Avignon, France

August 17, 2001

The next stop on this wild and wacky tour with my Dad and Jo is Avignon (see map), perhaps the most famous place in Provence. We were a bit tired by the time we got there, with it being the third stop on a long hot day that took us to Nîmes and the Pont Du Gard. Avignon is the capital of the Vaucluse region of France. It is a very cultured place, but has an almost comical religious history as well. During the 14th century Pope Clement V and his court fled political turmoil in Rome and set themselves up in Avignon. From 1309 to 1377 the center of Christianity was in Avignon and all the Popes located there. During this time all of the Popes were French born and spent huge sums of money building the wall that surrounds the city to this day and the papal palace (again, where did this money come from ?) These popes were at least tolerant and the city's Jewish population flourished as well, heightening the culture of the city.

The comical part comes from the opponents of the move to Avignon, mostly Italian, who felt the city was a den of criminals and brothel-goers (!) and was unfit for papal habitation. In 1376, the current pope, Pope Gregory XI, died, leading to the Great Schism. Now this is funny. During this time, rival popes - up to three of them - spent most of their monies and energies denouncing and excommunicating each other ! I can see it now, a classis Monty Python sketch. "I excommunicate you !". "No, I excommunicate you !". "No you don't, I excommunicate the two of you!". These rival popes expended great efforts in trying to gain control of the church treasuries, among whose sources were the sale of indulgences. At last, we know what Christianity is really about. To paraphrase one of Clinton's guys, "It's the money, stupid !"

Finally, one of them managed to horde all the money and took over the popedom. He located himself back to Rome. Avignon remained under papal control until 1791 when it was annexed to the French. Today it has a very famous cultural festival, though it wasn't happening when we went. More on Avignon in the pictures below.

Avignon is a walled city, with the wall still remarkably in tact. You can walk on top of the wall. It is the best wall we have seen outside of York, England. The wall is about 4.5 kilometers long, or roughly, 3 miles. It was built between 1359 and 1370, but have been restored during the 18th century. The moats have since dried up, but there is remarkable crenellation and machicolations. However, the French sort of forgot to put machicolations in many of the sections. Might sort of explain that German thing during the last century. Anyway, below is a picture of the wall with one of the towers at an entrance. You can see how well preserved it is. Oh, that's Jeff and Connor sitting by the edge of a fountain. It looks like Connor caught one of the water streams on the back ! The other two pictures also show parts of the wall.

Since the popes located here, and we know they spent vast sums on their palace, one would expect a rather ornate building. Well, here it is, the Palais des Papes. It is a huge Gothic style Palace. It was built during the 14th century, and is of interest because of the dramatic events that happened here, the aforementioned Great Schism. But now, most of the rooms are empty and the Palais is used mostly for art exhibits. Here is what the Palais des Papes looks like. Notice the large gold gilded statue at the left.

Here is a very nice shot of one of the main public squares in Avignon. We had dinner in one of the restaurants here. It was good. 

Here is the clan outside the Avignon Opera House, which is in the same square as the picture above. 

Here are the two lovebirds in an alcove of the Palais. Notice the fine Gothic church steeple in the far right background.

Finally, Provence is noted for it's beautiful countryside. Since Avignon is in the heart of Provence it only seemed right to take a few photos of the surroundings. That's the Rhône river you see, with the castle of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon in the background.

Last Updated Sunday August 26, 2001 12:28 CET