A scholarly stroll with Marc Maynègre

The Rue des Teinturiers is a picturesque street paved with stones from the Durance River. It starts at the city walls and follows the Sorgue canal up to the intersection with the Rue des Lices.

The street is especially enjoyable in summer, with the coolness emanating from the canal and the shade from the majestic sycamores. During the Festival, there are many cafés and restaurants where you can nicely pass the time until the start of a show. From morning ‘til late at night, you’ll enjoy this exceptional ambiance, whether you’re a show’s spectator or simply strolling by. Discovering the history of this picturesque street and, at the same time, that of its in habitants, is discovering the history of Avignon itself...

Following the example of the Sorgue, we will start our stroll at the walls, by the Saint-Esprit (Holy Spirit) Tower, or Tower of the Sorguette, and make our way up it as once did the Duke of Aumale, fourth son of Louis Philippe I, on his return from Algeria on August 9, 1841, leading the 17th Light Cavalry.

Frédéric Mistral, 11 years old at the time, was brought to the "Porte Saint Lazare" to see this brilliant parade which struck his already fertile imagination.
He remembers the event in his "Memories and Narratives" : Monseigneur, the Duke d'Aumale, in the company of his soldiers, who like himself were bronzed by the Algerian sun... he was white from the dust, blond with blue eyes, radiating youth and glory".
Forty eight years later, in 1889, during a visit to Paris, he had the honor to be invited to Chantilly and remind his Highness of this "minute detail of his passage through Provence."

The Sorgue is fed by the Fontaine de Vaucluse. In 1477, the dyers asked the City Council to replace the troubled waters of the Durance with the more limpid waters of the Fontaine de Vaucluse, as its clear waves gave the dyed fabric a perfect shine and vividness of color, that they could produce a quality envied by all other regions.

Already in the 10th century, the clerics of Notre Dame des Doms had diverted the Sorgue, today known as the Canal of Vaucluse, to the ditches of the old walls, at the "Portail Imbert Antique". In the beginning of the 13th century, the flow judged insufficient, they added an artificial branch of the Durance from the Bompas bridge. This new canal, later called the Durancole or Hospital Canal, fed the moats of the western wall, as the Sorgue flowed into the moats of the eastern walls.
Today the word "Sorguette" designates one or the other. Still flowing through the city on their former paths, yet covered by modern construction, they serve as the sewage system.

Walking down this very old part of the street, we need little imagination to penetrate into the medieval atmosphere. We find three of the four remaining hydraulic wheels. At N° 30, on the left, only the axle remains; the paddles, for lack of maintenance, have disappeared.
Nonetheless, if we lean over at the foot of the fourth Sycamore, we will clearly see the old supports, topped by a sort of cylinder which protected the lubricator.
Access was through a small door, like that one which still exists by the second wheel, or at least the top hinge which remains.

The wheels' motor force activated the silk mills, of which the two official status (spinners and millers) were adopted by the Council of Avignon in 1665, and confirmed by the Vice-legat Conti.
Silk machines were installed in houses on both sides of the street. Those on the opposite side of the Sorgue, across from a wheel, were moved by an axle which crossed the street at a shallow depth.
The wheel seen today in front of the Pernod house, was installed by mechanincs in 1885. At that time it was the seventh wheel coming in from the wall.

If the street had twenty three water wheels in 1817, it counted just as many washing wheels. The indienneurs (fabric print dyers) used them mostly. Authorization had to be requested from the Metropolitain Chapter, and the Canal of Vaucluse Water Syndicate, because strict rules applied to their installation. For example, they required a placement sixteen centimeters above the highest level of the Sorvgue, and a dismountability to facilitate cleaning of the Sorgue.

They were generally two crosspieces supported on the two sides of the canal, across which were placed detachable boards.

Without doing an inventory of all the wheels and washboards, the number of which, of course, varied over the years, we will leave you with a plan of the street in the year 1817.


Excerpts from a text by Marc Maynègre - Copyright Photo : A et JP Fizet - Avignon et Provence