Carpentas © A Hocquel,

Carpentas © A Hocquel, Vaucluse Tourism The synagogue is one of the oldest still active synagogues in Europe. Plus discover the Judaica Collection, an incredible assembly of ancient books, paintings and sculptures at Inguimbertine, the only library-museum in France. Carpentras’ Friday morning market is one of the best in France. Some 350 stalls snake their way along a warren of streets and plane tree shaded squares. You’ll find everything from clothes to baskets, shoes to cakes, fruit, veg, truffles, olives marinated a dozen different ways, pungent herbs, tangy cheese, aromatic lavender and mouth-watering street food. And if you're there on a Sunday morning, enjoy the flea market under the plane trees in the centre of town. Around 180 stalls set up at the Parking des Platanes. Carpentras is famous for its berlingot bonbons, hard, translucent, striped, multiflavoured, multi-coloured boiled sweets in a tetrahedron shape. You can watch these delicious little treats being made at the Confiserie du Mont Ventoux. Detours Want to explore further? From Avignon you can take a train to many southern French Lavender fields must-sees, including Nîmes, Montpellier, Marseille and Arles, or a bus to the centre of Aix-en-Provence. Detailed itinerary for car free Provence It’s very easy to discover Provence without a car, you’ll find a fabulous several day itinerary to visit Vaucluse and it’s prettiest villages here: provence guide.co.uk/routes Useful information Note: you can take bikes on TER trains (but not TGV). Avignon Tourist Office can recommend tours of the lavender fields as well as guided tours of Avignon (address: 41 Cr Jean Jaurès, 5 minutes from the train station) Guide to Hiking in Provence Guide to biking in Provence Find details of what to see and do in Vaucluse, plus transport details here: provenceguide 20 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 21