Cavaillon

A city of nature, with its Saint-Jacques Hill in the heart of the city, Cavaillon is nevertheless marked by its history and offers the curious visitor many testimonies of its past:

The chapel of Saint Veran

It is difficult not to see this chapel as the art of baroque is expressed with this multitude of details, sculptures and... gilding! When you enter the cathedral, it is the first chapel on your left; in general your gaze is directly on it as the door faces it.

Chapelle Saint Veran

Saint Veran

Originally, it was dedicated to Saint Martin. This chapel, with exuberant decoration, was desired by the bishop of Cavaillon, Philip de Cabasolle, friend of Petrarch. A little later, the relics of Saint Veran, the first bishop of Cavaillon were transported there; the chapel was then completely renovated and dedicated to the saint.

The gilded wooden altarpiece by Barthélemy Grangrier (1650) frames a canvas by Pierre Mignard (1657) depicting the most famous miracle of Saint Veran. We see the latter chaining and clearing the region of a horrible drac, or dragon, which is called the Coulobre in the country. Unfortunately, the altar, which is the old high altar of the cathedral, hides the head of the beast.

Voûte de la Chapelle Saint Veran

The vault and the two side panels are by Jacques Bernus, renowned sculptor of the Comtat Venaissin. On the vault, we can discover a lot of symbols. In the corners the bishop's attributes carried by angelots: the mitre, the butt and three allegories representing each of them one of the virtues of Saint Veran, the arrows symbolize zeal, the keys represent charity and in a corner, one can see an elephant's head which is a sign of benignity, on the affable and gentle side ofbishop and saint.

If these details show the life of the saint, there are others present as if to remind us that we are in Cavaillon; and that these decorations are anchored in their time. In fact, in the middle, look carefully... there you will discover a tetragrammaton in a triangle, it is the name of God written in Hebrew!

Tétragramme - Voûte de la chapelle Saint Veran

St Julien Canal

In the 12th century, the bishop of Cavaillon decided to build a wheat mill near a chapel in the name of Saint-Julien. To make it work, of course, it needs water. That is why he asked the Comte de Toulouse to derive the waters of the Durance. 1171: the Saint-Julien Canal was born! It is then the most canal in Provence!

Concession par Raymond V, duc de Narbonne, comte de Toulouse et marquis de Provence à Benoît, évêque de Cavaillon, du droit de dériver les eaux de la Durance.  5 mai 1171.
Source : Archives départementales de Vaucluse, cartulaire de l’évêché de Cavaillon 

L’ « acte de naissance » de l’irrigation à Cavaillon : concession faite aux habitants par l’évêque Rostaing Bellinger de se servir des eaux du béal de son moulin de Saint-Julien pour arroser leurs terres.  1er février 1235.
Source : Archives municipales de Cavaillon.

The first watering takes place in the 13th century. Since the mills are fed by the waters of the Durance via a canal, Cavaillonnais wish to do the same to irrigate their land. The bishop of Cavaillon then authorized the inhabitants to use the water of the canal to irrigate the agricultural plain.

In the 16th century, with the rise of agricultural production, water supply became precarious. There is an urgent need to redevelop the canal, especially by connecting it further upstream to the outskirts of Mérindol. But in order to do so, you need a royal authorization. Fortunately, in 1537, Francis I, who returned from Italy, passed to Provence. He then gave permission to capture the waters of the Durance further upstream.

Plan général des arrosages du quartier du Grès, XVIIe s., Archives nationales.

But who's in charge of the canal?

After two centuries of struggle, farmers owners, users of the canal and the town hall of Cavaillon, appealed to the prefecture of Vaucluse. The latter set up a union forced by prefectural order on 30 July 1818, it was this union that was in charge of the canal,

Since the Middle Ages, the Canal Saint-Julien has contributed to the development of fruit and vegetable cultivation, especially the famous Cavaillon melon. This rich agricultural plain now covers more than 6,000 hectares.

Workers of the Saint-Julien Canal Union construisant la prise d’eau en Durance, vers 1930.
Source : Pierre Sarnette, ancien directeur du canal (cliché Archives municipales de Cavaillon).

Work to take : plantation des pieux de la prise d’eau en Durance, vers 1930.
Source : Pierre Sarnette, ancien directeur du canal (cliché Archives municipales de Cavaillon).

La 'Canau' : un ingénieux aqueduc hérité du XVIe s. carte postale, vers 1900.
Source : Archives municipales de Cavaillon.

Zoom on the Canau

In 1538, Baron Jean Maynier d'Oppède had obtained from the bishop and the community the concession of water from the fugitive from the Saint-Julien mill to water his domain of Rouret, on the right bank of the Coulon. It remained to design a structure capable of carrying the waters of Saint-Julien beyond the course of the Coulon: this was the remarkable Canau, a unique structure of its kind (classified as a historic monument since 2011).

The structure is made up of two stone arches that touch at their center and move away at their ends. This particular shape, in addition to being highly resistant to flooding, made it possible to support a wooden aqueduct lined with a waterproof tarpaulin, suspended from the vault by metal hooks. The top of the structure allowed pedestrian passage. In the event of a flood, only the wooden aqueduct - easily repaired - was washed away, while the arches remained in place.

