Fontaine de Vaucluse (spring)

The Fontaine de Vaucluse is in the commune of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse in the department of Vaucluse. The commune was formerly called "Vaucluse", but being in a department with the same name caused confusion, so the commune was renamed "Fontaine-de-Vaucluse", after the spring.

The village in which the spring is located was called "Vallis Clausa" ("closed valley") in Latin because of its topographical position. This in time became "Vaucluse", from which the spring takes its name.^[1] The name in the Provençal dialect is "Fònt de Vauclusa", the spring of the closed valley. The word font has two meanings in Provençal, "fountain" and "spring". Here it designates a spring and not a fountain.

The Fontaine de Vaucluse, in April 2008

Same place, on 31 May 2008, during an overflow of 1.53 metres (5 ft)

The Fontaine de Vaucluse was formed after the Messinian salinity crisis, during the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epoch, from 5.96 to 5.33 Ma (million years ago), which caused the depth of the exsurgence.^[2][3]

Above the spring there is a 230-metre (750 ft)-high limestone cliff with innumerable breaks and faults. This acts as a reservoir, a karst aquifer, in which the water circulates along the discontinuities until it meets a barrier of limestone and clay.

The spring, which feeds the River Sorgue, is the only exit point of a 1,100-square-kilometre (420 sq mi) underground basin, which captures waters from Mont Ventoux, the Vaucluse Mountains, the Albion Plateau^(fr) and the Lure Mountain^(fr).^[4] The water of this exsurgence contains an average of 200 milligrams per litre (7.2×10⁻⁶ lb/cu in) of calcium carbonate, and has an annual flow of about 700,000,000 cubic metres (2.5×10¹⁰ cu ft), so the reservoir loses 50,000 cubic metres (1,800,000 cu ft) of limestone each year.

This karstification phenomenon acting on the surface of the impluvium, removes an annual volume of 45 cubic metres (1,600 cu ft) per square kilometre, which disappears after being dissolved in the water.^[5] That figure becomes more meaningful when calculations show that, in 3.5 million years, the Vaucluse Mountains, the Albion Plateau, and the Lure Mountain, will have had their thickness reduced by 1,500 metres (4,900 ft).^[6]

In antiquity the site was a place of ritual offerings. During various dives, particularly in 1998, the members of the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse Speleological Society (SSFV), were intrigued by the presence of many coins. Prospecting dives were made by SSFV speleologists under the direction of the Department of Underwater and Underwater Archaeological Research (DRASSM^fr). The Spélénaute submarine allowed them to work between −40 and −80 metres (−130 and −260 ft) in 2001, revealing ancient deposits of currency. A year later, during a new exploration campaign, speleologists retrieved 400 pieces of great historical value. In 2003 a new archaeological site allowed other discoveries. 1,600 pieces and objects have been recovered, dating from the 1st century BC to the middle of the 5th century AD.^[7]

Fontaine de Vaucluse inspired many geomyths.

A legend tells that Saint Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, rid the Sorgue of a horrible Drac, a devil or dragon, the Coulobre^(fr). The Coulobre, whose name could be derived from the Latin word coluber (snake), was a winged creature who lived in the Fontaine de Vaucluse.^[8] According to legend, she coupled with dragons who then abandoned her, forcing her to raise on her own the small black salamanders to which she gave birth. She was desperate for a new husband and a father for her children but her ugliness repulsed all suitors.^[8]

According to Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing, the Drac is a Ligurian divinity of tumultuous waters and the Coulobre owes its name to two Celto-Ligurian^(fr) roots: Kal (stone) and Briga (hill). This is the cliff overlooking the spring which still holds the Vache d'Or, the site of an ancient pastoral religion celebrating the strength and form of water and stone.^[9]

On the trail, we can see the Traou dou Couloubre, symbol of the fight of Saint Veranus against the ancient religions.

This legend recounts the story of a minstrel, Basil, who fell asleep on the way to the spring and saw a nymph appear. She led him to the edge of the spring, which opened to let them descend to a meadow strewn with supernatural flowers. The nymph showed seven diamonds to the minstrel. By lifting one of them, she made a powerful jet of water gush out. "Here," she said, "is the secret of the spring of which I am the guardian. To make it swell I remove the diamonds. With the seventh the water reaches the fig tree, which drinks only once a year." She disappeared while waking Basil.^[10]