5 Days in Avignon

A covered market where Avignon shops, not poses. It is open Tuesday to Sunday from 6am to 2pm, closed on Mondays, and the 40 or so stalls cover cheese, charcuterie, olives, fish and vegetables. The north wall is covered in plants, a vertical garden by the botanist Patrick Blanc.

Go early, before the stalls start packing up around 1:30pm, and eat standing up: a slice of fougasse (flat Provençal bread), a few olives from a tapenade stall, or oysters at a counter. On Saturdays at 11am there is a free cooking demonstration, in French. Buy the cheese and the olives here for the picnic you will want on day four.

Clement V came in 1309 and lived as a guest of the Dominicans. The palace is the work of his successors: Benedict XII rebuilt the old bishops' palace from 1334 as a fortified cloister with high towers, and his successors added the Palais Neuf, including a Grand Chapel 52 m long. The popes went back to Rome in 1377 and Avignon stayed papal property for four more centuries. After the Revolution the palace became a barracks and a prison, the frescoes were covered over and largely destroyed, and the soldiers did not leave until 1906.

That history explains why the rooms are mostly bare. Look for the Chambre du Cerf, Clement VI's study, covered in 14th-century hunting scenes, and the frescoes by Matteo Giovannetti in the Saint-Jean chapel. The visit is long and the palace is huge, so use the free smartphone app, Les Clefs du Palais, rather than reading every panel.

Walk up the hill beside the palace to the cathedral, which is older than the popes: a Romanesque building from the second half of the 12th century. The bell tower collapsed in 1405 and was rebuilt in 1425, and the gilded statue of the Virgin on top has been the city's lighthouse ever since. During the Revolution the church was left to decay, then reconsecrated in 1822.

It is plain and quiet, which is a relief after the palace crowds. Then walk out onto the rock behind it.

The Pont d'Avignon of the children's song is officially the Pont Saint-Bénézet, and it was not meant to be a ruin. A wooden bridge from the 1180s was destroyed in 1226 during the siege of the city, and a stone bridge of 22 arches replaced it from 1234: about 900 m long and only 4.9 m wide. Each time the Rhône flooded, arches fell, and in the mid-17th century the city gave up. Four arches and the gatehouse remain, with the small Chapel of Saint Nicholas built on the second pier.

Walk to the end for the view back to the palace and the river, and read the panels on the song. It is a short visit, so combine it with the palace ticket and do it late, when the light is warm.

The Rocher des Doms is the rock that Avignon was built around: people lived in caves here in the Stone Age, and today it is a public garden with benches, a small café and a playground. It sits above the Rhône and gives you the best free view in the city, over the bridge, the river and the plain on the far bank.

Arrive half an hour before sunset with a bottle of something cold, and watch the light turn the palace walls gold behind you. It is also a quiet place to read the guide for tomorrow.

Rue des Teinturiers is the "dyers' street", and it runs beside a canal, with restaurant terraces along the water. Eat here for the setting rather than for a particular address, and choose by menu: look for daube (beef braised in red wine), a tian of summer vegetables, or a plate of Provençal starters. Reserve ahead in July, when the festival fills every table.

Cross the Rhône to Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and you leave Provence for the Gard. The Tour Philippe-le-Bel still guards the western end of the old bridge, and the Fort Saint-André, a fortified enclosure on the hill above the town, looks back across the river to Avignon. The Chartreuse du Val de Bénédiction, a charterhouse, is now a center for the performing arts, and its cloisters are the quiet part of the visit.

It is roughly 2 to 3 km from the center: walk across the Rhône bridges if you are fit, or take a bus or a bike. Do the fort for the view and the Chartreuse for the cloisters, and skip the rest. Go in the morning, because both close for lunch.

Place des Corps-Saints is a tree-covered square with bistro terraces, a short walk south of the palace. It fills up during the festival, and the rest of the year it is where locals eat lunch without a plan. Order a tian, a goat cheese salad or a daube with polenta.

Eat the set lunch, which is almost always cheaper than ordering à la carte.

A small museum in an 18th-century town house, built around the collection of the Parisian couturier Jacques Doucet, who died in 1929, and opened in 1996 by the heirs of his widow. The rooms still read like a rich man's house, with paintings, furniture and drawings from the 18th to the 20th century.

