Avignon
City of the popes and the Avignon bridge

With its city walls, towers, Papal palace, Avignon bridge, water, blond stones, plane trees, and a lively market hall, Avignon is a beautiful peaceful city. Thanks to its bridge and the song "Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse…", and also because of the papacy living here for 100 years, this old town became a world wide known city.
In the beginning there was this lime stone rock, overlooking the Rhône river and allowing to watch visitors coming. The first inhabitants settled on this hilltop and they started to drain the marshes around and built their dwellings there.
Ever since the roman days, our city has been fortified, today's ramparts were started in 1357 and are still very useful as a flood protection. The bridge has not survived to the floods but fortunately the papal palace did live through the revolutionary days. Today the papal palace and the Avignon bridge are the main monuments of the Provence and of course your tour guide will take you there.
She will also guide you along the cardinal's palaces, the medieval churches, the old streets dedicated to former handicrafts (cotton workers, bankers..) and of course through the Hausmanian part of the city