The Age of the Millers
"MILLS, Several sorts exist. They are machines that are used to pulverise different materials, but mainly, they are used to convert grains into flour. Some are powered by a current of water, and others by the wind"...
Denis Diderot
Through the Encyclopaedia's illustrations, and in particular its different cut diagrams of a watermill, you are able to study the successive work processes of the miller, the person who "performs the art of reducing grain into flour, and separating it from the bran."
In the Pays de Langres, you can visit two mills that date back to the 15th Century.
The first mill, located at the centre of Baissey village, offers an incredible sight from another time. Its mill race, dug into the hillside, brings the water over a distance of 1.2 km to the site. A 7 m waterfall then moves the mill's mechanisms, which are still in place and date back to the 19th Century. During a visit to the mill, the overshot wheel, millstones and other gears will move once more, to share with you the knowledge of millers past.
With all its well-preserved wheels, millstones and gears, the "Moulin au Fil de l'Eau" (formerly the "Moulin Bucelin") in Orcevaux, allows visitors to go from the sawmill to the flour mill, and from the oil mill to the thresher.
