Travel · 5 min

Where the Sorgue Breaks from the Rock

There are places where the earth gives something away. At Fontaine-de-Vaucluse the Sorgue breaks from the rock, cold, clear and mighty, one of the largest springs in the world. Beneath a high cliff the water gathers in a deep, green pool, so still you cannot see the bottom, and then flows off as a full river.

The green water

The water is a green you otherwise find only in stones. It comes from deep in the mountain, cold all year, barely ten degrees, so clear that every pebble lies sharp on the bottom. You stand before it and fall silent. A place that explains without a word why springs have always been held sacred.

An old wheel and old craft

On the bank a great, moss-green water wheel turns, one that once drove a paper mill. To this day paper is made here by hand, from fibre and water power, a craft that has outlasted time. Stone, water, fibre, nothing more is needed to make something beautiful.

Along the source

From Isle-sur-la-Sorgue it is only a short way upstream, and the landscape grows wilder. Bring firm shoes, the stones by the water are slippery. And when the heat settles, dip your feet in, nowhere will you find the water colder or clearer. In forty-degree heat outside, these ten degrees in the water are the purest blessing.