On Sunday we decided to take a road trip to the village of L’Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue, about 1.25 hours north of Aix, which has a huge outdoor market and antique fair. The village is surrounded by canals with moss covered waterwheels that once fueled its silk, wool, and paper mills. The guide books call it the ‘ Venice of France’ but it really felt more like the San Antonio Riverwalk.
The food part of the market did allow Lisa to buy some sweet cantaloupes from Cavaillon- the most famous cantaloupe in Europe. Author Alexandre Dumas donated a copy of all 194 of his works to the Cavaillon library in exchange for payment of 12 Cavaillion melons a year for the duration of his life. TIP: the cantaloupes at the outer edge of the market was twice as expensive as the vendors inside the market.
We’ve already been to a ton of interesting markets in France and by 11:00 a.m. it was packed and crowded with tourists and we were miserable. The antique market seemed really small, but there are a lot of antique stores in town. We were wondering that the low turn out might be to the fact that the big monthly antique market in Aix would be on Monday, so vendors might have been focused on it instead.
The restaurant that we had planned to eat at was fully booked even before it opened for the day, so we decided to hit our 3rd Michelin Star restaurant in France, Le Vivier http://www.levivier-restaurant.com/#le-restaurant-terrasse-bord-riviere-sorgue . This restaurant has had its ‘star’ since 2005). It was recommended by Douglas’ cousin Joan. We were not disappointed. The setting was gorgeous, the service impeccable and the food divine! Two words, “Pigeon Pie!” If you click on the food images you see a description for most of them.
