By the end of the 18th century, doctor Pierre Ordinaire, native of the Doubs, but exiled in the canton of Neuchatel in Switzerland, invented the absinthe elixir, composed of aromatic plants from which he had the secret and which had curative powers.
At his death, he would have bequeathed the secret of this elixir to his housekeeper who was supposed to have sold it to the Henriot sisters at Couvet. |
Those women cultivated by themselves the plants that they distilled in a little still; the precious beverage was then distributed by hawkers.
Not managing to answer the demand anylonger, they resold the recipe in 1797 to the Major Dubied, who, with his son, settled the first absinthe distillery in Couvet. From medicamentous potion, absinthe was soon taken for pleasure.
Since the success was growing, a second distillery was created. The 2 first houses made absinthe known through the whole France thanks to commercial travellers.
It’s at this time, en 1825, that other distilleries are founded in Haute-Saône and in Doubs, and later, in the South of France, as well as in the region of Paris.
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Baudelaire, Verlaine, Toulouse Lautrec, Modigliani, there were a lot of artists who sought inspiration with the compagny of the « green fairy ».
Here comes the time when, vibrating on its steam,
Each flower evaporate itself as incense
The sound and the perfumes turn in the air of the evening
Melancholic valse and languorous giddiness
“Evening harmony”
Baudelaire
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