Grasse, Cannes and a battle for water

Back in Napoleonic times, Grasse was by far the largest town in what was then the eastern Var, well before the County of Nice became part of France and the Alpes-Maritimes department was created. It had a population of about 13,000, compared to 5,000 in Antibes and 3,000 each in Vence and Cannes.

While Grasse’s population, under the impetus of its perfumery industrial revolution, did increase from the 1880s onwards, Cannes started to soar in size from around 1850. It reached 20,000 by 1880 and 30,000 people by 1900, much higher than Grasse’s 20,000 in the same year.

The need for water

Growth at that rate caused a major problem: how to provide adequate water supplies?

For Grasse, water had never been a problem. The La Foux source from the Roquevignon massif had enabled the town to exist in the first place (see my blog here). It had always been sufficient and reliable, even for the high demands of the eighteenth century tanning industry. So while Grasse was flanked by two rivers (the Siagne to the west and the Loup to the east) it had never needed to tap them.

But the requirements of both industry and agriculture grew. By 1840, the town authorities, concerned about the limited volume of water available from La Foux, began to investigate alternative sources. They looked to the rivers – the Siagne in the 1840s, the Loup and even the Var to the north in the 1860s.

In the meantime, the growth of Cannes as a resort meant that it faced worse problems, having no adequate water supply of its own. It initiated studies to take water from the Siagne in 1843 and again in1851. This was with the support of Henry Brougham, the sometime Lord Chancellor of England who was a significant influence on Cannes’ growth through tourism and whose statue stands there today on rue Felix Faure.

Brougham and his family in Cannes. The photo was taken by, of all people, Charles Negre, one of Grasse’s own, after whom our new médiathèque is named.

Bust of Donat-Joseph Mero at the bottom of the Suquet. in Cannes

Then, in 1865, one Donat-Joseph Mero, a scion of one of Grasse’s best known perfume families, was elected Mayor of both Grasse and Cannes and opted, showing a distinct lack of loyalty, for the latter. Worse still, in 1866 he obtained a decree from the central government of Napoleon III giving Cannes exclusive rights to the waters of both the Siagne and the Loup. No doubt the nineteenth century equivalent of brown envelopes were involved, although since Brougham was ninety years old by then, one hopes he wasn’t involved! Cannes rewarded Mr Mero with a statue too.

The Cannes authorities contracted a British company (remarkably named the ‘General Irrigation and Water Supply of France Ltd’) to construct two canals to supply Cannes in return for a 50 year concession to operate them.

As a result, Grasse was stuck. It was cut off from both its alternative sources.

Until that is, it found a Mr Aron, who owned a mill near Gréolieres known as the Foulon, which was powered by its own water source. Mr Aron sold it to the municipality in 1873. The problem was the Foulon flow was not high enough. Grasse still needed a supply from the Loup itself via the canal to be built for Cannes, especially for the agricultural areas and Magagnosc, to the east. Furthermore, the British company failed to live up to its undertakings and its concession was taken over in 1881 by the nascent Lyonnaise des Eaux, now one of France’s two largest water enterprises.

A long period of wrangling ensued, involving Cannes, Grasse, the water company, the Alpes-Maritimes department, the Prefect and the Ministries, Chambre des Députés and Senate in Paris. There were disputes about cost, rights and even whether any canal was for human or agricultural use – on the basis that if it was for drinking, it would have to be covered, adding significantly to the construction costs.

But in 1885, Grasse finally obtained approval to build a canal to tap the Foulon source. Even at the last minute, the Cannes municipality tried unsuccessfully (although possibly justifiably!) to claim that the source was part of the Loup river system and hence covered by its rights.

Route of the Foulon canal

Building the canal

The canal was inaugurated in 1889. There was a grand opening at the new Château d’Eau, its main distribution point above the town.

The Château d'Eau of Grasse. A postcard of 1908 shows that the flow was quite free into the waterfall beneath, apparently intended to aerate the water. Today, the out-of-use chateau is rather hidden by vegetation but it's still clearly visible on the Route Napoléon, above the Chapelle des Chiens bus stop.

