The Carpentras canal, which crosses the Sorgue river on the Galas aqueduct bridge in Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, marked the culmination of several previous irrigation projects of the Vaucluse department. Its construction was made possible by the creation in 1853 of the trade union association of which it became the property. Its total cost of 4,700,000 gold francs was covered for a third by subsidies and the other two-thirds by the riparian operators. It was inaugurated on July 12, 1857, in the presence of Louis Giraud, its founder and first director, and of Empress Eugénie.