Visiting L’isle sur la Sorgue

The Sorgue is a clear river that runs through this village and divides the small village into several iles, thus the name.  The river has historically been of huge importance to the village.  According to Wikipedia, “As early as the 12th century, the river served defensively as a moat around ramparts which surrounded the town until 1795. The river also served as a source of food and industry: fishing and artisan mills for oil, wheat, silk, paper, woolenry, rugs and dyeing. A busy commerce developed until there were two annual fairs and two weekly markets. The current Sunday open-air market originated on 9 November 1596. ”  Now, the town is famous for its many antique shops and hosts antique markets most Sundays. Along the river many attractive water wheels throughout the town are still in working order.  We returned to this village to visit the Sunday antique market, but we arrived a little early so we visited many antique stores as well as local establishments.  I found the perfect round, cotton Provencale (traditional Farandole pattern) table cloth for the table in the Vendome patio and Connie found olive-related gifts.  No one bought antiques, but all of us were tempted by something we saw.  Lunch was at an outdoor cafe named La Cabane Restaurant where we all had fresh salads and Connie and I split a cafe gourmand for dessert.  If you’ve never had cafe gourmand, you are missing a treat–a small cup of espresso coffee and small portions of very chocolate mousse, tiramisu, and Victorian cream–yum!

On our drive home we had a beautiful view of Les Baux and the Alpilles mountains behind a vineyard between St. Remy and Maussane a little before sunset. As seems to be the usual here in Provence, it was a beautiful day.

Clay made asparagus soup for dinner so after our nightly wine (and vodka for some) we had asparagus soup complete with fresh asparagus and a baguette…good night!