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A little history...

Mill1
 

The history of the Moulin de Tulette

This mill is very old. Some documents found in the archives of the Grenoble court speak of it as far back as 1427. Its history can be traced back through the centuries, thanks to a series of court cases concerning water use.
 
It may originally have belonged to the Benedictine monks of the priory of Vif, who dug a canal over 5 km long and installed the mill for the population of the village of Fontagneux.


This canal was fed by a small dam on the La Gresse torrent near the village of Le Gua, and emptied into the Le Drac river north of Varces.
 
It was originally a small facility: the lord of Varces charged "one chicken" rent for the mill!
Moulin2
Moulin3

 

As you can still see today, it was a very simple mechanism: a series of dams held back the water from the canal, and a valve enabled a strong current to be precipitated through the building's vault, driving large wooden pallets and then directly to the millstone.

Along the old canal, you can still see the cut stone blocks that served as slides for the sluice system.

 

Note that the sole (or millstone) is made from a single block of cut granite, probably brought from the Belledonne or Oisans mountains through the Romanche valley.

The digging of a canal and the installation of a mill on this plain can be explained by the fact that in the Middle Ages, the "Gresse" had not yet been dammed up: it was a capricious torrent whose course varied constantly, making it impossible to use its waters.

Moulin4
The building was constructed around and after the stone had been installed. A small door and a tiny window were the only openings. The upper floor housed the flour sacks and served as the miller's living quarters.
The Moulin de Tulette stopped turning during the 19th century, but water from the canal continued to flow gently across the plain, watering gardens and crops. It was also used to irrigate the nurseries on which the campsite was built.
In the spring of 1994, a very high flood washed out the dam 5 km upstream.
Repair work was never undertaken.