Farther A-Field
CAVAILLON Link: http://www.beyond.fr/villages/cavaillon.html
Cavaillon is one of the biggest agricultural towns in France and any approach will take you through fields of fruit and vegetables. To the French, however, Cavaillon is known as a melon town. The melon is the Charentais and is in season from May to September.

Market: Monday.

L'ISLE SUR LA SORGUE Link: http://www.curiositel.tm.fr/isle_sur_la_sorgue/
The Sorgue river that rises at Fontaine de Vaucluse and provides some of the best trout fishing in France, briefly splits into two channels making L'Isle sur la Sorgue a Provencal Venice! In the Middle Ages the town dug two more channels and put the water to work running fabric mills and textile factories.

Today the town still makes some fabrics and carpets, but it is best known as the antiques centre of Provence, with a number of permanent shops around the Avenue des Quatre Otages. In fact the town has a huge selection of both antique and interior decor shops and it is pleasant to wander around, circumnavigating the canals.

Market: Thursday and Sunday. Flea Market: Sunday.

GOULT Link: http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/vaucluse/goult/goult.htm
A small, pretty Provencal village, with narrow streets and well kept houses, built around a chateau, Boux is one of the loveliest and most peaceful of its neighbours if only because, in the main, its on the road to nowhere. It has a charming bar in the form of cafè de la Poste and several excellent restaurants

Market: Monday afternoons.

APT Link: http://www.beyond.fr/villages/apt.html
Apt is a centre for the production of crystallised fruits and preserves, lavender essence and truffles. It still produces ochre for the Provencal ceramics and fabrics. It has an extremely lively Saturday morning market, our favourite of all the regional markets, and the cafè life on Saturday has much to recommend it. Aptt also has a wonderful main medieval pedestrian shopping street which crosses the entire town. Much good food and wine to be found here though its good restaurants are few and far between. It is also home to the best local supermarkets with a brand new air-conditioned Leclerc.

GORDES Link: http://www.beyond.fr/villages/gordes.html
Perched on a hill, the village of Gordes is all stone and mortar. The houses, sheds and hundreds of thick stone walls, turn gold in the fading light at sunset. During the Second World War, Gordes was a centre of resistance and paid dearly for it with wholesale massacre of its citizens and the destruction of much of the village. The village was awarded the Croix de Guerre after the war. Now restored, the village centre, with its steep cobbled streets and arches, is extremely attractive.

Market: Tuesday mornings.

ROUSSILLON Link: http://www.beyond.fr/villages/roussillon.html
Famous worldwide for its ochre rock quarries, Roussillon has maintained its medieval charm with its narrow streets and ochre coloured buildings. It is a pretty village with a central square, an old bell tower, a lovely 18th Century town hall and old church.

Market: Thursday mornings.

ANSOUIS Link: http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/vaucluse/ansouis/ansouis.htm
Ansouis is a wonderfully well-preserved example of a village perche, dominated by a superb 12th Century castle. Still owned today by the original family, the castle contains a wide range of furnishings including Flemish tapestries and antique silver.

Market: Thursday morning.

AIX-en-PROVENCE Link: http://www.provencelive.com/index.html
There is little that can be said about this wonderful city which isn't a superlative. Aix was the capital of Provence from the 12th Century until the Revolution and is now a centre of arts, education, cuisine, wine and all that is excellent about Provence. A good introduction to life in Aix is to stroll around the Cours Mirabeau and linger in it's many cafès and restaurants or in the shade of it's gigantic plane trees. North of the Cours Mirabeau, the narrow streets and squares of Old Aix are filled with shops, cafes and outdoor markets of every kind. The major sights include; Cathedral St Saveur, full of medieval treasures, the Tapestry Museum, and the Mausoleum Sec. The Musee Girant, in place St Jean de Malte is one of the oldest and richest museums in France, having been founded in 1765 in a former priory of the Knights of Malta.

Markets: Daily in Place Richeline.
Flea Markets in Place du Palais de Justice on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday.
Flower Markets in Place de l'Hotel de Ville: Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday

AVIGNON Link: http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/vaucluse/avignon/avignon.htm
Once there, you won't want to leave, because the town is too interesting to let you go. Avignon is ancient, modern, full of history, brimming with life, chock-full of youth, bursting with art, packed with music and activity. Just to "see" the town itself, you could wander the narrow streets inside the fortified walls for days without seeing the same wonder twice. Too many to mention here, its attractions are magnetic.

SALON de PROVENCE
The home of Nostradamus, Salon de Provence lies in the heart of France's olive growing region, and today it is quite a prosperous town with its olive-oil processing industry and the French airforce training school based in the town. The town is split into two parts, with the old city climbing up the hill to the castle, and divided by a broad belt of tree-shaded avenues, the new quarter below.

Markets: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday

CARPENTRAS
Carpentras is one of the most Florentine towns to be found in Provence. This is the result of the Papal occupation in the 14th Century and its brief spell as the papal headquarters in France. However, there has been a major settlement here since before Christ, when it was capital to a Celtic tribe. The Greeks who founded Marseille came to Carpentras to buy honey, wheat and livestock. Today, with its population of 27,000, it is one of the larger towns in the Vaucluse, and it remains a major agricultural centre.

Carpentras is the home of the famous Beringot, mint-flavoured sweets, reputed to cure all ills. Candied fruits are also very popular, and are now mainly produced in bulk. Carpentras is also known for the production of wooden duck decoys.

Market: Every morning, Friday is particularly lively. Flea market on Sunday mornings.

During July and August there is a Cote du Rhone Wine market on Saturday mornings. If you are in Carpentras during the winter, December to February, the Friday market is further en-livened by the sale of fresh truffles.

PERNES-LES-FONTAINES
The picturesque town of Pemes-Les-Fontaines gets its name from the 36 fountains dotted around the town. It was the capital of the Comtat Venaissin before Carpentras, and the original fortifications and gateways still stand, along with the covered market place and a fine collection of medieval buildings.

Market: Saturday morning

FONTAINE de VAUCLUSE
On the N.100 south of Carpentras on the road to Apt. This small town is best known for its fountain, a resurgent spring which rises in a picturesque setting and is the source of the Sorgue river. It is especially dramatic in Winter and Spring, during the floods, when the flow is strongest.

The actual spring was considered a natural wonder in Roman times and remains a huge attraction, not only for its lovely location but for its geological mystery. Jacques Cousteau and his team sent a robot down in 1985 to try and assess the depth, they got to 1,000 feet without touching bottom. The fountain's output can range from between 1,000 to 33,000 gallons per second and the temperature remains at a constant 53.6 to 55.6°F.