Aux Sources: Two Glass Collections in Resonance (Maison Gribaldi, Évian-les-Bains)

The Maison Gribaldi in Évian-les-Bains has set two collections of glass side by side and let them talk to each other. Aux Sources shows the verres de cure — the drinking glasses handed to patients taking the waters — gathered over thirty years by Catherine and Laurent Jacobs, against the contemporary studio glass of Denise and Marcel Heider, which was given to the town of Évian.

What the pairing is really about is what happens to a useful object once it stops being useful. The cure glass began as medical equipment, shaped to a dose and a daily ritual; the exhibition follows it as it turns into decoration, then souvenir, then something people collect, across the golden age of the European thermal spa. That age has a building in Évian, a few minutes from the exhibition: the Buvette Cachat, the wood-and-glass pavilion under a dome of glazed tiles, with wide semicircular windows of floral stained glass, built in 1905 by the architect Albert Hébrard (1866–1942). It was listed as a monument historique in 1986, restored between 2021 and 2024, and is open to the public again after decades shut.

Practical details

• When: 4 July – 27 September 2026, daily 14:00–18:00
• Where: Maison Gribaldi, 2 rue du Port (angle ruelle du Nant d’Enfer), 74500 Évian-les-Bains, France
• Admission: €3–4 adults, €3 children, free under 16; free with the Pass Léman France
• Guided tours: Tuesday to Sunday at 16:15, €2.50 per person
• Organiser: Ville d’Évian — +33 (0)4 50 75 04 26

Full details and booking are on the town’s own pages. Cultural Heritage Online lists this exhibition for readers planning a trip to the Lake Geneva shore; admission is handled directly by the venue.