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is a commune in the Vaucluse department in southeastern France with an estimated mid-2004 population of 90,000 in the city itself and a population of 175,000 in the metropolitan area .
The city is well known for its Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes), where several popes and antipopes lived from the early 14th to early 15th centuries.
Avignon is situated on the left bank of the Rhône. Avignon occupies a large oval-shaped area, not fully populated and covered in great part by parks and gardens.
Avignon is often subject to windy weather, the strongest wind is the mistral
Avignon is the préfecture (capital) of the Vaucluse département in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur
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 from the house of Anjou. 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.
Regardless, on the strength of the donation of Avignon, Queen Joanna I of Sicily, as countess of Provence, sold the city to Clement VI for 80,000 florins on 9 June 1348 and, though it was later the seat of more than one antipope, Avignon belonged to the Papacy until 1791, when, during the disorder of the French Revolution, it was reincorporated with France.
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
The Pope's Palace 'Le Palais des Papes' and 'Pont St Bénezet', the first one has an impressive architecture and the works of art that it has inside are simply amazing, many of the rooms of this Palace was destroyed for the fire and now there is only one room fully furnished as it always was, the Pope's Palace has a Gothic structure and is well know for its size, this is the largest Gothic Palace in Europe. The Palace was built 1335-1364 on a natural spur of rock, rendering it all but impregnable to attack.
The other attraction of Avignon is the famous bridge, history says that this bridge was once used for carrying St Bénezet to Villeneuve, it had 22 wonderfull arches from which just three are left, anyway they are so majestic that you would imagine how wonderful looked with the other arches.
Avignon also has many old churches.
Avignon is an architectural city and it has a wonderful way of delimitating its perimeter, there are different walls in this city, one of them are the Roman walls constructed in the first century with a rectangular shape similar to the Roman constructions, unfortunately there is no document that verifies its exact delimitations. In the 13th century the King of France Louis VIII ordered to built other walls but they took some more time to get finished, they were concluded in 1248. The present day walls were ordered to be constructed by Innocent VI, the walls are aproximately 8 meters high and there are 35 high towers and 50 smaller, most of them of rectangular or square shape.
Festival d'Avignon
The festival of Dance, Music and Theatre was founded in 1947 by the actor and director Jean Vilar. (The 1996 festival was the 50th.)
The events occur all over town, often staged at historical monuments and in the streets, and with close audience rapport. This is now an international festival, with people from all over France, Europe and the rest of the world arranging vacations around the festival dates.

www.ot-avignon.fr