A passion in Provence

There's water, water everywhere at L'Isle-sur-la Sorgue – not from the sky, because we are in the South of France and more often than not the town basks in sunlight – but dripping off mossy wooden mill wheels, gurgling over weirs, hurrying under countless little bridges, lapping softly up against the flat-bottomed punts tied up on the canals that are everywhere in this little Provençal town, and reappearing curiously at the rear of houses and end of café terraces.

There's water, water everywhere at L'Isle-sur-la Sorgue – not from the sky, because we are in the South of France and more often than not the town basks in sunlight – but dripping off mossy wooden mill wheels, gurgling over weirs, hurrying under countless little bridges, lapping softly up against the flat-bottomed punts tied up on the canals that are everywhere in this little Provençal town, and reappearing curiously at the rear of houses and end of café terraces.

Water... and antiques, because over the past 36 years, ever since a brocante was first held here in 1966, antiques dealers, bric-a-brac sellers and an audience of bargain hunters have been arriving in ever-growing numbers to give L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue the largest concentration of antiques dealers in France outside Paris. Today there are getting on for 400 dealers in arcades and shops and the Sunday fleamarket, a number that swells to more than 600 for the Easter and 15 August antiques fairs.

L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue really is an island, constructed on piles some time in the 12th century on a marsh in the middle of the green Sorgue river, which gushes out of a bowl of mountains a few miles away at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. The river's numerous branches were chanelled to surround the old town in a double – in places triple – ring of canals, earning it the inevitable appellation Venise (no guessing why) and Comtadine, because along with nearby Avignon, Cavaillon and Carpentras, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue was part of the independent Papal enclave that lingered on after the Avignon papacy in the 14th century, and was only finally reincorporated into France after the French Revolution.

It may not seem the most obvious place to find antiques: it's neither the historic centre of the Provençal furniture industry (that was Beaucaire, where a great fair thrived for centuries), nor where you'll find the grandest antiques dealers (they're in the elegant hôtels particuliers of Aix-en-Provence). But then if your idea of Provence is one of lavender fields and hilltop villages, think again, for L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue speaks more of an industrial past, where its water-powered mills supplied silks, wools and paper to the Avignon court. And you only need to see some of the fine Renaissance doorways or classical entrances to imagine the wealth and aspirations of some of L'Isle's former residents.

The fabulous Baroque interior of the Eglise Notre-Dame des Anges is an ornate, overladen surprise after the stern Romanesque exterior, as you come in off the main square to find a profusion of carved angels and cherubim, gilded virtues and graces, sunbursts and barley-sugar twists. There are narrow, semi-pedestrianised streets and fine courtyards (even the tourist office occupies an ancient stone granary), but it is antiques that transform this otherwise quiet backwater every weekend into a cosmopolitan babble of French and American, Italian and English, where prices are haggled in euros and converted into dollars.

Although L'Isle has become a magnet for antiques collectors, dealers and interior designers, and it's not uncommon to see whole crates being loaded up for transportation to the United States, there's none of the urban stress of Portobello Market or the Puces de St-Ouen in Paris, although there's a definite hierarchy between arcades. Many items reflect the south – Beaucaire mirrors, earthenware from Apt, massive marriage wardrobes and elaborate openwork bread cupboards. There are specialists in heavy iron locks and hinges, in printed Provençal "indiennes" fabrics (far less garish than the bright, modern versions) and an old drapery is stacked with rolls of dressmaking fabrics, cards of buttons, vintage linen and quilts. It was Provençal mirrors, which appear in all periods and sizes, carved with flowers and scrolls, rococo cartouches, grapes and vines, flowers, birds or laurel leaves, that first brought us here in search of that elusive right one.

Each arcade has its own character. Le Quai de la Gare, just by the station, is rather upmarket, with two floors of dealers where you'll find polished, 18th-century French furniture, oil paintings, carved mirrors, fine porcelain and gilt cartel clocks, enamel étuis, jewellery and firearms. Last time we found a couple of unusual Swedish sofas; upstairs dealer Yvon Feraille has glass cases of fine china with early Moustiers and Marseille wares; next door a stall has Baroque furniture and some beautiful still lifes of cherries.

Across the street, there's a more boho atmosphere at the Village des Antiquaires de la Gare, the biggest and oldest of all the arcades, which occupies two floors of a ramshackle former carpet factory, where what were known as "tapis d'Avignon" were once woven. Here it's less a question of smart antiques than an Aladdin's cave of relics from past lives. Stalls run one into another, taking you from leather club chairs to hotel reception booths, long drapers' tables and heavy sets of scales, crystal chandeliers, Provençal armoires and southern landscapes to art deco display cabinets and vases.

