L'Isle Sur La Sorgue

L'Isle sur la Sorgue is famous mostly for its 300 antiques dealers and Sunday antiques/brocantes market. We were there is 2017 and were knocked out, not so much by the antiques as by the ambiance of the place. We like water features, and LSLS has channeled the Sorgue to render the place nearly a water park. An old French water park. We'd wanted to go there the week before, but the mistral dissuaded us. How can you hold an outdoor market in a gale?! Another mistral descended almost as soon as we got there, finally, a week later, but the place was still enchanting and nobody among the thousands there seemed much bothered by the perpetual gale force winds. Provence is nice for many reasons, but the mistral is not one of them. At least it keeps everything swept up nicely. An assortment of pix...

Sic transit, Gloria...once a beautiful old home

Sunset on one of the channels of the Sorgue

A memorable lunch for me at Au Chineur, a popular bistro

Slice of layered omelette with salad, black olives and a red
sauce

White fish and sauce with a cheesy risotto; the sauce was a
lemony flavor with a trace of saffron; Vicki's steak and frites
were perhaps not so memorable

Sunday was indeed market day, but, surprisingly to us, there were no antique nor
brocante nor junque dealers; obviously we missed something; nonetheless we got
to see another large French market, crafts, food, clothes, art...and people

LSLS cathedral, or maybe just parish church

Famous prayer: "Our pastis, who art very fresh, may your bottle be sanctified..."
Tres spirituel...

On one day we also visited one of the many antique sites

Behind one of larger dealers, a channel of the Sorgue

Quintessential L'Isle sur la Sorgue, no?

How to sell chapeaux et casquettes in a gale

More water features

And market

Meanwhile, back at the aire de camping-cars by the gare

Return To Fontaine Vaucluse

We were just there is 2017, but it's picturesque, the spring is France's largest and the fifth largest in the world, by flow, and it was on the way to L'Isle sur la Sorgue, whose Sunday brocantes/antiquites show we'd been planning on for some time. As in 2017, we couldn't figure out where the camping-car parking was, but lucked out elsewhere. Previous, more informative posts from Fontaine Vaucluse are at https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/10/fountain-vaucluse-spring.html and https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/10/fountain-vaucluse-town.html. Oh, "Vaucluse" means "closed valley," which in Montana lingo might be "box canyon," to which I can indeed relate. Fontaine Vaucluse is indeed a box canyon.

The springs are the source of the beautiful Sorgue

Up really high huge caves...land rising? glaciers receding?

Old fortress overlooking

The water really is this color, due to the vegetation beneath; or ample use of green
dye #4

We interrupt this touristic visit for the following environmental message

Overhanging limestone cliffs, some hundreds of meters above

The spring that day, even lower than in 2017

What the fontaine looks like in March, the flood time of year

Back in town, passing by a dying shopping center, thinking again I could really
get into mannequin painting

Inconceivable!

Conceivable!

Wrapped dumpsters in Fontaine Vaucluse; we'd seen similar in the Cote d'Azure;
sooooo French

Aix-En-Provence

We visited Aix-en-Provence in 2017 and were impressed, despite the lack of parking facilities. This time we stayed in a campground, using the CamperContact app, and enjoyed the city at a more lesiurely pace. Posts from our 2017 visit were:
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/10/aix-en-provence-1.html,
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/10/aix-en-provence-2.html, and
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/10/aix-en-provence-cathedral-of-saint.html.

Attempted artsy-fartsy shot of Cezanne beholding the Rotonde and the Fountain
of the Three Graces

All our plans went out the window when we found an absolutely huge street
market radiating off from the Rotonde; here, the lonely tripe wagon

Food section

Sand artist: "...writ in water..."

In the market, mostly clothing, looking back some blocks to the Rotonde and
the Fountain

Love those ghost signs

We looked around but went back to our 2017 favorite,
Charlotte, a two-person operation (he cooks, she serves) that
is glacially slow but authentic and good; served outside in a
walled-in garden

My ossobuco

Her steak and frites

Shoppe scene

France is littered with beautiful cooking and cookware stores; here's one in Aix,
individual raclette and fondue makers

Our wanderings took us to the cathedral square, where there were booths and
programs celebrating Europe Day; we came away with nice little "Je sui Eropeen"
bracelets; probably won't wear them in Britland

Inside the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral

Curiosity of the day: interesting structure in the stern starboard of the main nave,
like a little skybox; but there is no entrance, no exit, no stairs; the wall is actually
part of the original Roman forum; a mystery to be solved...

Outside the cathedral was a group of Bulgarian dancers

Dancing

More European solidarity

As I commented before, wherever he sat or spat or pissed or shat...

Clock tower in beautiful main square

Afternoon, looking toward the Rotonde...no evidence there was ever a massive
market here hours ago

Ars longa, vita brevis