Avignon
The papacy moved to Avignon in 1309 and stayed sixty-eight years, building the largest Gothic palace in the world and fortifying it because the popes trusted nobody. Jean Vilar staged three plays in its courtyard in 1947 to take theatre out of Paris, and the festival that grew from it now fills a thousand venues each July.
Why go
A papal palace of 15,000 square metres — seven popes ruled from here in the fourteenth century. The Festival d'Avignon — since 1947, in the palace courtyard and eighty other venues. Ramparts still complete — four kilometres of wall around the whole old town. Côtes du Rhône at the gates — Châteauneuf-du-Pape is twenty minutes north.
The character
In 1309 Clement V moved the papacy to Avignon, and for sixty-eight years seven French popes ruled the Western Church from a fortress-palace on a rock above the Rhône — the largest Gothic building in the world, built in twenty years and defended like a castle because the popes did not entirely trust anyone. The city they left behind kept the ramparts, the palace and a certain administrative grandeur that a Provençal town of ninety thousand would not otherwise have.
The festival is the modern equivalent. Jean Vilar staged three plays in the palace's Cour d'honneur in 1947 as an attempt to take theatre out of Paris, and it grew into the most important theatre festival in the French-speaking world, with an official programme in the palace and an off-festival of a thousand-plus shows in every available room. For three weeks in July the town is entirely theatre; the rest of the year it is a walled Provençal city with a serious market and the Rhône going past.
Places of character
Palais des Papes — the audience halls, the pope's bedchamber with its painted vines, and the Cour d'honneur. Pont Saint-Bénézet — four arches of the bridge from the song, ending in the river as they have since 1668. Les Halles market — a covered hall with a green wall outside and the region's produce inside; go before noon. Musée du Petit Palais — Italian primitives from the papal collection, and rarely more than a dozen visitors. Villeneuve-lès-Avignon — the cardinals' town across the river, with a Carthusian monastery and a fort. Châteauneuf-du-Pape — twenty minutes north, where the popes planted the vineyards.
The way to do it
Book everything if you come in July — accommodation, tickets and tables all vanish. Otherwise the palace takes a morning, the market a lunch, and the wine country an afternoon. Walk the ramparts at least partly. And cross to Villeneuve for the view back at the city, which is the classic one.
One perfect day
Coffee on Place de l'Horloge, then the Palais des Papes at opening, working through the halls before the heat. Down to the bridge and along the ramparts. Les Halles for lunch assembled from the stalls — cheese, tapenade, a bottle of Rhône. Afternoon at the Petit Palais among the primitives, then across the river to Villeneuve for the fort and the view. Evening in July: a play in the Cour d'honneur under the palace wall with two thousand people and the mistral in the plane trees. Otherwise dinner in a courtyard and a walk on the walls.
Grand hotels
La Mirande — a cardinal's palace beside the papal palace, seven rooms of eighteenth-century interiors. Hôtel d'Europe — 1799 in a sixteenth-century mansion, where Napoleon, Dickens and Picasso all stayed.
When to go
Best expression: July for the festival, the single reason the city is on this list. Consider: May and September — warm, clear, and the palace nearly empty in the mornings. Avoid if possible: July without tickets and a room; August, when the festival has gone but the heat remains.
The frame
Ideal stay 2 nights · Minimum 1 night · Best arrival TGV from Paris, 2h40 · Airport MRS, 85 km · Walkability total within the walls · Best without a car yes, except for the vineyards