France 2022 – A full day in historic Avignon

March 2022

Avignon, capital of the Vaucluse region of Provence, is a city of nearly 100,000 residents. It is famous for its compact historical center which is surrounded by defensive walls and is dominated by the grand Palais des Papes, a huge fortified palace built by the Popes of Avignon. The entire centre of the city is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site for its architecture and its historical importance to the Papacy.

I arrived at the Avignon Centre train station in the early evening after a restful and scenic train ride from Paris. The station is conveniently located just outside the defensive walls and so it took me only a few moments to enter the historic city and begin the fifteen minute walk to my apartment. I headed up Rue de la République, a busy main street full of shops, restaurants, and cafés. I turned onto Rue des Marchands, a quieter street that was paved with polished stones, and then I turned onto the first of several narrow and rather rough-around-the-edges streets that would take me to my apartment. The next morning, a Sunday, I rose early and was able to photograph those streets while they were empty of pedestrians. The church bells were ringing but I was the only one about.

I first wanted to visit the exterior of the Palais des Papes to photograph it while the streets were still mostly empty as it is the most visited attraction in Avignon. Unfortunately though, something was off with an adjustment on my camera and the colours are not right. Also, it is truly impossible to ”get a good picture” of this massive edifice as there are multiple wings and towers. It is is the largest Gothic palace in Europe and covers an area of almost four acres!

I walked along the east side of the palace beside which there was a lovely small garden simply planted with purple irises and red roses.

Then I turned the corner heading towards the front of the palace. The narrow cobbled lane curved through a section of chiselled stone, with the palace towering above and sitting heavily on the rock.

Then I reached the large square in front of the palace.

Here is a photo of the front of the Palais des Papes taken from the far end of the square.

It was too early to enter the palace so I retraced my steps back around to the eastern side and then found the staircase leading up to the Rocher des Doms, a large rocky outcropping that rises 30 meters above the Rhone River and is the location of a garden that features magnificent old pines and other stately trees. There are paths, fountains, a café, ponds, a children’s playground and excellent viewing platforms. Here is the view looking east over the rooftops of Avignon. My small apartment is located somewhere near the middle of the photo.

Further along and facing north I had my first views of the Rhone River and of the St. Bénezet Bridge, the famous Pont d’Avignon! The Ile de la Barthelasse, a popular place for strolling, cycling, and picnics, is across the River and beyond that flows another arm of the Rhone (hidden from view) and then the town of Villeneuve-sur-Avignon on the hillside.

Here is a selection of photos from the Jardin des Doms atop the rocky hill. The top left photo looks down the eastern staircase to a tower of the Palais des Papes, and the bottom right photo features a small vineyard that was owned by the Popes.

From the garden I walked around and down to Le Basilique Notre Dame des Doms, the Cathedral of Avignon. Built in the early 12th century in the Romanesque style, it predated the arrival of the Popes to Avignon by 200 years and has been the seat of the local bishop here for over 1000 years. It was extended and renovated in the 15th and 17th centuries, and the large gilded statue of the Virgin Mary was added atop the church in 1854.

As I entered the cathedral, Sunday mass was taking place so I decided to take a seat in the last pew and observe the mass. I attended Catholic Church on most Sundays during my childhood and it was interesting to follow the familiar rituals, routines, and prayers in French. The singing was lovely and I found it quite moving to be part of a ceremony that has been performed in this beautiful space for over a millennia. After the mass, I spent some time enjoying the archicture of the church and viewing the paintings, sculptures, and finely carved woodwork and stonework. Here is a photo of the main altar.

The dome above the altar soared high and was brightly illuminated and beautifully painted.

Here is one of the side chapels,

and here are several more images from the medieval Cathedral of Avignon.

After my time in the cathedral, I strolled happily through the maze of streets on my way to visit the excellent Tourist Information office. Nearby was the Musée Lapidaire which holds a small but interesting collection of ancient Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Egyptian artefacts in an old Jesuit chapel.

Among the artefacts were sculptures, mosaics, pottery and glassware.

My favourite pieces were the very beautiful glassware items. I wish I could take them home!

After a simple lunch and a brief rest back at my apartment I was ready to tackle the Palais des Papes. In the early 14th century, Pope Clement V fled to France because of conflicts in Rome and he established Avignon as the new home of the Papacy. From 1309 to 1403 seven French-born popes ruled the Catholic world from here rather than Rome, and for a time after that, during the Great Schism, there were competing Popes in both cities! The Avignon Popes actually purchased the entire city of Avignon and began to build their fortified palace and the almost four kilometre long wall, complete with 39 towers, to defend it and the residences of their entourage of Bishops, Cardinals, and Papal bureaucrats. Here is a view of the inner courtyard of the palace.

