What can I write or add that hasn’t been said before about the majestic city of Avignon? Should I recount its papal history with names and dates and corresponding bombastic building projects?
It still boggles my mind when I think of it. Popes ruled as kings, their palace walls thicker than the ramparts which surrounded the city itself. The city may fall, but their palace and treasury would stand.
I remember the first time I visited Avignon. It was with my sister following my wedding in Provence. We boarded the train to Avignon, and in the scorching heat of August we took refuge inside the palace walls. I remember walking around for hours. This was before the advent of the tablet guide. We then walked out in the sticky summer air towards the Saint Benezet bridge and gazed at the Rhone river. But it was way too hot for comfort. We ran back to Toulon where we were house sitting a gorgeous villa with a private pool.
In the meantime, 10 years have passed
My second visit came 10 years later. This time I skipped the Palace, preferring to wander in the streets and plazas of the city. The park above the Palace. Raise my head and observe, terraces, statues, masks, plazas, life in Avignon. This type of educative wandering, as I call it, requires patience and motivation. Those who are interested and invested will be rewarded with a rich history hidden down the old streets and mansions. It doesn’t hold an immediately appeal, though I ran like a school girl to see where King Rene used to sleep on his visits to Avignon…
My third visit, I decided to learn something and ordered a guided tour in French of the city. I don’t remember much from this tour as the guide was lovely but did not speak loud enough to be heard and nobody dared to tell her. We all just spent 2 hours politely smiling and taking photos. I do remember that this poor girl was heckled by some misfits in front of the Pope’s Palace.
Ah, there was no short cut to learning about Avignon. Back to the books, google, YouTube, and old school – walking the streets and asking questions. When I felt comfortable enough, I dragged my mother and two kids to Avignon. They didn’t care to explore every street or plaza. They have a short attention span and limited energy reserves. So I narrowed it down to the 3-4 main sights.
The Pope’s Palace
Due to a dispute between the King of France, Philip IV, and the Church, the Pope’s seat under Clement V was transferred from Rome to the Avignon enclave in 1309. Clement V refused to move to Rome and the king backed him up. Seven popes (all French) served in Avignon until the Pope’s seat was returned to Rome in 1377. Clement V’s successor, John XXII, made it the capital of Christianity and transformed his former episcopal palace into the primary Palace of the Popes.
It was Benedict XII who built the Old Palace and his successor Clement VI the New Palace. He bought the town on 9 June 1348 from the Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence. Innocent Clement VI endowed the ramparts. What was a no name town before the popes arrived, transformed into thriving city which attracted many merchants, painters, sculptors and musicians.
Arriving at the large plaza before the palace we are blown away by the imposing behemoth structure out of time. It looks like a setting for some period fantasy drama and I almost expect dragons to be flying overhead. An extraordinary feat of Gothic architecture. We feel tiny and out of place as we enter the palace. We buy our tickets and collect our tablet guides.
The Histopad: A new tablet guide kids love
I must say that I have visited many sites and palaces, and entertained myself with numerous audio guides. But this new technological aide to bring the palace to life and take us back in time is – ingenious.
It’s extraordinary to see, for example, as you enter what was the banquet hall, long tables laden with food dishes, walls richly decorated with tapestries, and fire burning in the massive fireplace.
For the children, there is a digital treasure hunt where they collect coins between golden goblets and fancy chandeliers. The kids are spellbound and can’t wait to enter the next room. In the treasury they dig for gold coins. In the kitchen they observe meat roasting. Popes are sitting on their thrones in the Audience Hall. One does not need to stretch too much the imagination.
The rich frescoes decorating some chapels and the Pope’s chamber make us realize it was a golden cage for the Popes. They had everything they needed inside the palace, including gardens and steam baths. Like today, the name of the game was power, politics and money.
I visited the Vatican and the Sistine chapel, beautiful baroque churches and perfectly preserved palaces, and still, I prefer this. There is something strange about large public places that are designed for heavy human traffic when completely empty. It’s like a fancy machine, sitting idle and useless, waiting to be nourished by those it is supposed to serve. Feeling naked and horribly exposed without its patrons.
The walls are stripped, furniture gone, colors long faded. The skeleton remains and with it, its ghosts. I can’t comprehend, even today, how one clergy man can be so powerful like a king and live so lavishly more than any living ruler today. I can almost hear the discreet comings and goings of servants, changing of the guards, cardinals, princes and ambassadors arriving and departing. And pilgrims in the courtyard waiting to receive the Pope’s blessings.
Saint Benezet Bridge
We exit the palace and I suggest we head over to the famous Saint Benezet bridge over the Rhone river. But nobody is interested to see some remains of an old bridge. Surely, it is not an impressive as the Goldengate Bridge, London Bridge or even the Brooklyn Bridge. Four measly arches remained of the once glorious feat of engineering comprising 22 arches. I don’t push. Inside I know that it really is not so impressive. What is impressive is the screened video inside the bridge delineating its construction and demise. Again, it’s the story behind the structure that is often most spellbinding.
I succumb, I know not everyone is like me who can get so easily excited by a pile of rocks. The bridge itself is interesting with its mysteriously out-of-place chapel and vantage point. Considering it was the only place at the time to cross the Rhone river between Lyon and the sea. Alas, one day they will see what I see. Or not.
Place de l’Horloge
So what do my tourists then want? I suggest we head over Place de l’Horloge for some drinks and snacks. The children immediately throw themselves at the big colorfull carousel. My mother and I pick one of the very touristy cafes facing the carousel so we can watch the kids. I know there are better restaurants and that this is a tourist trap, but hey, we are tourists today. We commit the heinous crime of picking a table reserved for diners and not for snackers. We are summarily reprimanded with a smile.
The Plaza is pretty with the traditional old city hall and the beautiful ancient clock tower. Tourist groups pass by and this is a generally good place in Avignon to sit and watch life go by. It’s getting late and we ate enough waffles and onion rings. I remind my mother we must find a supermarket before we head back to the flat to buy some milk.
Rue de Republique
Supermarket, here? We have no choice but to trek out to Rue de Republique with its multitude of shops, human traffic, and road works. I can safely say that there is a Rue de Republique in every city in France.
Impressive building facade 
Rue de Republique
Thirty minutes later, armed with 2 bottles of milk and some other items (you can never just buy milk at a supermarket), we find our car in the convenient parking lot under the Pope’s Palace. I imagine how carefully they needed to dig this parking ocean. One the one hand, not to rock the Palace’s foundations. And on the other, careful to prevent the Rhone river from flowing in. Nevertheless, we pay our hefty parking fee and program waze to take us back to our airbnb 2 bedroom palace.
I don’t know if it’s waze or me, but I make several mistakes along the way, with bridges and interchanges. I find Avignon difficult to navigate. Same mistakes again the following morning, and again the day after. It is me after all. I vow never again to enter Avignon by car.
Avignon as a base
Last, I am often asked where is a good base from which to explore Provence? I find Avignon to be perfect for this purpose. It is well positioned to depart on day trips to Arles, Camargue Regional Park, Orange, Pont du Gard, Les Baux de Provence, St. Remy, Aix-en-Provence, lavander fields, villages on the Sorgue river (L’isle sur la Sorge, Fontaine de Vaucluse).
Perched villages of the Luberon Regional Park such as Gordes and Roussillon, Jewish culture at Carpentras, wineries at Chateauneuf du Pape, and finally Mont Ventoux are never far.