Canal Saint-Julien in Cheval-Blanc de nos jours

Today, the canal is 200 km long; it is connected to the Durance (on the outskirts of Mallemort) to Caumont-sur-Durance. Whether it is the “main” canal, or its derivations, it crosses several municipalities (Cheval-Blanc, Les Taillades, Robion, Cavaillon, Le Thor, L'Isle-sur-Sorgue, Caumont-sur-Durance).

A famous emissary for the Melons of Cavaillon

1864, the municipal library of Cavaillon appears. Young, and empty of books. The librarian, Antoine Zacharie Seguin, then had an idea: why not ask the authors for a donation of their most famous stories?

Lettre du conseiller municipal et bibliothécaire Antoine Zacharie SEGUIN à Alexandre Dumas, que l’écrivain fit paraître dans Le Petit Journal, périodique parisien  à très grand tirage, 7 septembre 1864.
Source : BNF, Gallica,  https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5886950/f2.item

This is how novelists, poets and fellows, such as Victor Hugo, William Bonaparte-Wyse, Théodore Aubanel, and Alexandre Dumas, receive this letter. If the requested donation mentioned 3 or 4 works, Alexandre Dumas sees things in big terms: it is a copy of each of his works that he is ready to give to the city! But in exchange for a small counterpart...

His answer is: “If the city and the authorities of Cavaillon value my books, I love their melons very much; and I desire that, in exchange for my three or four hundred volumes, I be constituted by by-law, a life annuity of twelve melons a year. The shipping costs of course remain at my expense”. On November 13, 1864, the municipal council voted unanimously for this decree!

Autograph response from Alexandre Dumas to Antoine SEGUIN(extrait), 17 août 1864.
Carpentras, bibliothèque-musée Inguimbertine

Prefectural approval of the deliberation of the municipal council of Cavaillon du 13 novembre 1864, 6 décembre 1864.
Source : Archives municipales de Cavaillon.

The story could have remained in Cavaillonnaise's annals alone, but the letters are published in Le Petit Journal (which was then printed in Paris at about 150,000 copies); donations of books will then flow to the library of Cavaillon.

Alexandre Dumas becomes a renowned emissary! For the municipal library first, with 876 volumes at the end of 1864, and doubling it the following year. For the famous Melon de Cavaillon too! If he could be proud of a reputation as a great writer of his time, he could do the same for his annuity of 12 melons a year.

He will not forget this culinary friendship with the city, in the Great Dictionary of Cuisine he wrote, he says:

“I have only one desire to issue, is that my books always have for the Cavaillonnais the same charm that their melons have for me. This is both an opportunity to express my gratitude to my good friends in Cavaillon, and to designate their melons to the whole of Europe as the best I know.”

Caricature parue dans la presse avignonnaise (Le Grelot) tournant en ridicule l’écrivain et sa rente en melons, 2 octobre 1864.
Source : Archives municipales de Cavaillon.

Bust of Alexander Dumas, Société des amis d’Alexandre Dumas, 1983.
Source : Archives municipales de Cavaillon.

The richness of biodiversity in the Cavaillon plain

Follow the Durance to climb up to the Saint-Jacques Hill and join the Coulon watercourse.

The Durance, known as “capricious” river, once feared for its floods, is the largest river in Europe. She's the foster mother of all Provence. This laces river, and a real biological corridor.

In the running waters there are several hundred invertebrates, fish. The dead arms of the river and the riparian forests welcome many species of waterbirds and mammals, and beyond at the gates of the town of Cavaillon.

The Saint-Jacques hill is the only limestone relief of the plain of Cavaillon, it is a piece of the Petit Luberon isolated from it. Its flora and natural habitats benefit from a warm and dry Mediterranean climate, its massif is covered with green oak coppice, Aleppo pine forest in sheltered valleys, kermes oak garrigues, and rosemary elsewhere.

Among the plants that can be found in the scrubland of St Jacques Hill, there is the one that inspired architecture since ancient times:

Several species of birds nest there, the Owl Owl and the Blue Mountain. The ocellated lizard also frequents the open, rocky scrubland of this site. All kinds of insects.

Monticole bleu - ©OT LCDP

Acanthus mollis - ©OT LCDP

aigrette garzette - ©JP Michel

The Coulon, also known as Calavon, is a river of torrential type in the Luberon Regional Natural Park. It takes its source in the village of Banon, on the foothills of the Plateau d'Albion in the Alps of Haute Provence passing through the extraordinary Gorges d'Oppedette it continues its course passing through the city of Apt and Cavaillon, to throw 86 km below the Durance.

There are 46 heritage animal species, 9 of which are key determinants. Among them: several mammals, such as bats, European beaver, birds: owl owl, diver cincle, circaète Jean-le-Blanc,..., terrestrial and aquatic insects (butterflies, dragonflies), and fish.

Beaver d'Europe - ©OT LCDP

Martin-pêcheur - ©OT LCDP

Melanocephal Fauvette - ©OT LCDP

Cygnus - ©OT LCDP