fire razed the Vergèze installations. Despite Alphonse Granier's attempts to restore the site, the company experienced heavy losses. The spa went bankrupt, ceasing all activities in 1884. Four years passed before Louis Rouvière, a Vergèze landowner and businessman, bought the Bouillens estate in 1888. In 1894, he leased the spring, with an option to purchase, to a doctor from Nîmes. That's when the name Perrier was first associated with the spring. In 1898, LouisPerriertook over ownership of the Bouillens estate.

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