Sunday Day out in Provence
The Sunday antique market at Carpentras is my favourite weekly antique market. As you may already know, the town of Isle sur la Sorgue is the king of antiques in the south of France. If you are looking for a particular style, period, or piece of furniture etc and have lots of extra cash- then Isle sur la Sorgue is definitely the place. The Carpentras Brocante is more low key. It is a Puces-Brocante (flea market) which means that it’s wonderfully somewhere between a vide-grenier (garage sale) and a brocante (full-blown antique market). The prices are much lower than Isle sur la Sorgue even though there are still many quality items.
Carpentras Flea Market
The stallholders have more time to explain where they’ve acquired that rusty lamp you covet or even what specific residence those beaten-up tiles came from. We contemplated the tiles below for our bathroom floor. See more about our search for antique tiles.
Those antique floor tiles…Perfect for a shabby chic kitchen?
The stalls only truly get unpacked around 10 am despite jostling for places around 7:30 am. I like to get there late-morning, wander around the stalls and stop at the one food truck for a merguez sandwich and a 1 euro glass of wine in the sun. A perfect activity for an autumn/spring Sunday! This market is also open much longer than many brocantes, which is great if you’re taking a little too long for your croissant and coffee on a Sunday morning. Find out more about Provence Antique markets here.
Whenever Robin sees me approaching a box like this- he knows that I won’t be moving for quite a while…
Mont Ventoux
If you have more energy to move on and would like to make a day of it, take the 25-minute drive up to Mont Ventoux where you’ll now see the transformed colours on the mountain. It’s one of the few places where I’ve satisfied my Canadian craving to see the changing of the leaves.
I love the contrast of the ‘moonscape’ at the top of Mont Venoux with the changing trees
Mont Ventoux is famous for Tour de France‘s cyclists climbing this mountain. Here’s footage from this year’s Tour de France. The mountain is the highest in Provence and can be seen from miles around.
Try to pick a day that isn’t too windy. This will enable you to enjoy the spectacular panoramic view of the Alps in the distance.
C’est Magnifique!
Carpentras Flea Market
When is it: Every Sunday 10am-4pm (most busy before lunch, some stallholders don’t stay all afternoon)
Where is it: Les Platanes (Allées Jean Jaures), Carpentras
How big is it: 200 stallholders maximum, though this dwindles down to about 75 during the colder months
What will you find there: low to high-quality antiques with fair prices
Wow another great post! I’m really enjoying this site. Thumbs up! Keep’em coming.
I’m over there this coming weekend so will probably pop over to Carpentras for a visit later morning – after an early potter around L’Isle sur la Sorgue – quite possibly shaping up to be a perfect Sunday!!
sounds great!!