The Dronne is a wild river whose source is in Buissière Galant in Haute Vienne. It flows over more than 200 kilometers to Gironde where it flows into Isle à Coutras. The Dronne has hosted a multitude of mills. This is why it is nicknamed the river with 100 mills. Patrick Hautefaye President of the APAM (Périgourdine association of friends of the mills) knows their stories well, including that of the Moulin du Pont in Montagrier.
“We are in the presence of a boat-type mill which is a very particular architecture on this part of the Dronne”
– Marie-Dominique PRIVE
The rehabilitation of the Moulin de Perduz, better known as the Moulin du Pont, which became the “Maison de la Dronne et du Patrimoine Rural”, built in the 12th century, traces the importance of the life of the mills and more particularly its role during the electrification of the rural world at the very beginning of the 20th century.
– Marie Dominique
Built on the “Dronne” river, the Mill has had several functions during its long years of existence. The first elements that we find of this mill date from the 12th century. For a long time, this mill made flour. Then it was converted into a sawmill. At the beginning of industrialization, it was necessary to find a dynamic at the level of this mill. He then generated hydroelectricity, this completely green electricity at the beginning of the XXᵉ century and which then made it possible, with this production, to light up the villages, even before Paris.
?Listen Patrick Hautefaye President of APAM tell you this story.