Spring geology

Perrier water is unique, springing from a unique geological source.

North of the Vergèze site lies a vast natural wilderness region called the Garrigues de Nîmes, made up of cretaceous limestone from the secondary era; that's where the water becomes mineralised as it filters through the rock.

To the south, to the right of the Vistrenque plain, lies a major fault, known as the Nîmes fault; the carbonation in the Perrier spring is a result of this fault.

At the beginning of the tertiary era, this fault gave birth to a staircase-shaped cave on what was later to become the Vistrenque plain.

The subsequent retreat of the sea heavily eroded the tertiary deposits, but at the Perrier spring level, it left a paleo-relief called the Bouillens horst, made up of the limestone that now lines the Perrier water aquifer.

These lands were then covered with a thick layer of marl - left behind when sea water levels rose at the end of the tertiary (Miocene) era; to this day the impenetrable marl layer protects the Perrier spring.