Sur la Pont d’Avignon

The wind and rain stopped yesterday afternoon and, this morning, the sun came out… perfect for a walk into the medieval centre of Avignon.

We popped to tourist information to buy passes for the places we wanted to visit, then wandered through the narrow streets and pretty squares. Our first stop was Les Halles, which is a covered market. It had a buzz about it with people shopping at the huge variety of stalls, and standing drinking coffee or wine at the bars dotted around.

Back outside, we carried on exploring, past a lovely church and the Place de L’Horloge with its tall, gothic clock tower.

The main attraction in Avignon is the 14th century Palais des Papes, towering over all the other buildings in the town, and standing out with its gleaming white walls. Seven popes lived here after Pope Clement V moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon. Each one added more rooms to the palace. It’s very impressive, and said to be one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe.

There’s a large courtyard within the walls, as well as gardens. Inside, the rooms are very large with high vaulted ceilings, especially the banqueting hall and the Grand Chapel.

The view from the towers and walkways on top of the palace was magnificent in the sunshine. We could see right across Île de La Barthelasse (the large island in the Rhône that we’re staying on) to the fort at Villeneuve-Les-Avignon, which we’ll visit tomorrow.

When we’d finished the tour of the palace, we spent some time trying to find a restaurant for lunch that wasn’t full and which had a menu that we both liked the look of. Eventually, we found a little bistro and had a main course each washed down with a pichet de vin rouge.

We wandered back through the Place de l’Horloge to the Place du Palais. There’s an Italian festival in the town this week and today there were markets stalls selling Italian produce, and musicians and singers performing in the squares. The vibe was lovely.

After passing the palace, we climbed the steps to Cathédrale Notre-Dame-des-Doms, which has a shiny golden Madonna on top of its tower and a statue of the crucifixion on the terrace outside.

The gardens next to the cathedral were peaceful and, after we’d wound our way up, we enjoyed wonderful 360 degree views, as well as a grotto with ducks, fish and a terrapin 🙂

Below us we could see the Pont St-Bénézet, the Pont d’Avignon from the song, and the little ferry that would carry us back across the river to the island where the campsite is.

The bridge was our final stop. It didn’t take long to walk along it because only 4 of the original 22 arches remain, as well as the gatehouse and chapel. The bridge was washed away so often that the inhabitants of the town gave up rebuilding it and it now only goes half way across the river. It would have been a feat of engineering in its day, when it straddled the mighty Rhône, before the island fully formed in the middle of the river.

The skyline of Avignon is beautiful from the island, with the palace and bridge glowing in the sunlight, and the town has been a lovely place to spend the day.