l'Isle sur la Sorgue is a small town 25 minutes by Marseille train from Avignon. The "Isle" part of its name comes from the fact that most of the town is on an island surrounded by arms of the River Sorgue. The river is formed as a canal (about 10m wide, about 1m deep with flowing almost crystal clear waters) as it passes both sides of the town. The town is accessed by many footbridges.
Each Sunday is market day .... and we're not talking your local school playground type market.
Each street on either side of the canal is packed with every conceivable type of seller - and there would 2-3 kms of stalls on each street, as well as stalls down each side street. And most of the shops are open as well (bread shops, especially !!!).
Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is known for its antiques and objet-d'art. Wouldd be renovators heaven - in fact buyers come from all over Europe, including the UK, for market days. You could buy anything from a chandelier to a chunk of stonework that looked as if it just fell off an ancient building. As well, there are plenty of sellers of all types of cheeses, hand/home made meat sausage of every variety (we bought a gold medal award winning fig one), more cheeses, clothes (bought a scarf for Greg), beautiful aromaric open-air cooked food, more sausages, accessory wear (bought a shoulder carry bag for Greg, also), more cheeses (the French know and love their cheeses!!). I saw a little summer cardigan I bought at Como markets a couple of years ago on sale - some products are the same the world over.
Breads, cheeses and sausage ... we are now so tres francais.
For the first two days I (Val) felt outside my comfort zone but day 3 was a turning point. Despite the rain we enjoyed the day and even managed to get to and from the station without using the map!
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