The Many Sights of Avignon

« Sur le pont d’Avignon, l'on y danse, l'on y danse… » Just about anyone who has studied French has learned to sing this famous children’s song. From the high vantage point of the garden of le Rocher des Doms, tourists are afforded a fine view of what remains of le Pont Saint-Bénezet which stretches part way across the Rhone. There are also postcards, small music boxes, and other assorted souvenirs linked to the song for sale in many shops. But Avignon, la préfecture (or “the main city”) of the department of Vaucluse, has a long and rich history and much more to offer visitors than the simple sight of the bridge.

Another celebrated structure in Avignon is the imposing Palais des Papes. Since we had been to the papal palace in 2003, on this visit we opted for a guided tour from the office de tourisme which provided the historical background for this and other monuments. Because of wars in fourteenth-century Italy, this immense Gothic fortification was built near papal holdings in le Comtat Venaissin and came to serve as home to seven popes acknowledged by Rome and a few antipopes. Our guide told us about various power struggles between the kings of France, the popes, cardinals, and bishops (one anecdote even involving a king slapping a pope!). We visited a mansion built by a certain Cardinal Ceccano in Avignon in order to keep close ties to the pope. The fourteenth century building, which now serves as the city’s médiathèque, contains murals in remarkably good condition, adorned with symbols representing the cardinal and his family; the wood beams on the ceiling of his ceremonial room (chambre d'apparat) are painted en trompe-l'œil.

Our tour also took us to l’église Saint-Didier, where the guide explained how le style gothique méridional differed from the gothic style in other parts of France. While the creators of churches and cathedrals in the north used des vitraux (“stained glass windows”) to instruct the illiterate of the Middle Ages, in the south murals served the same purpose. In a side chapel she pointed out the differences in the postures, faces, and clothing in the renderings of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. She also mentioned that, thanks to modern technology, great strides have been made in recovering murals from what seems like perfectly blank walls.





On our own later that day, we spent time walking around the city, doing a little shopping, and visiting the animated place de l’Horloge. One thing we especially enjoyed was our tour of le Musée Calvet—a beautiful hôtel particulier, an eighteenth century mansion considered to be un petit Versailles, which is now an art museum.