Avignon; Monday, 27 November, 2023

I checked out of the hotel, leaving my luggage with reception, as I had a couple of hours to kill before my train back to Marseille.

I popped over to the local bus station, located just inside the city walls, as apposed to the regional bus station under the hotel, and caught the bus round to Villeneue-lès-Avignon. Today the area is just a part of the city, but when it was originally built by the French Kings it was in a totally separate country with the border running down the centre of the Rhône.

Occupying the high ground on cliffs overlooking the river the Abbey of Saint-André took the opportunity to strike a deal with the French King and allowed him to offer them protection by building a fort around both the abbey and the other settlements on the top of the hill. The fact it also acted as a statement to the foreign popes in their own fortress across the river was pure co-incidence.

It was a short but very steep hike up from the bus stop to the entrance to the fort and then once inside a pretty hefty hike further up through the now almost empty fortress, with just a handful of buildings still standing, mostly in a ruined state, with the exception of the small Notre Dame chapel which is still standing in pretty good repair and open to look around.

From the chapel the suggested walking route takes you into the smaller of the two towers and from there up onto the ramparts from where there are stunning views out over the countryside and across the river to the city with the towers of the palace, cathedral and town hall all clearly visible on the horizon, with the lower parts of the city still hidden by trees even in late November.

I spent quite a bit of time looking round the fortress and by the time I made it back down to the bus and back into Avignon I only had about 30 minutes before my train so I headed back over to the hotel, grabbed my luggage and headed for the station.

Whilst the train today had come from much further away, it came in mostly empty so I was able to get a table to myself for the hour journey back to Vitrolles from where I wandered down to the shuttle bus stop to catch the local bus back to Marseille Airport and then the flight back home.