If contemporary art is more your thing, the Collection Lambert is a short walk away: about 12 EUR, open from 2pm Wednesday to Friday and from 11am at weekends in the school year, and closed Monday and Tuesday. Choose one of the two, because with the Petit Palais that is plenty.

The Petit Palais is the old palace of the archbishops of Avignon, next door to the papal one, and it houses a museum of medieval and early Renaissance painting. Its big surprise is the collection of Italian primitives: 326 paintings by more than 130 artists, which together with the Louvre's is the largest in France. The building dates from the 14th century, the age of the popes.

It is quiet and free, which makes it the best value in town. Come for the Madonnas and the gold backgrounds of 14th and 15th-century Italian painting.

The Barthelasse is the river island between Avignon and Villeneuve, and the bank facing the old town is where people go to see Avignon as it is meant to be seen: the walls, the palace and the bridge in a single frame, with the river in front. It is as peaceful as the center is crowded.

Walk or cycle along the river as the light goes. Avignon is on the ViaRhona, the long cycle route from northern Europe to the Mediterranean, so you will see bikes.

Start at the edge of town with the Alyscamps, a Roman necropolis whose name comes from Elisii Campi, the Elysian Fields. Roman cities did not allow burials inside the walls, so tombs lined the road outside, and in the Middle Ages the cemetery was so famous that Dante mentions it in the Inferno. Today it is a shaded avenue of stone coffins and a ruined Romanesque church.

It is the quietest of the Roman monuments in Arles, and the best way to understand why the city mattered: this was a capital of the Roman province, and later of Constantine's empire. Go early before the heat and the tour groups.

Built around 90 AD, the amphitheatre held more than 20,000 spectators. It has two tiers of arches, and the towers on top are medieval additions. Today it hosts bullfights during the Féria and plays and concerts in summer.

Climb up for the view over the old town and walk the galleries under the seats. Arriving at opening time means you will have the arena almost to yourself.

The Roman theatre was begun around 40-30 BC and finished around 12 BC, shortly after the colony was founded, which makes it one of the first stone theatres in the Roman world. It is a ruin, so the visit asks you to imagine the stage and the rest.

Sit on the stone steps for a few minutes. The theatre is five minutes from the arena, so the two fit in one morning.

Arles is on the edge of the Camargue, the marshland where black bulls and white horses graze, and the local dish is gardiane: a stew of Camargue bull, olives and red wine, traditionally served with rice. It is rich and dark, a close cousin of the Provençal daube.

Look for a place near Place du Forum or on the side streets that has gardiane on a chalkboard rather than a laminated menu. If it is Saturday, the market will have supplied the ingredients that morning, so ask what is in season. A glass of local red goes well.

Below the old center run the Cryptoportiques, an underground gallery from the Roman forum. It is cool and dim, an unusual monument and a pleasant place to be on a hot day.

Not far north, near the Rhône, are the Thermes de Constantin: the remains of baths built by the emperor Constantine I, who was fond of Arles. His son Constantine II was born here, and in 408 the usurper Constantine III made the city his capital.

Van Gogh lived in Arles in 1888, rented four rooms at 2 Place Lamartine, the Yellow House, and painted there some of the most famous pictures of his life, including the sunflowers and the café terrace at night. The Yellow House was badly damaged in a bombing raid on 25 June 1944 and was later demolished, so a plaque marks the place where it stood.

What you can see are the places around him: the Espace Van Gogh in the former hospital, and the Fondation Vincent van Gogh, which stages exhibitions around his work. Don't expect a room of Van Goghs, because most of his paintings hang elsewhere. Come for the streets and the light. The Fondation reopens on 22 November 2026 with a new exhibition.

End on the square where Van Gogh painted Café Terrace at Night in September 1888. The café was refurbished in 1990-91 to match the painting.

Order a drink on a terrace and watch the square. It is a tourist magnet and a lovely one, so decide in advance that you are paying for the view. Then walk to the station for the train back to Avignon.

The Pont du Gard carried water to the Roman colony of Nemausus (Nîmes) as part of a canal that ran from Uzès, about 50 km, and dropped only 12.6 m over its whole course, a gradient of about 25 cm per kilometer. The bridge is the highest known Roman aqueduct bridge, with three tiers, about 49 m tall and 275 m long. The water stopped flowing around the early sixth century, and by the 16th century people already came to look at it as a monument. UNESCO listed it in 1985.

