WEATHER: cloudy and rainy

Heavy clouds greeted us in the morning, and we were glad we weren't going to be cycling today. Breakfast in the hotel was buffet-style and very good, with the hard-working receptionist (she seemed to be the only employee) constantly replenishing the supply of freshly-heated croissants. A nice feature was a self-service coffee machine which ground the beans for each cup, foamed the hot milk, and produced excellent café au lait.

After breakfast we headed out to the impressive Friday market, the largest weekly market in this area of Provence. Hundreds of stalls stretched right across the old town selling all kinds of produce, including vegetables and fruits, vanilla beans from Madagascar, every type of cheese you could imagine, charcuterie, paella, honey, and slabs of meat, as well as clothing, jewelry, handbags, bedding etc. Crowds of people perused the merchandise, and even when rain began to fall no one seemed to mind. Later in the winter, the Friday truffle market would open, and we were told that in the late spring locally grown strawberries are a big seller.

We had brought umbrellas and enjoyed strolling around and watching the market pageantry until lunchtime loomed. Market day crowds packed the restaurants, so we were relieved to find an empty table in a brasserie in the centre of town. We had 'salades gourmands' with sautéed geziers (duck gizzards) and smoked duck slices and chatted with the couple from San Francisco sitting next to us. They were renting a gite in the countryside along with a rental car, and they told us how difficult it was to navigate and find parking spaces in these provençal towns that had not been built for automobiles. Once again, we were so glad to be travelling by bicycle--we never had to think about parking.

By 2:00 the brasserie had almost completely emptied and staff were getting ready to close for Toussaint. Most of the market stall-keepers had packed up and left. The rain let up, and we walked away from the centre through a more modern part of Carpentras, pretty uninspiring, before heading back to our hotel for a quiet afternoon of reading. We would have checked out the two museums and the historic library had they been open.

By dinnertime, the town was deserted. We ate a nondescript lamb tagine at one of the few open restaurants, and we were the only people there. No photos of Carpentras today because of the heavy clouds and rain.

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