A bit of Tavel history The actual site of the village has been occupied since antiquity. The stratum samples from 6,000 BC to 2,000 BC do however prove that, well before the occupation by the farmers, the Neolithic hunters regularly occupied the protected sunny slopes of the Vallongue plateau, which is situated just a few hundred meters from the actual village centre. The archaeological remains of a rich villa in the proximity of the co-operative cellar testify to the Gallo-Roman occupation. The diggings revealed an accumulation of grape pips, and these residues from the pressing bear witness to the antique viticulture vocation of the Tavel lands. The troubled periods of the late middle ages practically eliminated the community : a group of monk settlers at the Montézargues priory and a few peasant families who were brought under the authority of the Saint-André Abbey of Villeneuve-lez-Avignon in the XIIIth century. A poll in the XIVth century accounted for 5 fires (approximately 30 people) around the Tavel fountain.

Bit by bit the village prospered: 400 inhabitants in 1665, 800 on the eve of the revolution. A progression identical to that of the cultivation and in particular the vineyards, which produced over 3,000 hectolitres of a rosé which was already renowned. The wine is, of course, the main source of income for the dynamic farming community . A community which, very early on, specialised in the commercial viticulture. Apart from the vines, the other main activities include cereal farming, raising sheep and forestry.

The XIXth century marks the golden age for the viticulture community. 700 hectares of vineyards provided a relatively comfortable life style for 1,400 inhabitants, thereby placing the village in a privileged position in the Cote du Rhone. The phyloxera crisis however ruined centuries of effort and land parcelling. The illness destroyed the vineyards and forced half of the population to move to the cities and reduced those that remained to misery. The municipality and the owners battled on but they had to wait for the agronomic progress to slowly rebuild the vineyard at the end of the century. The youth was gone, the capital had evaporated and the First World War claimed 20 men…The village could, like many others in the garrigues of the Gard, have died slowly only to be reborn as an urban residential area of Avignon at the end of the XXth century.

The tenacity of the community was however rewarded, the village survived and was able to retain its authenticity. Following are a few of the key dates of this exceptional recovery in the XXth century : 1902 :creation of the Tavel Vineyard owners syndicate (the first in the Rhone valley) 1926 :boundary process of the Tavel land (confirmed as AOC in 1936) 1939 :creation of the Tavel Co-operative cellar The post war period is placed under the double sign of the blossoming of the viticulture and the socio-economic diversification. The vineyard quadrupled in 50 years and the notoriety of Tavel is international. However, the village has also diversified in its social components.

The "suburbia" trap, which many communities around Avignon fell into, was avoided without excluding the village from the rich opening to the powerful economic and social flow of the Rhone Valley.

The stone and the wood : Stone is the second natural wealth of the Tavel village. Stone has always been for building. It became the object for a dynamic exploitation in the XIXth century and supplied markets that reached further afield and became more sophisticated. It is true that the cretaceous calcareous stone of the northern flanks of the Tavel anticline offers a very crystalline aspect with occasional rose or blue nuances and a fine grained soft polished finish, which is in great demand. The quality of the work today ensures the success of the Tavel marble works. The same can be said of the wood craftsmanship and carpentry, the construction and all the manual arts, which have the opportunity of a harmonious development in a rural surrounding.

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