On my way to l'isle sur la sorgue through a back coutry road, I stopped at this gate to capture the sun's morning rays. Seize the day...
If exhausted by your tribulations around the market, several options for taking a rest : having a drink at the Cafe de France, locally famous for its beautifully traditional decor, or head for one of the many restaurants lining the water's edge. Any preference ?
Si vos tribulations au marché vous ont épuisé, plusieurs options s'offrent à vous pour vous reposer : prendre un verre au Café de France, localement célèbre pour son somptueux décor traditionnel, ou choisir l'un des nombreux restaurants au bord de l'eau. Avez-vous une préférence ?
Back from market in the midday heat. I'm always amazed to see how the market crowds mysteriously dwindle down as you leave the city centre. Just a few blocks away, the maze of narrow winding streets seems deserted.
The market in l'Isle sur la Sorgue is not limited to fruit and veggies alone. You can also find flowers, olives and spices there, along with lavender bags and soap, colourful woven baskets, leather shoes and sandals, tablecloths and tea towels of traditional provencal design, "boutis" (traditional bedspreads made using a technique similar to quilting), olive oil, home-made jams and spreads, straw or panama hats, scarves, pottery, jewelry, summer dresses... enough? Where would you be likely to stop?
In the top photo is my Aussie friend Toni, in the bottom one is my mother, both enjoying themselves tremendously.
Market day: the local bakery has set up shop outdoors. Buying bread is a most important activity in France. While the consumption of bread has decreased steadily in the past hundred years (600 grams per person per day on average in 1880, 165 grams in 1984*), its quality and taste remains a huge source of pleasure and national pride. Foreigners may think of our baguette alone but the breads come in all sorts of shapes and sizes for all occasions, from the tiny "ficelle" (the string, a miniature version of the baguette) to heavy loaves of country bread (pain de campagne) to wholemeal, multicereal, organic or specialty breads containing olives, walnuts etc. To me, the choice is mouth-watering. Do you have a favourite bread?
*source 
Market days are Thursday and Sunday in l'Isle sur la Sorgue, the Sunday market being much larger than the Thursday one. I took a couple of Australian friends there last Sunday; they had a wonderful time exploring the many stalls. Fruit and vegetables displays are extremely attractive at this time of year. While we're seeing the last of apricots and cherries, it is now the full season for peaches, nectarins, melons and tomatoes. Pears, plums and grapes are just beginning to appear but will be cheaper in a few weeks' time.
Les jours de marché à l'Isle sur la Sorgue sont le jeudi et le dimanche, le marché du dimanche étant beaucoup plus important que celui du jeudi, et plus couru. J'y ai emmené un couple d'amis australiens dimanche dernier. Ils ont adoré découvrir tous les étals. Les fruits et légumes sont magnifiques à cette époque de l'année. Les abricots et les cerises ont presque disparu, remplacés par une orgie de pêches, nectarines, melons et tomates dont c'est la pleine saison. Raisin, quetsches et poires commencent à faire leur apparition mais seront moins chers dans quelques semaines.
On the last weekend of July a nautical parade takes place on the main canal of l'isle sur la sorgue. Here is the fairy queen's boat which this year led the parade. The night parade of floats is a magical moment which ends in a "flower battle" where flowers are sent from the boats to the spectactors on shore. You can either try to catch as many as possible to make yourself a large bouquet or send the flowers back and participate in the fight. Don't think it's all sweet roses: being hit in the head by a sunflower thrown at you can be painful! Some (mostly young men) throw themselves in the water to catch the flowers that fell in and send them back. Soon water guns appear from nowhere and around midnight the event finishes in a huge water fight!
The name l'Isle sur la Sorgue literally means island on the Sorgue, the Sorgue being the small river that runs through town, dividing itself into many arms which earned the city the nickname of provencal Venice. The water runs incredibly cool, clean and clear, waist to thigh deep. The river takes its source just a few kilometres upstream in Fontaine de Vaucluse, flowing from a very deep cave whose depths have never been fathomed. The water's exact origin is still unclear.
Le nom l'Isle sur la Sorgue vient de la petite rivière qui traverse la ville, se divisant en plusieurs bras au partage des eaux et entourant la ville de nombreaux canaux qui lui ont valu le surnom de Venise provençale. L'eau court partout, incroyablement fraîche, claire et transparente, profonde le plus souvent jusqu'aux cuisses ou jusqu'à la taille. La Sorgue prend sa source juste quelques kilomètres en amont à Fontaine de Vaucluse; l'eau y jaillit d'un gouffre si profond qu'il n'a pas encore pu être exploré. L'origine de cette eau n'a jamais été clairement élucidée.
Found at the flower stand on the market, these colocynths make colourful home decorations, just like the artichoke flowers I showed you in my previous post. To know more about colocynths, the other name for bitter apples, click here.
Sea anemones? It sure looks like it, except I found them at the market. Can you tell what they are?
Greetings from summer in the south of France! A deep blue sky is what we regularly get here in August. And the big news is - I'm taking you on holidays! Not very far mind you, we'll be spending a week in the countryside and small villages around Avignon. Today we're in l'Isle sur la Sorgue, a lovely little town renown for its antiques market and this is where I spotted this lovely lantern. Can you find it also in the photo below?
What struck me here was the shadow of a grapevine leaf on the lamp shade, a morning gift from the rising sun. I visited the market very early, before the crowds came in.
