Pierre VIGIER
See onthe map
Figure of the early 19th century.
Pierre Vigier was a barrister at the parlement of Paris at twenty-five when the Revolution abolished his office. On 8 July 1791 he obtained the right to moor hot-bath boats on the Seine: thirty-five wooden tubs near the Palais-Bourbon, thirty-two copper ones near the Île Saint-Louis. The Vigier baths grew into six establishments and a hundred and forty tubs, and Victor Hugo mentioned them. His great-grandson Joseph was one of the founders of the French Photographic Society.
The story
Pierre Vigier, born in 1760 in the Cantal, was a procureur at the Parlement of Paris — a judicial officer who had bought his office — when the Revolution abolished the parlements, and his office with them. He turned entrepreneur, and his idea fitted into one sentence: put the hot bath on the water.
On 8 July 1791 he obtained the right to moor two bathing boats on the Seine: thirty-five wooden tubs near the Palais-Bourbon, thirty-two of copper near the Île Saint-Louis. The Vigier baths would grow to six establishments and a hundred and forty tubs, and Victor Hugo would mention them. He himself died on 19 September 1817 at his property in Savigny-sur-Orge, where he was first buried; it was only in 1872, when his grandson sold the estate, that he was moved to Père-Lachaise, to Division 38 — fifty-five years after his death.
On site, do not miss
Division 38, high up in the cemetery, also holds the sculpted grave of General Charles Ruty.
Visitors' questions
Where is Pierre Vigier's grave?
In Division 38 of Père-Lachaise, high up in the cemetery. The Division is also that of General Count Charles Ruty, whose grave was carved by Guillard.
Charles RutyWhat is known of him?
That he sold hot baths to Parisians. A barrister at the parlement of Paris until the Revolution, in 1791 he obtained the right to moor bath boats on the Seine: the Vigier baths came to hold as many as a hundred and forty copper tubs.
Reine FévezWhat became of his baths?
They made a fortune and a family: the Vigier baths grew to six establishments, and his great-grandson Joseph Vigier was one of the founders of the French Photographic Society.
Adèle de PerregauxWhy are some graves so poorly known?
Because the surveys of inscriptions never covered everything: out of nearly seventy thousand graves, the Friends of the cemetery have documented a few thousand. Old graves with no famous name often slip through.
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