There is no doubt that the canal was a major undertaking. The main line runs for 22 km from the Foulon source at 525 metres down to the Chateau d’Eau at 434 metres. There are 2.6km of tunnels and several aqueducts as it snakes around the valleys and crosses some precipitative drops.

The GR51 footpath alongside the Foulon canal

You can walk along 12km of it, using the GR51 footpath, as long as you’re not claustrophobic or have a fear of heights!

Maintaining the canal

Between 1950 and 1957, the open canal was replaced with iron pipes and several reservoirs were built as holding points. At the same time, a huge investment was made in the infrastructure needed to introduce water metering for consumers in and around Grasse.

But the canal pipes turned out to be of inadequate quality; they had to be painted, refurbished and in places replaced in the 1970s and 1980s at great expense. Then, in 1988, the canal was privatized and fell under the full control of Lyonnaise des Eaux, which linked up the Foulon, Loup and Siagne and Loup systems under one management. The battle seemed to all intents and purposes over.

Grasse’s water today

Today, there are two networks covering the western Alpes-Maritimes. The Siagne and Loup canals built for Cannes, together with other resources added later (most notably Lac St Cassien), are run by SICASIL, a syndicate of communes including Cannes, Auribeau, Le Cannet, Mougins and La Roquette.

SICASIL network map. Source: SICASIL website

SICASIL was created to take the network over from Lyonnaise des Eaux in 1991. Through its link to the Foulon system, it provides about a quarter of Grasse’s water.

Lyonnaise des Eaux’s continuing control of the Foulon resulted in the comprehensive neglect of the canal. They failed to maintain it, leaving it leaking badly for the next 20 years. They apparently decided that it was more profitable to supply Grasse and its surroundings by selling us water from the Loup.

That changed in 2017. A syndicate of Grasse, Bar-sur-Loup, Châteauneuf, Gourdon, Mouans-Sartoux, Opio, Le Rouret, Roquefort and Valbonne took over the Foulon. Named SIEF (Syndicat Intercommunal des Eaux du Foulon), it is equivalent to SICASIL. Lyonnaise des Eaux, now heavily disguised as Suez, remains the face to the consumer of both systems. It sends out the bills, maintains the meters and local pipework – and rakes in a large margin of profitability. A relic of its neglect occurred in in 2019/2020 when an outbreak of the cryptosporidium bacterium resulted in Grasse consumers being told to boil their water for four months, which was how long it took to add suitable filters at the source.

SIEF has invested significant amounts to refurbish the Foulon, replacing many of the pipes. According to one set of figures, it spent €6.6m in 2022 alone, compared to a total of €5.3m paid by Suez for maintenance of the canal in the fifteen years 1990-2015. Helicopters were used to move the replacement pipes, a facility not available to the original builders and those who installed the pipes in the 1950s!

The return of La Foux

The Foulon is only capable of fulfilling around three quarters of the needs of Grasse and its fellow communes. The rest is charged for by SICASIL, so Cannes has indirectly triumphed in the long term battle for water – at least, for the moment. Furthermore, although better off than many areas around us, we in Grasse still suffer from shortages, for example in the summer of 2023.

So what happened to the original source – La Foux? By the time the Foulon was completed, the flow from La Foux had deteriorated and there were concerns about its quality. In 1978, it was declared not to be used as a source of drinking water.

Illustration of the new treatment works for La Foux

But with the creation of the SIEF and the direct responsibility of Grasse and its partner communes for their own supplies, a project is currently well under way to capture more than four times the most recent flow and to treat it with a new plant.

In an invocation of the past, the site is close to the original source and to where La Foux supplied the old lavoirs (‘washhouses’) where the women of the town congregated to do their washing. If all works as it should, Grasse will have full control over its own water for the first time since the nineteenth century.

More about the historic La Foux and its new life in another blog…