Buvette Cachat

At the Buvette Cachat, drinking a glass of water required uniformed attendants, live music and a fifteen-minute intermission. Completed in 1903 by architect Jean-Albert Hébrard, the Art Nouveau pump room transformed Évian’s mineral spring into what locals called a “temple de l’eau,” where hydration was treated with the ceremony of a theatrical performance.

The Source Cachat had gained its reputation around 1790, when the Marquis Jean-Charles de Laizer claimed that water from a spring on the Cachat family’s land had relieved his urinary stones. The supposed cure helped transform a small lakeside town into one of Europe’s most fashionable spa destinations, attracting wealthy visitors eager to drink their way toward better health.

By the time the buvette opened, taking the waters had developed its own choreography. Uniformed *donneuses d’eau* filled glasses beneath Louis-Charles Beylard’s *Apothéose de la source Cachat*, while curistes waited fifteen minutes between servings, listened to concerts and wrote correspondence. After more than half a century closed to the public, the restored pavilion reopened in 2026 as a cultural and heritage space, reviving the stage even if the fashionable water ritual has finally run dry.