And here is the view from the opposite corner of the courtyard. The large arched window in the centre of the photo is where the Pope would address the assembled crowd below, bestow blessings, and grant indulgences which are a forgiveness of sins to those who had paid for them! I toured the Palais des Papes with a mixture of awe for the architecture, scale, and ambition of the construction, but also with a feeling of disgust at the extreme level of wealth, power, and prestige held by the Popes and the Church. In my mind, it was very much a bastion of secular power, privilege, ambition, and greed disguised as a manifestation of God’s holy will.

Some written reviews of the public tour that is offered at palace have complained of the stark and mostly empty interiors of the rooms on view, but I appreciated the simplicity and grandeur of the architecture of each of the very large spaces such as this one. The curved wooden roof was beautiful!

This next room is the Clementin Chapel or Great Chapel. It is 52 metres long, 15 metres wide, and 20 metres high! All of the major masses and religious ceremonies took place here, with the Pope sitting grandly on a golden dais.

When touring the interior of the palace, each person is given a set of headphones and a tablet, the “Histopad”, which provides pictures of what these large spaces would have looked like in medieval times. Rather than blank stone, many of the interior spaces in the palace were completely and elaborately painted with frescoes as well as decorated with ornate furniture, tiles, fabrics, and statuary, etc.. The restored frescoes in this room feature stories from the lives of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist. They were painted by the Italian artist Matteo Giovannetti in the style current in Rome at the time in order to help promote the idea that Avignon was now the new centre of religious power in the Christian world.

The ceiling was very striking and I loved the bold colours.

Another restored room featured a floor made of tiles that were created in modern times to replicate the historic tiles that had been in place in the Middle Ages.

I appreciated that there was one room in an unrestored state. It helped me to remember that the history of this palace is a very long one and that many changes have taken place over time. The Popes left Avignon in 1403 but the palace and all of Avignon was still owned and used by the Church until the French Revolution. Later, parts of the palace became a barracks during the Napoleonic era and remained so until the early twentieth century.

Here is one last photo of another grand space in the formidable Palais des Papes.

From the palace, I found my way to the Pont d’Avignon. The approach up to the gatehouse is the only place in Avignon where one can walk on the city walls, albeit very briefly. Built between 1171 and 1185, the Saint Bénezet Bridge was politically, economically, and strategically important and it was one of only three bridges that crossed the Rhone River in the Middle Ages. There is a small museum that describes the techniques used to build the bridge, and there was an audio guide that also provided information, but I was impatient to just walk out onto the bridge on this sunny, breezy afternoon. The song, ”Sur le pont d’Avignon” had been playing in my head for weeks leading up to my trip to France. Thankfully it’s a lovely tune!

The current bridge (or rather, section of bridge) is 120 meters long. The original bridge had stretched for almost a kilometre across the Rhone and had been supported by 22 arches. Now, only four arches remain after most of the bridge was destroyed by an icy flood in the winter of 1668.

Here is the view, just after the gatehouse, looking out towards the end of the bridge in the distance, past the small double chapel dedicated to the Saints Bénezet and Nicholas.

And here is a view looking back towards the start of the bridge. The rocky outcropping of the Jardin des Doms, topped with its tall pines, is to the left in the photo.

Here is a picture of the Rhone river looking upstream. This is actually just one arm of the river as the other is on the other side of the Ile de la Barthelasse which you can see on the left side of the river. Ile de la Barthelasse is the largest river island in Europe and features a nature reserve and cycling and walking paths.

And here is a photo of me. I’m surprised at just how excited I was to walk out onto this bridge. And, yes, I did dance a little when I thought no one was looking!

Over my right shoulder you can see a boat docked on the near shore of the river. This is a free little ferry that shuttles people over to the Ile de la Barthelasse. That is where I was headed next. It was a very short but fun ferry ride and it provided me with this excellent view across to the Fort Saint André in Villeneuve-sur-Avignon. When the Popes, with all of their wealth and influence moved to Avignon, the King of France felt it was necessary to build his own grand fortress across the river to assert his position of authority in French territory!

On the ferry, I also had an excellent view back to the Jardin atop the Rocher des Doms,

as well as a wonderful view of the St. Bénezet Bridge from the water.

Once I was on the riverside path on Ile de la Barthelasse, I walked downstream a little ways in order to to take this quite lovely photo of the bridge, lit by an early evening sun.

I sat on the grass to rest for a while and enjoy the parade of happy people around me. The last ferry of the day was set to return to the other side soon, but I decided to stay on the island for a little longer and then continue my walk downstream towards a modern bridge which would take me back over to the city.

Further along on the path, I took this photo, zoomed in, across the Rhone. Clearly visible are the city walls, the Avignon Cathedral topped with it golden statue of the Virgin Mary, and the Palais des Papes (which also includes the ghostly-looking buildings and tall tower covered in grey scaffolding and painted cloth in the center of the photo. Remember, four acres!).

And this is one of the last photos I took on my very full and very wonderful first day in the historic city of Avignon.