The paddle wheels of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

Start : Isle-sur-la-Sorgue train station car park.

(S/E) Leave the parking lot and go to the traffic circle in front of the train station. Turn left onto Avenue Julien Guigue and reach a new traffic circle. Turn right onto Avenue de la Libération, cross Avenue de l'Egalité and continue straight ahead for about 10m until you reach a crosswalk.
Turn left and cross the Avenue to join the Roue de la Porte d'Avignon (1).

Continue to the right along the Sorgue river and, 100m further, turn left on the footbridge. After crossing, turn right immediately on the Quai Rouget de l'Isle until you reach the Esplanade Robert Vasse.
Continue to the left and walk along the river on Quai Jean Jaurès. Opposite the Rue Rose Goudard, you will find the Roue des Milhes.

Push on the quay until n°24 then turn left in the street which joins the Place Rose Goudard. Turn right to cross the square by the Rue Rose Goudard. Locate the former chapel of the Congregation of Men opposite n°4.
At the end of the street, turn left on Place Ferdinand Buisson. Cross the Sorgue de l'Arquet and join the Place de la Liberté. Go around the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame-des-Anges and continue in the same direction to arrive in front of the square. Continue in front of the church in the Rue Danton and follow it to the end.

Turn left on Rue Théophile Jean and find opposite n°14 the Roue Victor Courtet (2) (sign Roue Pénicuik !). Go ahead until n°20 to arrive in front of the Roue de l'Hôpital. Continue to n°17bis where you will find the Roue Croset.

Push until the end of the street and turn right Quai Lices Berthelot. 30m further on the left you will see the Roue des Tourelles. Continue on the quay with the Sorgue on your left hand side until the crossing with Rue Alphonse Benoit. On the left is the Roue des Lices Vieilleville. 40m further on is the Roue des Minimes and its wash house on the other bank. Go forward another 20m on the Quai Clovis Hugues to see the Roue du Quai Nord (3).

Continue on the Quai Clovis Hugues, sometimes on a dirt road, until the crossing with the Rue de la Truite. A little further on the left you will see the Roue du Portalet.
Go forward a little more until you reach a bridge in the continuation of the Rue du Docteur Tallet. Turn left, cross the Sorgue du Nord by the bridge and turn right immediately onto the Chemin des Hors which runs along the other bank.
Continue on this path, very bucolic, and reach the Porte de Bouïgas at the level of the main Sorgue. Turn right then left on the Quai Jean Jaurès and arrive at a footbridge opposite the Rue Joseph Roumanille.

Turn left on the footbridge and turn right to cross the small public garden. At the very end, go left to find an unidentified wheel. Turn right, go along the beautiful building of the Caisse d'Epargne and continue on Avenue des 4 Otages.
Opposite n°13, turn left and cross the street by the crosswalk. Continue to the right and then quickly turn left to enter the Cours Anatole France. 40m further on, on the right is the Roue Giraud (4).

Go back on your steps and turn left on Avenue de la Libération. Cross the Avenue de l'Egalité and turn left onto Avenue Julien Guigue to find the parking lot (S/E).

Start : Station in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.
To park at the parking of the station in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

This circuit is intended to discover the paddle wheels but L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is full of antique stores. Do not hesitate to visit them.

Very nice market on Sunday but a lot of difficulties to park !

In the order of the circuit:

(1) Roue de la Porte d'Avignon
Old wheel of the garden of the nuns of Sainte-Elisabeth built in 1530. On February 7, 1735, the nuns of Sainte-Elisabeth sold their gardens to the commune, for the creation of the Sainte-Anne course, by reserving the property of the wheel, its accessories and the ground occupied by these.

Roue des Milhes
The concession was granted by the Apostolic Chamber to Claude Martin on March 16, 1520. The wheel was regulated by the decree of August 6, 1828. The mill belonged to Georges Milhe, miller who obtained the authorization to establish a new wheel by the royal order of April 12, 1843. A decree of October 10, 1857 authorized and regulated the installation of mobile gates. The green mill was sold to Xavier Dumas who transformed it into a plaster factory and redesigned the driving force after authorization on September 12, 1881. The Plâtrières de Vaucluse company sold the building to the Caisse d'Epargne de L'Isle.

The Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame-des-Anges Collégiale Notre-Dame-des-Anges is the main Catholic church of the city and also one of its most beautiful monuments, classified as a historical monument since April 4, 19111. It has undergone numerous modifications but is especially famous for its rich 17th century interior decoration reminiscent of Italian churches.

(2) Victor Courtet's Wheel
The Victor Courtet wheel was authorized by royal decree on October 6, 1832 for a silk mill and a woolen mill. The Sorgue team of the Communauté de Communes has recently been busy restoring it. The bearings (organs whose purpose is to support and guide, in rotation, the axis of the wheel) have been changed as well as all the blades. The agents of the team took the opportunity to descale the whole wheel.

Hospital Wheel__
Intended to supply water to the hospital and motive power to Esprit Genet (authorization of 1760 and 1762).

Croset Wheel
Wheel for the manufacture of blankets regulated by royal order of February 13, 1828. The owner was authorized to use for a wool carding mill the wheel that had been used until then "for the service of his house and for the use of his tannery".

Rue des Tourelles
The authorization of establishment was granted by the royal order of July 19, 1832 to David Joseph Xavier, known as David cadet, manufacturer of roofing. The wheel and the factory then became the property of Tiran Charles Marie Antonin, also a roofing manufacturer, then of Robert-Tissot Auguste (same industry). Prefectoral decrees of May 16, 1856 and April 23, 1857 had regulated the water regime.

The Vieilleville Lices road
The authorization was given to François Xavier Juge, by royal order of June 24, 1818, following his request of October 16, 1817. It was sold on February 28, 1836, with the silk factory located opposite. Later it was sold to Fougat, manufacturer of canned food, and became the property of the "Conserveries de France".

The Minimes' street__
Next to and downstream from the Ville-Vieille Bridge. This wheel was built by the Minimes Fathers to supply water to their convent. By deed of May 15, 1726, the Minimes Fathers ceded to Charles Bernard de Guilhem half of the property and rights of the wheel. The wheel was regulated on September 28, 1854 with the authorization to attach machines to it, and on the following January 1, all the owners transferred their property rights of the wheel and its accessories, pillars, dam and others to Jean Baptiste Alphonse Juge (Merchant Manufacturer). After various transfers, Agricol François Régis Bérud used it for his silk factory. Let us quote on the occasion of this wheel some prices-made of construction: on March 11, 1752 a carpenter was paid 180 livres to rebuild the wheel and 10 livres per year to maintain it.

(3) Roue du Quai Nord (North Quay Wheel)
The owner, Antoine Lille, known as Louiton, obtained, by the royal order of March 3, 1834, to establish a wheel to set in motion machines to work the silk. His son-in-law, Jouve, owner in Orgon, sold it, with the factory, to Pila Jean Michel, silk merchant in Avignon. It remained with the same destination to his descendants.

Street of the Portalet
The royal order of August 29, 1832 authorized Garcin Jean to establish a wheel to set in motion a silk mill. The factory became a pasta factory with Fages Frères, a marker was placed following the prefectural decree of April 19, 1874. After being operated by Arnaudet (Fages' son-in-law), the wheel was removed by Eugène Geoffroy, the new owner, who graciously gave the building to the city for the expansion of the public boys' schools.

(4) Roue Giraud
The authorization to operate this wheel was granted in 1821 for the irrigation of a garden.