8k away form L'Isle Sur La Sorgue is the source of the Sorgue, a spring that is said to be the 3rd largest in the world. We expected to find a big spring with a creek running down the hill. Instead, the spring emerges from the base of a huge cliff...and the town at its base is at least as interesting as the spring...
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In the little town, an 11th century church that is far more
interesting than most Romanesques |
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Because it incorporates not just the design of
the Romans but some re-cycled Roman columns
as well |
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And some other carved blocks that might well have been
Celtic |
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But not this one; our ancestors were not doing this sort of
thing in the 11th century! |
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In the town, restaurants, shoppes, and hotels all around; 1.5
million visitors annually, barely noticed in some of the guides |
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| And what's this column?! |
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A tribute to the 14th century Italian humanist poet Petrarch, who
did some time here... |
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Founder of humanism, first modern mountain climber, and
many other things (he coined the term "Dark Ages")...I
remember reading his ascent of Mt. Ventoux when I was a
freshman in college...and understanding little...the "inward"
turn of humanism was his... |
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| His house; now a museum |
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| 700th anniversary |
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| Pretty town |
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| Looking up high toward the cliff, caves |
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| Ruins up high |
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Now back from seeing the spring: the wheels, which powered
seven giant paper mills along this river, centuries ago |
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| One remains which has been made into a museum |
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| And after the museum, a long gallery of shoppes |
1 comment:
Interesting, interesting town.
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