Carpentras Christmas Market

Historic capital of the Comtat Venaissin, Carpentras spends its winter to the rhythm of the truffle and the berlingot. When December comes, the Carpentras Christmas market brings the old centre to life around the Allées Jean Jaurès, the market square and the forecourt of Saint-Siffrein cathedral. In 2025, the town played a score of its own with its Noëls Insolites, the street festival where fantastical creatures crossed the lanes while the food chalets smelled of nougat and mulled wine. At the foot of Mont Ventoux, between papal heritage and the black diamond of the Vaucluse, the year-end celebration here has a thoroughly Provençal accent.

The chalets, the Allées Jean Jaurès and the old centre

The event concentrates on the pedestrian heart, from the Allées Jean Jaurès to the cathedral forecourt and the courtyard of the Hôtel-Dieu. The wooden chalets shelter makers and producers from the Comtat: santon makers, potters, soap makers, leather and wool artisans rub shoulders with the food stalls. The 2025 edition held its main market on 13 and 14 December, from 10am to 7pm, followed by a food market from 20 to 24 December. For winter 2026, neither the town nor the tourist office has yet published any dates or programme. The format fits a compact town centre, where you pass from one stall to the next without walking far, which makes the visit pleasant even with children or in cool weather.

What sets Carpentras apart is the Noëls Insolites festival that wraps around the market, though its return in 2026 is not confirmed: according to ICI Vaucluse, the town has reviewed the subsidies of the Caramantran association, its historic organiser, and is waiting for its proposals. In 2025, close to a hundred and fifty performances and some fifty different shows inhabited the squares and alleys, with companies from France, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. A 300 m² ice rink settled in from 20 December 2025 to 4 January 2026, and a monumental Provençal nativity scene of 25 m² awaited the curious. Children followed the costumed creatures from square to square and met Father Christmas between 20 and 24 December. A virtual-reality snowmobile simulator and a chapel turned into a space for games and reading rounded off the programme for younger visitors. Take the time to look up at Saint-Siffrein cathedral and its Jewish door, a piece of Flamboyant Gothic lacework on the south side, before joining the bustle of the chalets. The lights run from one street to the next and give the old centre its festive air as soon as day fades, when the ochre façades of the Comtat warm up beneath the garlands.

The Carpentras Christmas market and the black truffle of the Ventoux

You cannot talk about December in Carpentras without mentioning the truffle. Every Friday morning from November to March, the town hosts one of the great black diamond markets of the Vaucluse, the reference that sets prices for the whole region. Hunters from eight departments present their rabasses to brokers and dealers, first on the professional side in the courtyard of the Hôtel-Dieu from 9am, then on the public side on the forecourt of the tourist office, from 8am to noon, from 5 December 2025. The 2025 season had opened on 14 November with a coffee, a blessing of the truffles in Provençal and a giant tasting of truffled brouillade washed down with Ventoux wines. That woodland scent finds its way onto the festive market too, where truffled brouillade is eaten on the hoof. The best move, if you want to see the truffle market, is to plan your visit for a Friday in December: you then come across the hunters, the wicker baskets and the precision scales, a scene that goes back more than a century and makes Carpentras the reference marketplace for the Comtat’s Tuber melanosporum.

The Provençal table takes the rest of the limelight. The thirteen Christmas desserts lay out black and white nougat, candied fruit from Apt, dates and dried fruit, faithful to the tradition of the gros souper. And then there is the berlingot, the striped sweet born in Carpentras in the 19th century, now the town’s sugary emblem, right down to the name of the heritage trail marked out with enamelled lava lecterns. The Ventoux winegrowers and those of Beaumes-de-Venise offer their vintages, muscat included, to taste by the glass or take home for year-end meals. You also find local olive oil, a few papalines and plenty to fill the sack: hand-painted santons, scented soaps, pieces turned in the workshops of the Comtat. If you want to find the mood again at home, a good mulled wine recipe with cinnamon and orange already does half the work.

• The berlingot de Carpentras, the striped sweet that is the town’s emblem, to take home in a colourful cone.
• The black truffle of the Ventoux, star of the Friday morning market, as a truffled brouillade to eat on the spot.
• The thirteen Provençal desserts: nougat, candied fruit from Apt, dates and dried fruit from the gros souper tradition.
• Ventoux wines and muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, for the festive table.
• Spiced mulled wine, served good and steaming along the lit-up chalets.

Opening times, getting there and entertainment: the practical details

Access to the market is free; you only pay for what you eat or take home. For the 2025 edition, the main market opened on 13 and 14 December from 10am to 7pm, the food market from 20 to 24 December at the same hours, with the ice rink and the street festival running until 4 January. For 2026, the dates have yet to be published by the town. Allow one to two hours to do the round of the chalets, more if you add the ice rink, a street show and a truffle stop. On budget, reckon on around ten euros to nibble and have a drink, a little more if you leave with a cone of berlingots, a bottle of muscat or a santon. Weekends draw a crowd in the early afternoon; mornings and late afternoons leave more room for talking to the producers.

By train, Carpentras station is connected to Avignon by the regional line, which makes a car-free day easy from the Rhône valley. By car, the free Platanes car park runs alongside Avenue Jean Jaurès, a short distance from the pedestrian centre, but spaces go quickly on December weekends: arrive early or aim for late afternoon, when the lights come on. The old centre is pedestrian and broadly accessible, even if the cobbles call for care with a pushchair or a wheelchair.

What to see around the Carpentras Christmas market

Carpentras is well worth visiting beyond the chalets. Saint-Siffrein cathedral, southern Gothic of the 15th century, keeps its Jewish door and a treasury of sacred art. A few streets away, the Carpentras synagogue, built in 1367 under the Avignon papacy, remains the oldest synagogue still in use in France: a reminder that the Comtat Venaissin, a former papal state, was only attached to France in 1791. The 18th-century Hôtel-Dieu and its apothecary’s shop with its original woodwork, the Passage Boyer under its 1848 glass roof, and the Roman triumphal arch complete the picture of a town of many layers. The pedestrian route known as the berlingot trail, marked by enamelled lava lecterns, links these points and works very well late in the morning, between two turns at the market. Carpentras also carries the memory of an old Comtat Jewish culture, that of the “pope’s Jews” protected in the Comtat when they were expelled from elsewhere, of which the synagogue remains the most living witness.

If you extend your stay, the position of Carpentras at the foot of the Ventoux makes it a good base for ranging around Provence. Avignon Christmas market is about thirty minutes away and carries the visit on to the city of the popes. A little further, Nîmes Christmas market and Marseille Christmas market make up a fine festive circuit between Provence and the Gard, each with its santons, its lights and its southern specialities. Staying on the Ventoux side, you can also climb towards the hilltop villages of the massif, stop off in the cellars of Beaumes-de-Venise or push on to the farmers’ markets of the valley, to bring home oil, honey and candied fruit as well as Christmas treats. Carpentras lends itself to a slow weekend, where the market is only a way into the Provençal table and its heritage.