The Mirabeau Bridge spans the Durance at the edge of the Luberon.

It is a little-known bridge that shares its name with its illustrious counterpart in Paris. Both owe their name to the same historical figure: the famous Mirabeau, the revolutionary who once held the title of Count of the very village where the bridge over the Durance now stands.

The Durance, that capricious Provençal river, carves its way between two rocky escarpments at the Canteperdrix Gorge, a natural frontier marking the eastern boundary of the Luberon. It is a crossroads of four departments: Vaucluse, Var, Bouches-du-Rhône and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. This natural narrowing has long been a strategic crossing point—first by rope ferry, then by bridge as early as the Middle Ages. Yet the unpredictable Durance repeatedly swept away these structures with its torrential floods, intensified by the gorge’s tight passage.

In the 19th century, a suspension bridge was erected between two neo-Roman porticos. Today, these two splendid sentinels no longer support anything, as the bridge was replaced in 1990 by a concrete road bridge—functional, certainly, but its straight, blunt profile does little justice to the raw, telluric energy that emanates from this remarkable site.

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The Sainte-Madeleine Chapel, perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river, dates back to the 12th century. This modest yet moving sanctuary at the entrance of the gorge evokes the perils once faced when crossing the Durance by ferry, and reminds us how dearly the protection of Sainte-Madeleine must have been desired.