Rue des Teinturiers

The Rue des Teinturiers runs along the Sorgue canal, identified by the large, wooden waterwheels still turning in the water. These wheels once powered the textile mills that turned the street into the industrial heart of Avignon during the fourteenth century. In seventeen eighty-four, a local entrepreneur named Philippe de Girard installed a machine here to spin cotton, sparking a violent protest from workers who feared for their jobs. That conflict defined the street for generations, long before the modern tourism began.