Avignon - popes, a palace and more

Four million visitors come annually to visit Avignon and the region and also for its festival. The most popular tourist attraction is the Palais des Papes, and it's not surprising.

The historic centre, which includes the Papal Palace, the cathedral and the pont (bridge), became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. With its medieval monuments and impressive ramparts, built to keep the plague and invaders out, circling the city, it's  a major centre for tourism.

There was really only time for us to visit the palace, which was begun in 1316 by Pope John XXII during the exile of the papal court from Rome to France, and building continued through successive popes until 1370 when it was finished. Extravagance, luxury. The popes knew how to spend up large on themselves. It's the world's largest gothic edifice.

Between 1309 and 1377, seven successive popes resided in Avignon. Although later the popes returned to Rome, papal control of the city persisted until 1791 when, during the French Revolution, it became part of France. Unfortunatey the interiors were wrecked at that time. The town is now the capital of the Vaucluse department and one of the few French cities to have preserved its ramparts. The city is in the vicinity of Orange, Nimes, Monpellier, Arles, Marseille and Aix-en-Provence. You can also easily visit Roussillon and Gordes to the West from here.

Situated on the left bank of the Rhone river there are approximately 200,000 inhabitants. About 15,000 of them live inside the ancient medieval ramparts.Those fortified walls were restored under the direction of Eugene Violett-le-Duc (yes, famous for renovations to Notre Dame de Paris, Carcassonne and the Basilica of Saint Denis).

Inside the palace,  a visit can be made but you need to be careful with your camera. There are rather a lot of rooms where you are forbidden to photograph. Painted walls, usually but a lot of people ignore that with their smartphones. Me with my Nikon, I was just too obvious, so felt a bit miffed though there isn't a lot of decoration to see these days. We went up to the roof to look out over the city and the main square. A great view and interesting to see the intricacies of the roof structure and sculptures.

As for the bridge of Sur le Pont d'Avignon fame - there's only a bit of it left. The bridge of the song is the Pont Saint-Benezet over the Rhone River. It was one of the most important pilgrimmage routes between Italy and Spain. This bridge across the Rhone was built between 1171 and 1185, with a length of some 900 m (2950 ft), but was destroyed during the siege of Avignon by Louis VIII in 1226. It was rebuilt but suffered frequent collapses during floods and had to be constantly repaired. Several arches were already missing before the remainder was abandoned in 1669.Only four of its 22 arches remain so it's a bridge that finishes in the middle of the river and goes nowhere now.

Avignon is a lively city with buskers and tourists and lots of outdoor cafes. Leafy courtyards looked inviting as we took the little train around the city perifery and back to the palace. It's a city with thirteen museums allowing you to discover prehistory, Egyptian and Gallo-Roman sculptures, art and natural history.

Avignon is an administrative and commercial centre at the heart of one of France’s richest agricultural regions specializing in fruits and vegetables. For much of its life it has been a university city.

The Festival of Avignon, held over three or four weeks in summer, is the most important event here. It comprises traditional theatrical events as well as other art forms such as dance, music, and cinema, making good use of the town's historical monuments. Around 100,000 people attend. The pearl of this festival are the performances which take place inside the Pope's Palace itself. Tickets are expensive.