Albert Ricot

[1][2] Albert was born in Paris, the third recorded child of Jean François Emmanuel Constant Ricot (1783-1839) by his marriage to Marie Eugénie Renouard (1795-1871).

After spending his childhood in Picardy Albert enrolled at the prestigious School of Bridges and Roads ("École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées" / ENPC) in Paris, and emerged qualified for work as a public civil engineer.

His more noteworthy projects included the Bussang Tunnel and the 18 km / 11 miles of road lined with plane trees which subsequently enabled the emperor Napoleon III and his substantial entourages to travel rapidly and safely from the little railway station at Aillevillers to the health resort of Plombières-les-Bains where, famously, in 1858 the emperor secretly negotiated a political and diplomatic route to Italian unification with Count Cavour, the first minister of Piedmont-Sardinia.

In nearby Épinal Albert Ricot met the talented young architect Léon Grillot, the designer of the church at Plombières and later, at the request of the empress, of the chapel at Varigney.

[2] Varigney, set in the hills between Épinal and Vesoul, had been a centre of iron production since the sixteenth century, originally under the direction of the local monastery and more recently controlled by Jérôme-Auguste Patret.