Our first stop of the day was a Fontaine-de-Vauscluse, the source of the River Sorgue, only about 4 miles north of the cottage.

I am always fascinated to see ruins in what appear to be virtually inaccessible places.

The river basically just gushes out of the rocks. This looks like rapids but it is churning out of the side of the hill at about 160 cubic feet a second ... but this is the slow time of year. In the winter and spring floods, the water pours out of a cave a bit farther up at the incredible rate of 33,000 cubic feet ... a second! The river flows crystal clear. The green is plant life in the river bed.

As in L'Isle sur La Sorge downstream, the steady flow of the river was a major source of power.

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