Deep dives into Avignon's papal era, UNESCO sites, and cultural heritage
Showing 6 of 22 posts
Around 45-50 minutes from Avignon by bus, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is the chic face of the Alpilles - a beautifully renovated old town, a Roman site at its doorstep, and the monastery where Van Gogh painted The Starry Night. It is touristy and it is pricey, but it is also impossible not to like. Here is a local's honest guide.
Twenty minutes by train from Avignon sits a city with the best-preserved Roman temple on earth and an amphitheatre that still fills with crowds. But Nîmes is no museum piece - it is a living, working city with gardens, markets and a bull culture that defines its calendar. A local's honest guide.
Ask this Avignon local for one day trip and the answer is always Arles. A short train ride delivers you into one of the most charming towns in Provence - Roman arenas, Van Gogh's streets, an unbeatable market, and the famous light that has drawn painters and photographers for centuries. Here's how to do it properly.
Provence was the first Roman province outside Italy, and the monuments they left behind are among the finest anywhere - some of them a short train ride from Avignon. A local's honest guide to the Roman theatres, arenas, temples and aqueducts worth your time, which need a car, and which one quietly beats them all.
Everyone knows the song, but almost no one knows why the bridge on it simply stops in the middle of the Rhône. Here is the real story of the Pont Saint-Bénézet - the shepherd, the floods, and the song that got it wrong - plus an honest take on whether it is worth your ticket.
For three weeks every July, Avignon becomes the beating heart of world theatre. Here is everything you need to know about the IN, the OFF, tickets, parking, food and the electric atmosphere - from someone who lives here.
