OF PONTARLIER (DOUBS)
This happened in 1797. It was at that time the first
absinthe factory was built. The establishment was created
under extremely modest conditions, even for Couvet; the
building where the industry was born still exists; it
measures eight meters long by four meters broad by four
meters high. Subsequently enlarged, the factory was not
long in becoming too small and, in 1805, Mr. Pernod not
being able to satisfy demand by the French customers
which had taken to his product with a marked favor, fixed
upon Pontarlier as the place to avoid the high taxes levied
by the tax department upon Swiss Absinthe.
We have before our eyes the contract dated the 25th day of
the fifth month of the 13th year (French Republican
calendar) by which Sir Benoit-Hilaire Courbe leases to
Pernod & Sons for the price of 180 francs per year, a
location designated as a house on Grand Street in
Pontarlier, for the establishment of a green water factory.
This tiny distillery could hardly foresee the splendid
establishment which rises today at the edge of Doubs: two
small apparatuses producing 16 liters per day each.
When Mr. Louis Pernod, currently still one of the heads
of the house, and his brother, Fritz, unfortunately since
deceased (March 17, 1880), took over the direction of the
business in the absence of their father, whom they had
lost early, the house was already on a good road, because
the daily production had reached the figure of 450 liters.
