Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th September 2025
Over the last couple of days, we have visited both Avignon and Aigues Mortes. Both are medieval cities with a history of involvement in the crusades.
Monday – Avignon, Provence:
The modern city of Avignon has spread far beyond the walls of its original fortifications, but the old city is still present to some degree.
The city is made famous in the French song, “Sur le pont d’Avignon”, about a dance performed on the bridge in Avignon.
The previous wooden bridge was replaced in the 13th century with a 12-arch stone bridge. The bridge is actually called, “Pont Saint-Bénézet” and only four arches survive, as in the mid 17th century it became too expensive to repair when the Rhone flooded, washing away much of the structure.
During the years 1309 and 1377, seven successive popes resided in Avignon. We chose to visit the Palais des Papes, built to fulfil the needs of the papacy at that time.
The Palais des Papes is huge and has many immense spaces within it, on a multitude of different levels. Wandering around is really disorientating as you seem to constantly ascend and descend staircases and some immensely high chapels seem to sit on top of others, equally high.
Tuesday – Aigues Mortes, Camargue:
Aigues Mortes is a walled citadel which was at one time on the Camargue coast, but is now around 5 miles inland, due to the expansion of the Rhone delta. The walls surrounding the town are remarkably complete and you are able to walk around the top of them (for a price).
In medieval times, it was where crusaders set off from to fight in the crusades. There are a number of very old churches in the town as a result. We visited one, The “Eglise Notre-Dame des Sablons”, which was beautifully proportioned and plane in its decoration.
The town itself is a popular tourist hotspot and there are many eating establishments and souvenir shops lining the streets.
Like Avignon, the town has spread out beyond the walls, but there is a lot of residential accommodation within the walled area. People really make an effort to make their houses look nice.
It seems like each time you look down a street, you see a gateway at the end:
The designated camping car parking was extremely full, mostly of cars, when we arrived. We were lucky to be able to park at all. The fee for an overnight stay is €22, and we were not that impressed, so we moved on. Our stop-over for tonight is free of charge, at a vineyard, “Domain de Montcalm” which is part of the “France Passion” scheme, around 10 km away. We spent the parking fee on wine! (a much better investment).
That is it for today. TTFN and see-u-later.
"See-u-Later" 
Aigues mortes is such a lovely town. Can be very busy during summer months. I visited it several times.
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Yes, the car park was full when we arrived and we had to be a little creative in positioning the motorhome. A lovely town, but as you say, very busy.
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