Come lunch-time, though, and French priorities come to the fore: it's almost as important to decide where you're going to eat as to sleuthing out that great find – and impossible not to get hungry as the dealers exchange wines and spread out their lunches. We stopped for lunch at the rather stylish Le Café du Village, where its modern, market-inspired cooking included a fine steak, red mullet fillets layered with tapenade and courgettes and a millefeuille bursting with cream and fresh strawberries.

I have a weakness for the Rendezvous des Marchands, too, a bit further along the main drag. It's a true hybrid: part bar where you can pause for a drink and part brocante, with a clutter of vintage zinc bar counters, carved dressers, mirrors and big tables, and a pair of papier mâché folk art dogs, while at the rear, squeezed next to the inevitable canal, there are tables outdoors, and staff serve up summer salads, grilled kebabs and pichets of local wine.

But time to continue, past the municipal park and the antique and repro retro bathtubs at Les Bains d'Aphrodite, and through the entrance arch of the Hôtel Dongier, an 18th-century coaching inn, now home to another 30 or so antiquaires, whose interconnected shops often resemble smart domestic interiors. Here we nearly succumbed to a Napoleon III cocktail set – an inlaid ebony box of delicate glasses and decanters – and paused in admiration at a painted sedan chair, complete with gilding, pastoral landscapes and velvet interior, a vestige of a long-gone aristocratic lifestyle that had been unearthed in a château in Aix-en-Provence. Other things are more homely, such as garden statuary and painted kitchen cupboards from Alsace.

A little further, at the Ile-aux-Brocantes, reached across yet another bridge, the mood is sunnily outdoors; in a ring of stalls, there's lots of antique garden furniture wrought in iron or out of concrete mock-branches, big birdcages, an old pedal car; inside a big shed has Fifties chrome bar-stools, industrial lighting and solid farmhouse tables.

Every Sunday, the permanent shops and arcades are joined by the fleamarket that sprawls along the pavement of rue des Quatre Otages with a cheerfully heterogeneous range of goods laid out on trestle tables and overflowing from cardboard boxes. A large white plaster bust of General de Gaulle gazed imperiously amid wine glasses, Duchampian bottle racks, dinner services, old postcards, Dinky cars and a stall specialising in old educational posters – départements of France, species of mushrooms, costumes of the world.

Between the stalls, we crossed a footbridge to a little island where there's a row of small antique shops. Here we succumbed to a mirror – not the grapes and vine leaf motif that I've been chasing but an almost minimalist Directoire mirror, typical of the sober but refined designs from the brief post-Revolutionary Directoire regime in the 1790s. A little gentle haggling reduced the price by 12 per cent and a promise to hold on to the mirror for us until tomorrow if we wanted to buy. What else could we do but repair to a canalside café for coffee and ice cream while we made up our minds?

Traveller's guide

Getting there: L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is on the edge of the Luberon regional park, 23km from Avignon. Marseille, the closest international airport, is 90km away and is served by British Airways (0845 77 333 77, www.ba.com), Air France (0845 0845 111, www.airfrance.co.uk) and, until the end of March only, Buzz (www.buzzaway.com, 0870 240 7070). Return fares on British Airways from Gatwick start from £79. Buzz flies to Marseille from Stansted for a return fare of around £71. Ryanair (0871 246 0000; www.ryanair.com) flies to Nîmes, which is 50km away, from about

£40 return.

You can also connect to the high-speed TGV trains running to Avignon from London Waterloo on Eurostar via Lille or Paris. From 11 March, Rail Europe (08705 848 848; www.raileurope.co.uk) is offering a fare of £105 return to Avignon, which must include a Saturday night stay. Between 14 May and 18 October there is a direct Eurostar service from London Waterloo to Avignon. There's a navette (shuttle bus) from Avignon TGV to the centre of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue or there are trains from Avignon.

Staying there: Hotels in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue are rather unexciting but try the Mas de Cure Bourse (00 33 4 90 38 16 58), rue de Caumont, a comfortable 18th-century coaching inn, which has double rooms from €75-€100 (£50-£75) per night.

Antiques: Most antiques dealers in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue are open Saturday, Sunday, Monday and bank holidays from roughly 10am to 7pm. The principal arcades are Hôtel Dongier (00 33 611 595 776), 9 place Gambetta; L'Ile aux Brocantes (00 33 4 9020 7517), 7 avenue des Quatre Otages, 04); Le Quai de la Gare (00 33 4 90 20 73 42) 4 avenue Julien Guigue; and Le Village des Antiquaries de la Gare (00 33 4 90 38 04 57), 2bis avenue de l'Egalité. On Sundays, there's also a fleamarket stretching along avenue des Quatre Otages run by the Association des Brocanteurs l'islois (00 33 4 66 57 53 39). A larger antiques fair is held over Easter and on 15 August. For further information, call 00 33 4 94 03 40 72.

Further information: contact the Office de Tourisme on (00 33 4 90 38 04 78), Place de l'Eglise or contact the French Tourist Board on 09068 244123.