Sublime waters: Petrarch and the development of water tourism to the sources of the river Sorgue, 1350-2000.

The sources of the river Sorgue in the French Provence present a spectacular natural setting as well as a ‘locus amoenus’ deeply imbued with literary reminiscences. Situated at the end of a closed valley, the Vaucluse, they spring from a deep cavern in a huge rock, producing a fountain-like effect that for centuries has attracted spectators curious to witness this sublime experience. One of these tourists was the Italian poet Francis Petrarch, who in the late 1330s choose this spot to construe his first writer’s retreat. The Sorgue waterscape in fact became one of the main themes in his poetry, that soon developed into the prime model for all Western lyric poetry. As a result, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse attracted as of the early sixteenth century a mixed audience of Petrarchists and water tourists. Based on the abundant documentation left by these visitors, this paper follows this constant flow of literary / water tourists over the centuries. It shows how the two distinct perspectives merged into a sublime experience able to engender a profitable tourist industry that still today makes the hamlet into one of France’s most memorable tourist destinations.