# L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, the Island of Antiques — The South of France
> A town built on the branches of a clear river, turning mossy water wheels, and France’s capital of antiques after Paris. L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, in the Vaucluse.

*Source : https://the-south-of-france.com/en/provence/isle-sur-la-sorgue/*

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By **The Editors** — _L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Vaucluse_

Spring 20268 min read Share LinkMail

The **Sorgue** rises cold and clear a few kilometres upstream and splits into channels that run right through **L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue** — under the houses, around the squares, turning the old **water wheels** green with moss. The town sits on its own little islands, and the water is everywhere you look.

## I. The town on the water

Once the channels drove the wheels of tanners, dyers and silk-throwers; a dozen **roues à aubes** still turn, slow and dripping, along the streets. Walk the ring of the old town, cross and re-cross the green water, and watch the **trout** hold steady against a current cold enough to keep them there all summer.

“A town that floats on its own river, and never quite dries off.”

From the notebook

![Channels of clear water running between old houses](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1578330466360-bd27f92d2fb1?fm=jpg&q=74&w=1400&auto=format&fit=crop)

A channel of the Sorgue — the water runs through the town, not past it.

## II. The antiques capital

L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is, after Paris, the great **antiques** town of France — permanent villages of dealers around the station, and on Sundays a sprawling market of brocante and fine pieces along the water. Twice a year, at Easter and in August, the dealers hold a great fair that fills the whole town. Come Sunday morning for the full theatre of it.

![A market of antiques and brocante beside a river](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1614888773798-df30e12a9b6c?fm=jpg&q=76&w=2400&auto=format&fit=crop)

The Sunday market — brocante on the quays, the river running through it all.

## III. The source upstream

Follow the Sorgue five kilometres up to **Fontaine-de-Vaucluse**, where the whole river comes out of the ground at once — a deep green pool at the foot of a cliff, the most powerful spring in France and one of the deepest in the world. The poet **Petrarch** lived beside it; the water has never been fully sounded.

The Practical Carnet · Carnet pratique

### Plan the _visit_

Getting there

About 30 min from Avignon TGV by car; a small station links it to Avignon by train.

When to go

Sunday for the market; Easter and August for the great antiques fairs.

Where to stay

**Le Vivier** or a riverside maison d’hôtes, to wake to the sound of the water.

Read next

[Roussillon and the ochre trail](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/provence/roussillon-ochre/)

E

About the Author · L’auteur

#### Élise Marchand

Travel Editor — based in Marseille

Élise has been driving the back roads of the Midi for the journal since its first issue. She pays for her own rooms and her own lunches — and only writes about the places she would return to.

[More by Élise Marchand — voir ses articles](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/journal/)

Continue reading · À lire ensuite

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