Oscar Wilde, Van Gogh or Baudelaire - they were all addicted to the Green Fairy. Absinthe, the herbal schnapps with a proud 45 to 85 percent alcohol by volume, was long regarded as the drink of artists and literary figures. And it had the reputation of causing hallucinations and violence.
A spectacular murder case in 1905 in Belgium, in which a drunken worker wiped out his family, led to a ban on the trendy drink in almost all European countries, which lasted for just under a century.

From the nineties, the bans in the EU were relaxed further and further - France last lifted the ban in 2011.
Absinthe had long since become a cult drink again and enjoyed a similar popularity as at the beginning of the 20th century.
To pay appropriate tribute to this cult drink, the Association of Friends of the Museum of Pontarlier in the French Jura organizes the so-called Absinthiades every year - with exhibitions, tastings and cabaret evenings.

Collectors from all over the world come to the city not far from the Swiss border for the two-day festival: to swap rare bottles; to buy and taste absinthe products or to be present at the distilling of a special Absinthiades cuvée.
In the evening there is a cabaret program, the museum opens its doors for free all day and the surrounding restaurants prove with unusual creations that the vermouth also fits perfectly into the kitchen. There is also an absinthe festival on the other side of the border in neighboring Boveresse.