LISBON | LX FACTORY

This year for Mother's Day - which in Portugal is celebrated on the first sunday of May, so... this post comes a bit late - my mum and I drove to Alcântara in the morning to browse the sunday market at LX Factory.

I had personally never been to LX Factory before, but I'd heard great things about it from friends and magazines alike. Last summer my mum came here often to visit a fellow decorator's studio so she knew the place, though she hadn't yet been to the sunday market. So what is LX Factory? It used to be an industrial space, and has now been turned into what they call "a creative island", housing several unique shops, cozy cafés and gourmet restaurants.

On sundays the outside area hosts a second-hand market, with some handmade things thrown in to the mix. Since my mum is an early bird, most of the market stands were still being put together or simply absent when we arrived, which gave us an oportunity to walk around on that nice spring morning and look around the shops before the crowds arrived.

I was very surprised with myself for not buying anything (other than the homemade chocolate I bought for my mother,) but I must admit the market itself wasn't as good as I expected it to be. Maybe I went on a bad day, who knows. There are plenty of interesting antiques, records, a few pieces of cute handmade clothing... but I guess nothing really tickled my fancy that day. Can't say my wallet didn't appreciate that!

(The best part about this visit for me was stepping inside the Ler Devagar bookshop, but I'll dedicate it an entire different post. Spoilers: it is amazing.)

Towards lunch hour the sun starts to hit you right in the head and there is barely any shade to protect you from the awful heat, which doesn't really work for me and my heat intolerance. But hey, that's Lisbon for you, and each to their one. Lunch hour is when it starts to get busier though, there are more market stands to browse and more people to bump into. I must say the restaurants look absolutely delicious, even if they are not exactly cheap. We just drove back to Cascais to have some sushi buffet instead.

I look forward to paying another visit to this place! If you want to know more about LX Factory, check out their website here.

LX Factory

Rua Rodrigues Faria, 103

1300 - 501 Lisboa