The old mill of Vernon

A mill on a bridge

The old mill of Vernon, a half-timbered construction, lies straddling two piers of the ancient bridge over the Seine River.

The old Bridge of Vernon

Several mills like this one used to be operating on the river all along the old wooden bridge. This bridge itself was built in the XII th century, the mill is probably of the XVI th century. The old bridge has been destroyed and rebuilt several times in the middle age. It was very unsafe and was definitively detroyed in the beginning of the XIXth century. Then it was replaced by a stone bridge in 1861. Destroyed during the war in 1870 it was rebuilt in 1872 and then bombed in 1940. So the bridge you cross today to go from Vernon to Giverny is the fourth generation. It was built in 1955.

The old Mill of Vernon The mechanism used to be a pending wheel like Saint Jean mill, a nearby mill now destroyed, or like the mill of Muids.

Between 1925 and 1930, the old mill belonged to a revue spectacular composer, Jean Nouguès, who managed a dancing on a barge moored nearby.
In 1930 he sold it to an American, William Griffin.
The old mill of Vernon

After the death of William Griffin in 1947 the city of Vernon tried to find his heirs but did not succeed. The mill was damaged by the bombings of 1940 and 1944. It was about to fall into the Seine River when the city of Vernon undertook its salvage.

Now the old mill is a symbol of Vernon. It illustrates the postal logo of the city. postal logo of Vernon, France

Houses on the Old Bridge at Vernon
Claude Monet 1883
© New Orleans Museum of Art
It has been represented thousands of times by painters, even by Claude Monet.
And if you visit the New Orleans Museum of Art, you will admire this painting of Claude Monet entitled "Houses on the Old Bridge at Vernon".

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