Place de l'Hotel de ville

Aix en Provence is a beautiful and noble town  whose origins date back to Roman times, it was the capital of the Counts of Provence and is the historic capital of art and culture of Provence.

Here there are more than 200 eighteenth-century villas, and is the birthplace of the great impressionist Paul Cézanne, the city where he spent most of his life and where he painted many of his masterpieces.  Aix en Provence is also an important university, with more than 30,000 students.

From Provence to Brittany - First stop - Avignon - I know the north of France but had never gone to South so last summer we decided to go to Paris, passing through Provence Follow me on this journey ...

The walls that were built by the popes

The Rhone

Nigth shot of  Palais des Papes

Night shot of the Pont d'Avignon (Saint-Bénezet)

The ring road

Bridge Daladier

Fantastic sky

Pont d’Avignon (Saint-Bénezet)  in the evening

Sunset (from Notre Dame des Doms)

 The walls

Hermès

Hotel D’Europe - Place de l'Horloge in centre-ville

Restaurant Le Crillon - Place de l'Horloge in centre-ville

Hotel de Ville - Place de l'Horloge in centre-ville

People

Rue de la Republique, the city's main central boulevard

The Notre Dame des Doms cathedral ( located in the heart of Avignon, near the Palais des Papes)

  Square  the Palace of the Popes (UNESCO  World Heritage Site)

Paul V's coat-of-arms on a building located opposite the Papal Palace

Notre Dame des Doms cathedral shows the Palais des Papes just to the right

Place Daniel Soriano
A few of the very artistic Avignon building façade paintings in centre-ville

Restaurant Christian Etienne

Rue de la Peyroleriet

Rue de Taulignan

 Place Carnot near the Synagogue

Good morning & Goodbye Avignon ...

Some historical information about

Avignon is the préfecture (capital) of the Vaucluse département in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river.

Avignon, written as Avennio or Avenio in the ancient texts and inscriptions, takes its name from the Avennius clan. Founded by the Gallic tribe of the Cavares or Cavari, it became the centre of an important Phocaean colony from Massilia (present Marseilles).

Under the Romans, Avenio was a flourishing city of Gallia Narbonensis, the first Transalpine province of the Roman Empire, but very little from this period remains (a few fragments of the forum near Rue Molière).

During the inroads of the Goths, it was badly damaged in the fifth century and belonged in turn to the Goths, the kingdoms of Burgundy and of Arles, in the 12th Century. It fell into the hands of the Saracens and was destroyed in 737 by the Franks under Charles Martel for having sided with the Arabs against him. Boso having been proclaimed Burgundian King of Provence, or of Arelat (after its capital Arles), by the Synod of Mantaille, at the death of Louis the Stammerer (879), Avignon ceased to belong to the Frankish kings.

In 1033, when Conrad II inherited the Kingdom of Arelat, Avignon passed to the Holy Roman Empire. With the German rulers at a distance, Avignon set up as a republic with a consular form of government, between 1135 and 1146. In addition to the Emperor, the Counts of Forcalquier, of Toulouse and of Provence exercised a purely nominal sway over the city; on two occasions, in 1125 and in 1251, the Counts of Toulouse and Provence divided their rights in regard to it, while the Count of Forcalquier resigned any right he possessed to the local Bishops and Consuls in 1135.

At the end of the twelfth century, Avignon declared itself an independent republic, but independence was crushed in 1226 during the crusade against the Albigenses (the dualist Cathar heresy centred in neighboring Albi). After the citizens refused to open the gates of Avignon to King Louis VIII of France and the papal Legate, a three month siege ensued starting on 10 June 1226, and ending in capitulation by Avignon on 13 September 1226. Following the defeat, they were forced to pull down the ramparts and fill up the moat of the city.

On 7 May 1251 Avignon was made a common possession of counts Charles of Anjou and Alphonse de Poitiers, brothers of French king Saint Louis IX. On 25 August 1271, at the death of Alphonse de Poitiers, Avignon and the surrounding countship Comtat-Venaissin (which was governed by rectors since 1274) were united with the French crown.

Avignon and the Comtat did not become French until 1791. In 1274, the Comtat became a possession of the popes, with Avignon itself, self-governing, under the overlordship of the Angevin count of Provence (who was also king of "Sicily" [i.e., Naples]). The popes were allowed by the count of Provence (a papal vassal) to settle in Avignon in the early 14th century. The popes bought Avignon from the Angevin ruler for 80,000 florins in 1348. From then on until the French Revolution, Avignon and the Comtat were papal possessions, first under the schismatic popes of the Great Schism, then under the popes of Rome ruling via legates and vice-legates. The Black Death appeared at Avignon in 1348; killing almost two-thirds of the city's population.

Avignon and its popes

In 1309 the city, still part of the Kingdom of Arles, was chosen by Pope Clement V as his residence, and from 9 March 1309 until 13 January 1377 was the seat of the Papacy instead of Rome. This caused a schism in the Catholic Church. At the time, the city and the surrounding Comtat Venaissin were ruled by the kings of Sicily of the house of Anjou. The French King Philip the Fair, who had inherited from his father all the rights of Alphonse de Poitiers (the last Count of Toulouse), made them over to Charles II, King of Naples and Count of Provence (1290). Nonetheless, Phillip was a shrewd ruler. Inasmuch as the eastern banks of the Rhone marked the edge of his kingdom, when the river flooded up into the city of Avignon, Phillip taxed the city since during periods of flood, the city technically lay within his domain.

This period from 1309–1377 – the Avignon Papacy – was also called the Babylonian Captivity of exile, in reference to the Israelites' enslavement in biblical times.

 Seven popes resided there:

• Pope Clement V: 1305–1314
• Pope John XXII: 1316–1334
• Pope Benedict XII: 1334–1342
• Pope Clement VI: 1342–1352
• Pope Innocent VI: 1352–1362
• Pope Urban V: 1362–1370
• Pope Gregory XI: 1370–1378

Avignon, which at the beginning of the 14th century was a town of no great importance, underwent extensive development during the time the seven Avignon popes and two anti-popes, Clement V to Benedict XIII made their residences there. 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, was built the Palace of the Popes, in the form of an imposing fortress consisting of towers, linked to each other, and named as follows: De la Campane, de Trouillas, de la Glacière, de Saint-Jean, des Saints-Anges (Benedict XII), de la Gâche, de la Garde-Robe (Clement VI), de Saint-Laurent (Innocent VI). The Palace of the Popes belongs, in virtue of its severe architecture, to the Gothic art of the South of France. Other noble examples can be seen in the churches of St. Didier, St. Peter and St. Agricola, as well as the Clock Tower, and in the fortifications built between 1349 and 1368 for a distance of some three miles (5 km), and flanked by thirty-nine towers, all of which were erected or restored by the Roman Catholic Church. The frescoes that are painted on the interiors of the Palace of the Popes and the churches of Avignon were created primarily by artists from Siena.

Councils of Avignon

The Councils of Avignon are Councils of the Roman Catholic Church. The first reported council was held in 1060, though nothing is known about the events of the council. In 1080 another council was held, with Hugues de Dié, papal legate as council president. During the 1080 council Aicard, usurper of the See of Arles was deposed, and Gibelin placed in his position. Three bishops-elect (Lautelin of Embrun, Hugues of Grenoble, Didier of Cavaillon) accompanied the legate to Rome and were consecrated there by Pope Gregory VII.

(Source Wikipedia)