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Gironde’s windmills

There are many windmills in France. They are almost all flour mills and can be seen not only along the Atlantic and English Channel coasts and in the Paris Basin, but also in the south, on the Guyenne-Lauragais-Provence road.
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There are many windmills in France. They are almost all flour mills and can be seen not only along the Atlantic and English Channel coasts and in the Paris Basin, but also in the south, on the Guyenne-Lauragais-Provence road.
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Gironde ’s windmills  are lovingly constructed affairs. Their soaring cylindrical towers are built from large blocks of limestone or else more simply from coated rubble stone. Two entrance doors on opposite sides, often facing east-west, enable access to the mill whatever position its sails happen to be in. Doors and windows are framed in dressed stonework, and some door lintels are inscribed with the date of the mill’s construction or the name of its owner.

Moulin du Grand Puy de Lansac
CDT 33 - Hubert Sion

The ground floor sometimes contains the boulter and sacking equipment, and sometimes a fireplace or the miller’s bed beneath the stone stairway built into the tower’s brickwork. Above, the first floor contains a few pieces of machinery (flyball speed governor, pulleys, etc.) and the second floor houses the main machinery and the grinding mechanism. The stairway enables the miller to carry sacks of grain up to the millstone chamber.

The tower is topped by the cap (the rotating unit), a conical, chestnut-shingled roof, and the drive shaft, which is essential to harnessing the wind, bears the sails and the great spur wheel, and carries the rotating movement – required to activate the millstones – into the mill itself. To operate, the latticed sails attached to the end of the driving shaft are covered with canvas and set at a slant to better harness the wind.

A great oak pole, firmly attached to the mill’s framework, rises from the skylight set in the back of the conical roof – this is the “tail beam” that rotates the roof and turns the sails in the wind’s direction.

Mills are sometimes set on an artificial mound acting as a terrace from which the sails can be reached, and which contains a cellar for storing grain and flour.

Moulin de Vensac , Vensac

This late 18th -century mill was moved to its present site in 1858. It ceased operation in 1939, only to resume its working life in 1982, with its original equipment still intact: bucket belt, gears, worm screw, boulter, and auxiliary engine. Original frame, spur wheel, and millstones. Boulter located beside the mill. Production of flour and buckwheat. Mr Piquemale has milling in his blood and operates the mill of his forebears for the greater pleasure of one and all.

+33(0) 56 09 45 00
www.moulindevensac.fr  and infos@moulindevensac.fr

Moulin de Cussol , Verdelais

Built in 1730, the mill has been restored throughout and is operational. It stands a few hundred metres from François Mauriac’s Malagar estate. Guided tours led by Association volunteers. Views over the Garonne Valley and the Sauternes, Graves and Premières Côtes de Bordeaux vineyards.

Events, demonstration of grinding. Property of the municipality of Verdelais
+33 6 81 02 83 86
Mairie de Verdelais 33490 Verdelais
 +33 5 56 02 06

Moulin de Grand Puy , Lansac

The mill has been restored throughout and is in full working order. Guided tours by volunteers from the Association des Amis du Grand Puy. Property of the municipality of Lansac.

Canton of Bourg Tourist Office
+33(0) 57 68 31 76
Mairie de Lansac
33710 Lansac
+33 5 57 68 40 33
Parking area, picnic area, fine views.

 Moulins de Calon , Montagne

Two mills have been restored out of the five built in the 16th  century on Calon hill. Exceptional vineyard landscape.
Visits upon appointment: Château Calon: Jean-Noël Boidron +33 5 57 51 64 88

Moulin du Haut Benauge , Gornac

A mill built in 1601, restored but not in working order, and now a “museum mill”.
Collection of old winegrowing implements and traditional rural craftwork.
Property of the municipality of Gornac
+33 5 56 61 95 08

Moulin des Grandes Vignes , Périssac

 windmill built in 1984. On the eco-museum site
Association des Amis du Moulin des Grandes Vignes
Municipality of Périssac
+33 5 57 84 32 62

 

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