Like in my post two days ago this young father was also having his portrait made. Cost : 30 euros.
No sooner has a festival ended that another starts : four days of jazz music from 4th-8th of August. It's called Tremplin Jazz d'Avignon and this year is the 18th edition. Tremplin means springboard and the aim is to help young European musicians gain more recognition through a competition and the presentation of awards. Some concerts are free, some others feature famous names in prestigious locations, see the programme here. I might try to attend a concert tonight or tomorrow... You can view a great b&w photo report on the 2008 edition of the festival here.
In Avignon we don't have artists doing tourists' portraits year round like on Place du Tertre in Paris, they only come and set up their easels on Place de l'horloge in summer. But July and August is the time when they're here and they're always a joy to watch. Some attempt faithful (or flattering?) portraits, some are more into caricature. How good do you think the portrait above is? And would you be brave enough to have your caricature made?
With theaters closing down and people walking in and out all the time, I used the general anthill activity as an excuse to sneak in to the lovely little theater called L'étincelle (the spark). I was actually encouraged to take photos. Isn't the lobby the cutest thing ever? You can see the theater's facade in my previous post.
The 3-week long Avignon Theater Festival ended on the 31st of July. Until the very last day actors kept advertising their shows, like this couple with their "diva show", she the singer, he the pianist pushing their fake grand piano through the streets and singing the occasional aria to attract the public.
Le festival d'Avignon s'est terminé le 31 juillet. Jusqu'au dernier jour les compagnies ont continué à arpenter les rues pour promouvoir leur spectacle, comme ce couple avec leur "show de divas", lui pianiste, elle soprano, poussant leur faux piano dans les rues et chantant parfois des extraits pour attirer l'attention. 
But on the 1st of August suddenly the atmosphere changed: in front of every theatre people are dismantling stage sets, packing up, loading trucks, closing down. The crowds have suddenly left, terrace cafés are almost deserted but posters and flyers still hang around town like useless trash, leaving those who haven't fled the city with a vague sense of emptiness that could be likened to post-birth depression...
Meet Leontina Fall. At 7:00 pm , she gives a free show in rue du chapeau rouge where she tells an African tale by Fatou Keita, "The rooster that refused to sing". Fatou Keita is a female African writer from Ivory Coast who first became famous with Rebel, a book about excision, the traditional practice of female genital mutilation; she is also the author of several children's books.
Je vous présente Léontina Fall. A 19 heures dans la rue du chapeau rouge elle dit un conte de Fatou Keita, "Le coq qui ne voulait plus chanter". Le spectacle est gratuit. Fatou Keita est une auteure ivoirienne que son premier livre, Rebelle, a rendu célèbre. Il y est question de l'excision, la mutilation génitale des filles qui reste la plaie de nombreux pays africains. Fatou Keita a aussi écrit des contes pour enfants, dont ce "Coq qui ne voulait plus chanter".
A little further, a lone African warrior lost in the crowds of Rue de la République advertises a dance performance called Boomerang where seven talented dancers from all over the world explore the difficult question of whether humanity has really made any progress since the dawn of time. Are today's traders more civilised than men from the flint stone era? The performance, beautifully executed, comes a rather pessimistic conclusion.
One of the best performances I saw during the festival was Carlo Goldoni's Villeggiatura Trilogy. The trilogy is a series of three comedies which were first given in Venice in 1761. The performance I saw on Monday in the courtyard of the Science University offered two hours of brilliant performance. The story is about two middle class Northern Italian families and their respective entourages going on holidays in the country, aping the aristocracy's tradition of leaving the city for the country in the summer months. The three plays (before departure, on holidays, and upon return) were here presented all in a row in an edited and very lively French version. With sheer comical genius Carlo Goldoni offers a jubilant caricature of the bourgeoisie, its infatuation with appearances and fashion foibles. The bittersweet finale constitutes a fittingly ambivalent rendition of comedy's requisite happy end.
Représentée pour la première fois à Venise en 1761, La trilogie de la villégiature de Carlo Goldoni met en scène les petits bourgeois désargentés qui s'adonnent à la mode des migrations en villégiature, imitant ainsi la noblesse qui quitte la ville pour la campagne pendant les mois d'été. Trois pièces (les préparatifs, le séjour, le retour) s'enchaînent comme les épisodes d'un feuilleton où l'on retrouve les mêmes personnages. Croqué par le talent de Goldoni, ce déplacement tribal révèle frivolité, jalousies, mesquineries et vanité. La satire sociale est virulente et le comique toujours à fleur de visage ou de réplique. Mais sur les rives qui mènent à la villégiature, tous les amours échouent ou perdent leur cap. La pièce évoque en filigrane une Venise en déliquescence. La fin plutôt amère est loin du happy end qui fait la règle des comédies de l'époque. 
The tiny chapel whose steps you can see on the right of my photo is attached to the back of Hôpital Sainte Marthe. For centuries, prayers there followed the hospital's rhythm of life and death. But the old hospital is now Avignon's university and the chapel is closed most of the time. While many students walk past it during the day, it's a very quiet part of town at night. I was there at 11:00 pm and there wasn't a soul in sight - quite a contrast to other streets which the theatre festival keeps alive till very late at night - see below and Dancing in the night.
Rue Sainte Catherine
Above and below, more portraits from the theatre festival. You can guess from the costumes that the performances span a large variety of styles. Can you tell me which portrait you like best and why?
