Avignon
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Avignon is a city in Provence, France, and the main city of Vaucluse.
It is famous for its theater festival in July, for its broken bridge le pont d'Avignon on which is based a traditional French song called Sur le pont d'Avignon. This is also the city where the popes lived in the XIVth century, in place of the Vatican.
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Orientation
The orientation is not so complicated in the city center. The center is delimited by city walls all around. Just beside the city walls on the North and at the West lies the river Rhône on which is the famous Ile de la Barthelasse island. South of the city walls lies the train station Avignon centre. Inside the walls, the main orientation marks are the huge building of Palais des papes, which is just next to the place de l'horloge square which is quite easy to recognize, with all its cafés on terrace. The street going straight from this square to the train station is also a good mark for orientation, it's called la rue de la république. On this street you will find the tourist office. After the tourist office the street changes its name to Cours Jean Jaurès, named after a famous early XXth French politician.
Another mark to know is les Halles and the place Pie square just next to it. Les Halles is a covered market with a car parking on higher levels. You can follow the street rue de la bonneterie to go from the place de l'horloge to les Halles. Continuing on this street after les Halles, you will reach the paved street rue des teinturiers which is very active and refreshing in summer because of the cool river Sorgue running next to it, but also a bit dead and cold in winter.
Come to Avignon
- By train : [1]. Avignon is at the crossroad of Paris-Marseilles/Nice and Spain/Montpellier-Marseilles or Spain-Montpellier/Lyon ways. In other words, there are plenty of trains stopping in Avignon. Note that there are two big train stations in Avignon : the first and old one is called "Avignon Centre" and is really next to the historical city center. The second one is newer and farther, called "Avignon TGV" and as its name suggests it is mainly used by french fast trains TGV. A shuttle links the two stations.
- By coach : the regional coach station is just next to the train station "Avignon centre", a few steps from the historical city thus.
- By car : the highway A7 (Paris-Marseilles) has two exits to Avignon.
Transports inside the city
Buses are the main public transports in the city. They are convenient when you have to go outside the city center, however all the distances inside the center are easily done walking. There is also a free shuttle-boat which crosses the river Rhône, on the north side, to reach the island de la Barthelasse.
Activities and tourism
Some places to know :
- The broken bridge pont d'Avignon (former name is pont St Bénezet)
- The palais des papes
- The rocher des Doms, in the garden just next to the palais des papes
- The place de l'horloge
- The island Ile de la Barthelasse from where you have the best view on the bridge.
- The streets rue Carnot and rue de la carreterie along with the square place des Carmes
People in Avignon also have the chance to have plenty of theaters nearby, and an excellent independent cinema called Utopia. There can be sometimes rock concerts on the place Pie, next to les Halles.
In Case of Emergency
- Police Station:
- Health Urgency:
- Hospital:
- Fireman Station:
- Embassy:
- Emergency Doctor:
Links
- If you have any question don't hesitate to post a message on CS Provence's dedicated group : http://www.couchsurfing.com/group.html?gid=197
- Avignon on Wikipedia :
