Since we had already been to Rome and visited Vatican City, we thought it would be a good idea to also visit ‘the other Vatican’, which was Avignon.
Avignon hosts an annual famous theatre festival with 800 productions on show
In the history of the Catholic Church, which is definitely long and colorful, they had a period where the Pope resided in France and not Italy as per tradition. This caused a schism within the Church and also resulted in two Popes in two different cities from 1378 to 1423. The whole history is a bit too much to cover here and is also not the main aim of this entry so if you are interested, here’s a link to the wonderful creation that is Wikipedia.
One of the remaining structures from the time of Papal Avignon was the Palais Des Papes aka Vatican City II. My expectations were probably a little high but it was not as grand as I imagined it to be. Then again when the Pope moved back to Italy he probably brought everything back with him. It may have looked very grand during its day but now it looks pretty normal and is just a really large building with almost nothing inside. I did think it was rather good to play hide and seek there though since it did seem to have lots of hiding places and the grounds are quite huge.
Inside the church
We also visited Pont Saint Benezet, which is supposed to be a famous monument and a beloved song. We don’t know anything about it though and since it was super windy that day, we didn’t go up onto the bridge. In any case, there is a better view of the bridge by looking at it and not being on it, lol…
A humorous temporary sculpture by Miquel Barceló
Trailing a school excursion
Other than Avignon, we also visited the nearby town of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. It was a much smaller town than Avignon and we went to the La Chartreuse du Val de Benediction. It was rather empty when we were there so it was a little creepy. It was also very quiet which I guess suited its purpose as a monastery. It owes its beginnings to Pope Innocent VI and he requested to be buried there when he died (usually popes are buried in St Peters Basilica in Rome). Currently it serves as an artists’ residence and they can stay there rent-free if I remember correctly. Pretty peaceful place for some meditation and wonderful art perhaps.
Medieval tower
Fantastic dinner in Avignon
All in all, Avignon was much prettier in my head than in reality, but then again which other city can claim to be a papal home before, eh?
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