So wrote the poet René Char. When the technique of making paper using a water mill was passed from Italy to France, water, abundant and pure, was the essential ingredient to insure the industry flourished. The river Sorgue evoked by Pétrarque, was an ideal site for developing the production of that wonderful tool of communication: The first paper mill to appear in Provence was established in Carpentras in 1374, but it was Fontaine de Vaucluse which, over the following centuries, became the most important site for paper production. The fact that the Popes fled to Avignon at the beginning of the 14th century without a doubt played a part in the growth of paper production in this region.