Isle sur la Sorgue

Isle sur la Sorgue is a charming Provencal town 25km southeast of Avignon. The numerous canals and branches of the Sorgue have given the town the nickname of the Venice of the Comtat.  

L'Isle sur la Sorgue is the chosen home of many antique and second-hand goods dealers. Each week-end, the market counts about 300 stalls, and more than 500 during the antique fairs at Easter and August 15, attracting an international clientele.  

Birthplace of the poet Rene Char, the town is also home many galleries and exhibitions.

L'Isle sur la Sorgue is the chosen home of many antique and second-hand goods dealers. Each week-end, the market counts about 300 stalls, and more than 500 during the antique fairs at Easter and August 15, attracting an international clientele.  

Birthplace of the poet Rene Char, the town is also home many galleries and exhibitions.

Over the years, the antique market has become the international calling card for Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Incontestably, the International Antiques Fair that takes place twice a year, at Easter and in the month of August, has found itself a place in the sun within the greater, highly prized European antiques market. To such a degree that Isle-sur-la-Sorgue forms today, with London and Paris, one of the cardinal points of the golden triangle. It is, in fact, the pivot around which the shops, art galleries, decorators, caterers, hotels and restaurants are the spearheads of an important economic activity for the town, whose population has gone, in a short time, from 1960 to 2007, from 7000 to 20,000 inhabitants.

To see in l'Isle sur la Sorgue :

• The Campredon Centre d'Art (Maison René Char) presents each year exhibitions of famous artists.
•  the Notre-Dame-des-Anges Collegiate Church, a harmonious blend of southern Gothic and Braoque, almost unique in western architecture (a comparable church can be seen in Rome).
• The peacefully flowing canals and winding streets give the old town an incomparable charm and mystery. You can admire here a remarkable urban heritage: the Renaissance residence on the Rue Ledru Rollin, the Tour d'Argent which dates from the Middle Ages, the former public granary which today houses the tourist office and the mill wheels on the canals. The Tourist Office offers guided tours and strolls.
• With the 7 "antique villages ", there are more than 350 antiques and bric-a-brac dealers open all year round on weekends and holidays. This number can triple during the big annual antique fairs. They make Isle sur la Sorgue the largest antique center in France, second only to Paris.
• The town counts many art galleries throughout the town.
• The Sunday morning market, one of the most lively and colourful in Provence; the floating market in August.