Windmill diagrams

1 weather vane / 2 rotating roof / 3 sails / 4 stop / 5 brake wheel with teeth

6 lantern / 7 drive shaft / 8 hopper and hopper assembly / 9 runner stone

10 bed stone / 11 millstone casing / 12 spindle / 13 spindle grating / 14 wind shaft / 15 bed

stone route / 16 runner stone route

Like most windmills in Provence, ours is 6 metres in height and width. A saying which is no longer used, perhaps because it is politically incorrect, states that, « The sails of the windmill may spare chickens, but not dogs ». In other words, the sails came close to the ground.

One particularity of windmills in Provence is that they can be turned to face the wind from inside the mill. To do this, the operator had to climb the the ladder and manually turn the rotating roof structure.