Today we drove to Isle sur la Sorgue, which we had previously visited a few Sundays ago. This is the small island in the Sorgue river, where a village was established in medieval times. There is a weekly Sunday market selling all manner of goods: food, clothes, linens, soaps leatherware... plus a separate flea market on the mainland bank of the river. Over time, the village has expanded onto the mainland and this area is famous for its antiques shops. Last time out, we only briefly managed to visit some of the shops and so we were keen to make a return trip to make a more thorough job of it. Grumpily, Magnus accepted that he could not come.

We set off late as usual and arrived late morning. The stall holders start setting up at 6am and by midday some are starting to pack up, which is kind of early if you have lived in Hong Kong where most things don't get going until 11am at best. Last time, we sat down for lunch at 12:30, when the market was still pretty busy and by 2pm, when we had finished, the streets were practically deserted. This time, we put off lunch until we had fully covered the market and managed to make some inroads into the Christmas present list.

Fortuitously, we found one of the larger stalls selling a brand of designer wear,  presumably overruns, decently priced. It was in the process of closing. We sent the owner back to his van a few times to get the sizes and colours that we wanted from stock he had already packed away. As I was about to pay for a not insubstantial number of items, I asked the stallholder belatedly if they were original. He looked at me wryly and, with a shrug of his shoulders, said that with the Gendarmerie building situated right behind him, it would be kind of risky to be selling fakes.

Laden with shopping bags and feeling a little smug at our success, we decided that we could kill a hamburger - until walking past one of the restaurant terraces, I spotted someone eating a very juicy steak. And then we decided that we could kill a steak.

After lunch, we crossed the river to look at the antique shops. I am not sure what was in the minds of the people, who were responsible for town planning all those years, but it is an ideal setting for the business of selling antiques, whether housewares or furniture or reclaimed building and garden artifacts. Along the main roads, there are entrances to large courtyards and around these courtyards are one and two story antique shops, with plenty of space in front to display outdoor wares. Larger emporiums hold upto 20 traders with their own shop sized space. It seems that whatever your interest, you can find it there and quickly skip from shop to shop until you do. The pictures show some of what is available.