Moulin de l'Épinay, Tower windmill in La Chapelle-Saint-Florent, Mauges-sur-Loire, France

The moulin de l'Épinay is a cylindrical tower windmill built in 1822 at La Chapelle-Saint-Florent, now part of Mauges-sur-Loire. Its beige stone tower has a dark conical roof, four white lattice sails, and a small white fan wheel on the left side of the roof. Originally two storeys and 10 metres high, it was raised to its present form later.

Built in 1822, the mill originally had only two floors and stood 10 metres high. The miller turned the sails into the wind with a guivre, a long wooden pole running from the roof to the ground, and the sails were wooden ladders on which he spread cloth. In 1860 the Berton system replaced this, with eleven wooden boards per sail opened and closed by two ropes acting on a differential. A diesel engine was added in 1925, an electric motor in 1936, and from 1947 the mill ran on its motor alone. Abandoned from 1970, it was bought by the commune of La Chapelle-Saint-Florent in 1985 and its sails turned again on 19 September 1989.

The mill still grinds wheat and buckwheat into stone-ground flour, and the association Un village, un moulin, founded in 1991, keeps it running with two miller-guides and 43 members. The miller's surname Chataigner is tied to the site from 1822 to 1970, when Charles Chataigner's death led his brother Elie to stop operating it.

Access is through guided tours that show how the mechanical systems work and move grain through the building. Visitors should expect to climb several flights of stairs to see the inner rooms and machinery.

The white fan wheel on the roof is a Berton-type orientation mechanism called le papillon, fitted in 1928. This English-origin device replaced the long wooden guivre pole and is found on only a few French mills. The miller turned a crank inside the roof to pivot the cap into the wind.