Mme Carrasco took Louis's class on a year-end field trip to the northern Medoc region. The day was sunny and a nearly ideal temperature. There was a lot of singing on the bus, songs English (
go away, big green monster go away!), French (
Allons enfants de la patrie...), and uniquely Bordelais (the hymn of l'Union Bordeaux Bègles,
UBB, allez allez allez!), and excited talk, and in a little under two hours we arrived at le Moulin de Vensac, an operational 18th century windmill.
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The beam that Louis is walking under attaches to the windmill roof and is
used to orient the windmill vanes to the wind. |
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| Walking up the steps, inside the windmill. |
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| Upstairs, beneath the revolving roof, are the mechanics that turn the millstone. |
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The millstone is about 1700 kg. The original millstone is still in place and
not readily viewed (though there are photos of the millstone
being tipped up to texture the undersurface). This older millstone is
from a different windmill in the parish.
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The windmill vanes turn an enormous gear, which turns the axle
leading down... |
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... into the millstone itself, which turns continuously,
grinding wheat or corn into flour. |
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The flour leaves the base of the windmill through a trough with a long
screw in it that turns to push the flour into an adjacent building. |
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| (trough, detail) |
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The flour then runs through a canvas-covered tumbler
that sifts and sorts the flour by texture. |
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| Louis with Evan, Rodrigo, and Mathis. |
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| The entire class, Mme Carrasco at the right end. |
After lunch, we made a shorter visit to the
Ferme Aquacole Eau-Médoc, Port de St. Vivien de Médoc. The farm raises shrimp, crab, eels, lobsters, and other seafood.
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| Bertrand, our guide, and great story-teller. The students were rapt. |
