"Sur le Pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse tous en rond"

Avignon (week 24)

David on the Pont Saint-Bénézet

The tourist office bills the Pont d'Avignon as the most famous bridge in the world.  I'm not sure about that, but just as everyone learns that "London Bridge is falling down" in the English-speaking world, tout le monde in the French world learns that "On Avignon Bridge, we all dance around in a ring".  Curiously, both London Bridge and Pont d'Avignon are anachronisms: the former London Bridge is in Arizona, and there is actually no such bridge as "Pont d'Avignon", its actual name is Pont Saint-Bénézet.  The legend goes that a shepherd named Bénézet received a vision from God instructing him to build a bridge across the Rhône at Avignon, hence the name.  Only 4/22 of the bridge remains, the rest having been destroyed and washed away by the periodic floods that the Rhône is known for.

Windy day atop the Palais des Papes

There is a chapel built into the bridge, dedicated to Saint Bénézet, now the patron saint of bargemen.  Unfortunately, the day was windy, so our dancing on the bridge was short.  The bridge (and chapel) is part of medieval Avignon's world heritage site.  Another part of the site is the Palais des Papes.  In 1309, Clement V moved the papacy to Avignon, then owned by the Western Catholic church (it remained part of the Papal States until the French Revolution).  Upon the palace's completion, it was apparently the largest building in the western world.  Avignon was the official seat of the papacy until 1377, and after that hosted a few anti-popes (challengers to the pope in Rome).

Visiting the palace is interesting, and is much like Mont Saint-Michel, another combination fortress-holy building.  Naturally the rooms are now unfurnished, so you have to imagine the grandeur of its heyday.  There are a few rooms where the walls, floors, and ceilings are fully restored - multi-coloured and decorated floor tiles, mosaics or patterns on the ceilings, and elaborate patterned paintings on the walls.  These 3 or 4 rooms are beautiful, but unfortunately picture-taking is strictly forbidden in them (and they have guides posted in these rooms to enforce the rule).

Incidentally, medieval Avignon is considered the top Provençal site by one of our guidebooks.