Papal Palace - Avignon, France

(Observer photos by Sharon Boehlefeld)

Destination: Avignon, on the Rhone River in the south of France, today is a city of about 90,000 people, about 12,000  of whom live in the ancient town center enclosed by its old walls. The old city is a popular stop on cruise ship tours, both for its medieval charm and for its historic significance as the home of the popes of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1300s. Today it is listed as a United Nations’ World Heritage site.
Masses are not offered at the Papal Palace (Palais de Papes), which is a tourist site and no longer a Catholic facility. If you tour there, check with your guide for local Mass times.
Photos: Top - The Papal Palace at Avignon, France, was the home of the Roman Catholic Church, 1309–77. 
Bottom - The Pont d’Avignon — the remains of a bridge at Avignon — stretches into the Rhone River in France. The small structure toward the right side of the bridge is a chapel and toll collection booth.
Why to go: The Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org) explains, “Avignon, which at the beginning of the 14th century was a town of no great importance, underwent a wonderful development during the residence there of nine popes, Clement V to Benedict XIII, inclusively. To the north and south of the rock of the Doms, partly on the site of the Bishop’s Palace, which had been enlarged by John XXII, rose the Palace of the Popes, in the form of an imposing fortress made up of towers, linked one to another.”
Today, most of the rooms are empty. When the papacy returned to Rome, most of the contents went back to the Vatican. Damage from both the French Revolution and later use as a barracks in WWII is evident in the building. But walking through still lends a sense of the grandeur once part of the palace. The chapel, currently in use as a gallery for an exhibit about the palace’s restoration, has amazing accoustics. When our guide demonstrated by quietly singing “Ave Maria,” all the other tourists in the large room stopped talking to listen to her delicate soprano.
Hours: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. Self-guided, pre-recorded tours are available in English for 11 euros. One advantage of booking a tour with a local guide is there are several spots in the palace with large screens and available seating that are reserved for the guides and their groups to use.
Accessibility: This is a difficult site to maneuver, with hundreds of uneven stone stairways to reach the open areas of the palace. An alternative is to take a ride on a small tourist train from outside the palace. It costs only a few euros and has recorded information in several languages, including English.
(Grand) Kid friendly: Of course.
Info: Address — Papal Palace (Palais de Papes), Place du Palais, 84000 Avignon, France    Phone — +33( 0)4 32 74 32 74  Web — www.palais-des-papes.com/en 

— Compiled by Sharon Boehlefeld
Send Destination ideas to SeasonedObserver@rockforddiocese.org