You can cross the Gardon on the 18th-century road bridge built against it, and stand by the river under the arches. The museum, the cinema and the games room are extras. The site itself is open from 8am to midnight, but the museum is closed from November to February. The car park is what you pay for: 9 EUR per car for the day.

The best lunch near the bridge is a picnic, bought at Les Halles before you leave (it is open on Sundays): a baguette, cheese, olives and a tapenade (the Provençal paste of olives and capers). Sit on the riverbank, with the bridge in view, and eat slowly.

If you prefer a sit-down meal, the village of Remoulins nearby is on the same bus line. Don't rush the bridge to catch a bus.

The Nîmes arena was begun around 90 AD and is among the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres anywhere, with a facade of 60 arches in two tiers and room for up to 24,000 spectators. Through the Middle Ages it served as a fortified village with its own streets and shops, and in 1863 it became a bullring again. About twenty bullfights and Camargue bull races are still held here each year.

The new Musée de la Romanité sits opposite and tells the Roman story of Nîmes, with a rooftop terrace and views of the monuments. Climb the arena first, then go to the museum, whose roof is a good place to rest.

The Maison Carrée ("square house") is a Roman temple from the age of Augustus and one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere. UNESCO added it to its list in 2023. Thomas Jefferson saw it while he was minister to France in 1785 and had a model made, and he used it as the design for the Virginia State Capitol.

The temple is small, so the visit is short. The best moment is from outside, in the afternoon light. Across the square, the Carré d'Art, a contemporary art museum, faces it: a conversation across 2,000 years.

The Jardins de la Fontaine are one of the first public parks in Europe, built around the spring that gave Nîmes its reason to exist, long before the Romans. The gardens frame two Roman monuments, the Temple of Diana and the Tour Magne, and climb the hill of Mont Cavalier.

At the top is the Tour Magne, the biggest surviving piece of the long Roman wall around the city. It has 140 steps and stands about 34 m high, and the view from the top covers the whole of Nîmes. Go in the late afternoon when it is cooler.

Nîmes is the home of brandade de morue, an emulsion of salt cod, olive oil and potatoes that spread from here across the south of France. It is the most Nîmois of dishes, and it is eaten in the cold months with bread or potatoes.

Have it as a starter or main in a bistro near the Halles, the covered market a few minutes from the arena. Check the time of the last train before your meal, as the evening service to Avignon is thinner than the daytime one.

Built under Augustus by the veterans of Caesar's Second Legion, the theatre is among the best-preserved Roman theatres in the world, and its impressive outer wall still stands at its original height: 103 m long and 37 m tall. It is the home of the Chorégies d'Orange, the summer opera festival.

Climb the seats to the top and look at the wall. Then visit the museum opposite, which the ticket includes.

About 700 m north of the theatre stands the Arc de triomphe, a Roman arch from the early first century that marked the northern entrance to Orange on the Via Agrippa, the Roman road through Gaul. It has been on UNESCO's World Heritage list since 1981, together with the theatre.

Traffic still passes beside it on the modern road, which suits the story. Walk around the arch, then go back to the center for lunch.

Orange is small and the center has plenty of bistros, so you don't need a plan. Look for the menu du jour on a chalkboard, which is usually cheaper than ordering à la carte, and for a daube or a plate of Provençal vegetables. Check the train time before you order, so lunch doesn't end in a sprint to the platform.

Back in Avignon, finish with the wall you have been walking through all week. Innocent VI began the city walls in 1357 after mercenary bands started pillaging the unprotected suburbs, and they took nearly 20 years to finish. They run 4.3 km around the old town, with 15 gates for vehicles and 11 for pedestrians today. In 1856 a Rhône flood sent a 30 m section crashing down.

Start at the Porte de la République, by the station, and follow the wall for as long as you like, looking at the towers and the gate details. It is a calm walk, and the quietest stretch of Avignon on a Monday.

Avignon's main square, facing the opera house, is the place to end your last evening. It is the most touristy corner of town, and at that hour it also fills with locals having an apéritif.

Order a pastis with water or a glass of Rhône red, and spend the evening on the terrace. For dinner, go back to the canal on Rue des Teinturiers or the Place des Corps-Saints, and let the night run as long as you like.