Moulin de l'Aile, Windmill in Saint-Martin-lez-Tatinghem, northern France

The Moulin de l'Aile is an octagonal wooden windmill on a brick base in Saint-Martin-lez-Tatinghem, near Saint-Omer. Its dark brown, vertically planked body carries four lattice-framed sails with white leading edges and small red triangular flags. A blue door with a plaque sits at the top of a short wooden staircase, behind a slatted fence.

The Moulin de l'Aile began as a polder mill in the Marais de l'Aile at Saint-Omer, fitted with an Archimedes screw to drain the marsh. A storm broke its sails in 1948; the mill was dismantled and its parts stored for twenty years. Restored at the Musée des Moulins in Villeneuve-d'Ascq during the 1980s, it was later taken down again and kept at Wizernes airfield before being rebuilt near the Maison du Marais in Saint-Martin-au-Laërt in 2013-2014, with an Archimedes screw reinstalled.

The mill's name comes from the Marais de l'Aile, the marsh in Saint-Omer where it first stood as a polder mill driving an Archimedes screw. It now stands beside the Maison du Marais visitor centre in Saint-Martin-au-Laërt, and the screw is being fitted again, so the drainage function that defined it can be seen on site.

The mill is easy to spot from the roadside and can be seen from the outside during a short walk without needing to enter. Occasionally, organized visits allow access to the inside, so checking local schedules in advance is worth the effort.

The Moulin de l'Aile is the last wooden polder mill in France, a wooden upper body set on a brick base. It originally stood in the Marais de l'Aile in Saint-Omer and worked with an Archimedes screw to drain the marsh; a screw is being fitted again at its present site.