Apt in the Luberon Valley

Before I take you on a short tour of another lovely village, I wanted to say thank you to Pink Chalk Fabrics for choosing my Modern Chevron quilt tutorial for the finals of the Handmade With Love Tutorial Contest 2012.

Voting closes today so pop over and vote for whatever takes your fancy in the four categories. You'll also find a link to all 130 tutorials that were submitted to the contest - tons of free inspiration all in the one spot!

So, back to the lovely town of Apt which is located in the Luberon Valley, Provence.

We visited about a month ago on a Saturday, because Saturday is market day. And Sara Louise had told us Apt is one of her favourite markets so we thought we'd better check it out.

Sara was right. The markets are large, stretched out along many of Apt's picturesque streets and alleys, and have a great variety of vendors.

Provençal quilting (known as boutis) where stuffing is used between two wholecloths

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the cheese.

Walking through the stalls we came upon the 11th century Cathédrale Sainte--Anne.

Looks a little spooky, huh?

If you want more spookiness you can go down under the main altar into a pre-Roman crypt.

And then down another level to the spot where Christian worship supposedly first occurred in the town.

The passageway has stone tiles (around 1000 years old) decorating the ceiling and there are relics housed behind the grate (said to be the bones of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, but I have no idea how they verify these things.)

Notes and prayers to St Anne had been stuffed through the grill:

After the markets began to close up we walked a little further, trying to find a restaurant for lunch (they were all full).

So instead we went to a wood-fired pizza van and picked up some lunch-to-go:

Which we ate in the park across the road:

The pizza was fantastic and the kids had a ball running around the grounds.

So don't forget - if you're looking for a great market, try Apt on a Saturday.

It's exactly two weeks and two days until we leave France. I think I've finally come to terms with it.

Plus we've run out of Vegemite so it must be time to go home.

Have a great weekend, everyone. We're off on a one-night getaway in Gordes for our 14th wedding anniversary. Photos will follow! (Of Gordes, not our anniversary celebrations. Ahem ;)