🇫🇷 Provence – L’Isle sur la Sorgue

L’lsle-sur-la-Sorgue

We spent the night watching numerous Bastille firework celebrations from our balcony. The next morning we were blessed by a spectacular sunrise. We were headed an hour and a half down the road to a new area of Provence for a 10 night stay in the beautiful town of L’lsle-sur-la-Sorgue. The name of the town means island on the river Sorgue.

This town is surrounded by crystal clear shallow flowing canals full of big blue coloured fish that disguise themselves in the beautiful moving fresh water plant weeds. It is just like looking into an octopus’s garden!!!

But the hero of this town is its cascading waterfalls and many historical waterwheels.

It was an extremely hot day temperatures in our car reached 43 degrees when parked. We were so happy that our accommodation had air conditioning and it was already turned on. Our host also was gracious enough to let us in early.

L’lsle-sur-la-Sorgue is well known for its large Sunday market. We arrived early on Sunday morning and explored the market with hordes of locals and tourists. This market has something for every taste. It is full of antiques, clothing, leather bags and belts, jewellery, fine cotton and lace bedding, soaps, lavender products, olive oil, fruit & veg, beautiful handmade pestos and lots of olives! We bought pesto, bread and I just had to have a hand made soap. Rob even got himself a nice new hat.

One thing we really loved about L’lsle-sur-la-Sorgue was that on market day people also filled the parks relaxing in the shade listening to a local singer. Flowers spilled over the canal walls. Due to the heat the canals were lined with people sitting dangling their feet in the cool refreshing water having a drink.

L’lsle-sur-la-Sorgue is also known for its many, many antique shops and emporiums. Now antique shopping or looking is a favourite pastime for both of us. The treasures here in L’lsle-sur-la-Sorgue antique shops are not cheap and slightly too large and expensive to send home to Australia. So our budget is safe as we are only looking not buying.

Our favourite cat sat in the window across from our apartment feeling the heat of another stinky hot day.

We enjoyed many outings wandering the cute streets at random. There are so many beautiful waterways to gaze at and fountains to sit and eat ice cream at. We tried lavender and limoncello ice cream on one hot afternoon.

Cafe de France is quite a well known cafe here in Provence.

Exploring Notre Dame Des Anges was lavish and full of many artworks and statues that we can’t seen to get enough of.

There are so many cute lanes and unique shops to explore.

We rested our hot feet in the icy cold canal which is a bit of a local tradition here.

More cats lazying around due to the heat.

We spent many hot afternoon exploring the many antique emporiums. One favourite emporium had many stalls including one that sold old rockets!!! It also had a nice canal crossing that made you quite relaxed to just stop and stare at the ducks, flowers and clear fast flowing waters.

L’lsle-sur-la-Sorgue was a great base for us to explore Provence. It also had a Thursday market as well as the huge Sunday market.