This romantic Provençal town is the ultimate destination for antiques-hunters

Nothing quite compares to the thrill of a treasure hunt, especially when it takes place at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue Antiques Art & You. This revitalised and renamed international event (formerly the Foire Internationale à la Brocante et à l’Antiquité) is held over several days twice a year, at Easter and Assumption (in August). It may be the oldest antique fair in the world, but it has a fresh feel thanks to the efforts of Jacques Chalvin, event organiser extraordinaire, appointed in 2017. His goal is to make L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue universally recognised as the home of ‘objets’ in the way that Cannes is considered the city of cinema. He believes that ‘objets transform people and people transform objets.’ His five-year plan may be ambitious, but given the scope of the upcoming August event and its expected attendance, Jacques is well on his way to bringing all manner of objets together, regardless of age, style or provenance.

The fair started in 1966 with just 14 stands. Fast forward over 50 years and now hundreds of visiting exhibitors join the nearly 300 permanent experts for a five-day festival in this town, which has the highest concentration of antique, vintage and bric-a-brac stores outside Paris. The resident dealers (by and large the purveyors of the finest quality offerings) are arranged in 10 ‘villages’ scattered throughout the town and in centres, some of which are themed around modern art, antique books, or design and decoration. Visiting exhibitors, who tend to fall into the brocante category, congregate in the glorious Parc Gautier and spill out onto the adjacent riverside. Everywhere you look, there is stuff and more stuff: tables that began life as Forties motorcycles, linens and lace, china, soda siphons, school desks, Ricard and Pernod signs.

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So how best to navigate this event? Allow a few days, because words cannot convey the enormity and diversity of it – remember, there are 10 villages, plus Parc Gautier and the vendors along the river to visit. If you are a serious collector, your first port of call should be Le Village des Antiquaires de la Gare, a former textile mill that houses more than 100 dealers offering everything from seventeenth-century furniture to oriental rugs and bronze statues. Move onto the Carré des Art du Luberon for paintings, Murano glass lamps and chandeliers, and save the rest for day two.

Work your way along avenue de la Libération, which is home to the majority of the high-end design and decoration shops. The current darling of this stretch is RBC Vintage (at number 9), which sells twentieth-century pieces by Knoll, Artemide and Vitra. My favourite was the ‘Egg’ chair in foal leather by Arne Jacobsen. Then, if you are game, enter the gates of Parc Gautier, roll up your sleeves and rummage through acres of what look like your grandmother’s discards. And do persevere, because the thrill of unearthing treasures buried among tat is what it is all about.

When you have had enough of searching, bargaining and buying, escape the throngs and wander the streets of this enchanting town. L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is known as the Venice of Provence, thanks to the river that in the nineteenth century powered the town’s wool, silk and paper factories with a network of waterwheels – a dozen of which are still in situ. For culture, visit the Villa Datris Foundation for Contemporary Sculpture. The Collégiale Notre Dame des Anges is a magnificent church on place de la Liberté; its stark façade gives no hint of its flamboyant interior.