Yay! A nice, sunny day! We took full advantage of the good weather and drove up to Fontaine de Vaucluse which is a gorgeous little village at the bottom of the hill where the largest spring in France (and the fifth largest in the world) is located. It is the source of the Sorgue River - the river running through the town where we're staying. Probably the prettiest natural thing I've seen in France. Apparently you need to be there in April to see it at its best (with the waterhole at the top full) but I think I liked seeing the 'cavern' (not sure if that's the right word) at the top empty with the water starting to run about a third of the way down the hill. We had lunch on a pontoon (not sure if that's the right word either) on the river back down at the village. Such a fine day that we were able to eat sitting outside.
We then drove back to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Lindee went to the hairdresser while I decided to stick with today's water theme. There are fourteen waterwheels in the town - there used to be over seventy of them - and I had a map from the Tourist Office of a self-guided walking tour around these remaining waterwheels. I have learnt that self-guided means you need to prepare yourself to get lost at least a couple of times as the tourist maps tend to be indicative only. I managed to find thirteen of the waterwheels before Lindee tested to say she was finished at the hairdresser. I started the walking tour thinking all the waterwheels would pretty much look the same but they were quite different - big, small, wide, thin, turning or not, in seemingly perfect condition or a bit the worse for wear, made of wood or metal, covered in moss (or something like that) or not.
I will try to find the elusive fourteenth waterwheel tomorrow!
