One man's throw away is another man's treasure

or that is how it looked to me yesterday.

Sunday mornings are always the best I think - waking up with that delicious knowledge that the day is yours to do with whatever you want. I know that sounds very indulgent and please don't think my memory is so impaired that I don't remember the mornings when my children were little and there was no such thing as a 'lie in' or a day to yourself. 

Yesterday Provence was doing what it does best - the sun was shining and the birds were singing. It was most definitely the day to turn off the computer, forget about work and embark on an adventure. I have come to realize that a move away from familiar surroundings and the place that you grew up in, as I have done, means every little thing becomes an adventure. That is the charm of change. The mundane becomes the exciting and the obvious becomes an adventure. 

Carpentras was my destination, a town nestled in the foothills of Mount Ventoux, in the area known as the Vaucluse. It is a town most famous for it's truffle market that runs between mid-November and mid-March each Friday morning. (Depending on the quantity and quality of the truffles) Carpentras also hosts a large Sunday morning 'brocante' that is renowned as the place to find a treasure or two. 

I have always been a believer in the saying, 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder', and thankfully so - I like to think there is someone for everyone and a home for everything. Yesterday nothing could have been truer or more apt; I have never seen such a wide range of unusual and bizarre (in a fun kind of way) goods in any market. Maybe it is because winter is over, spring is in the step and the attics and the garages of Provence have had a tidy up. I am coming to believe that the French are the masters of the re-cycled - they must have invented the concept - because it seems to me that nothing is ever thrown out.

Who buys, empty bottles, old video tapes and broken tools? Perhaps plastic animals and advertising props make great art instillations? I don't know what I would do with old head lights, a model tanker or faulty valves. 

Look at this guy above - any bright ideas? I could imagine that the chef minus a hand (lucky it is his left...unless he is left handed) might come in handy somewhere (it would take some creative thought) - but the little blue fella in the first pic....What could we do with him?? 

I didn't come home with any goodies but I am sure for many others there was an abundance of hidden treasure. That is the thing I love about a market - there are no style rules or taste police; anything goes. Sunday and 'the adventure' were over all too quickly and now Monday is here and very shortly Tuesday will be looming on the horizon. I don't want it to be already Monday or nearly Tuesday I want it to be forever Sunday with an adventure on my mind, xv.