Remparts d'Avignon: Travel Guide (4.5★)

Step out of Avignon-Centre station and cross the road. You are standing under a crenellated stone wall, with the Porte de la République cut through it ahead of you. Most visitors walk straight through the gate towards the Palais des Papes. Stop and look up first. The wall you just passed under wraps the whole old town, and it has done so since the 1300s.

Stone that circles the old town

The walls are built from pale limestone blocks. They run for roughly 4.3 km around what Avignonnais call intra-muros, the town inside the walls. The popes built them in the mid-14th century, when Avignon was the seat of the papacy. Innocent VI started the work and Urban V finished it.

Look along the top and you’ll see a regular row of crenellations. Square towers stand out from the wall at intervals. Below them, projecting machicolations had openings in the floor that let defenders drop things on anyone at the base. The moat that once ran outside was filled in during the 19th century.

Around the same time, Viollet-le-Duc restored parts of the walls. He is the architect behind the heavily rebuilt Carcassonne. That explains why some stretches look so crisp for their age.

Reading the wall: gates and towers

The circuit is punctuated by gates, and each one gives you a different entry into the old town. These are the ones worth recognising:

• Porte de la République: opposite Avignon-Centre station, leading onto Rue de la République.
• Porte de l’Oulle: on the western side facing the Rhône. The riverside parking and the Barthelasse shuttle boat are close by.
• Porte Saint-Roch: on the southern stretch, a short walk west of the station.
• Porte Saint-Lazare and Porte Limbert: on the quieter eastern side, away from the river.

Several gates were widened or added in later centuries for traffic. You’ll notice arches that are too broad and too clean to be medieval, sitting next to original stonework.

The short climb between bridge and rock

You can’t walk along the top of most of the circuit. The stretch everyone wants is the short section near the Pont Saint-Bénézet, the half-bridge from the nursery song Sur le pont d’Avignon. There the wall climbs towards the Rocher des Doms, the rocky outcrop beside the Palais des Papes.

From up here you get the view the editorial summary promises. The Rhône spreads wide below you and the bridge’s four surviving arches stop mid-river. Across the water sit the Île de la Barthelasse and the Philippe le Bel tower at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. The stairs are narrow and uneven, so give yourself 20 to 30 minutes on this section.

Getting to the walls

The walls come to you. If you arrive by regional train at Avignon-Centre, the Porte de la République is directly across the road. From Avignon TGV station, outside town, take the shuttle train to Avignon-Centre.

If you’re driving, stay outside the walls. Park in one of the car parks along the ring road and walk in through the nearest gate. The narrow streets inside are not built for cars. For the riverside stretch, walk to the Porte de l’Oulle or head down Rue Ferruce to the bridge.

Timing around Sunday and the mistral

Access is listed as 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and closed on Sunday. If your only free day in Avignon is a Sunday, you can still walk the outside. You won’t get the climb above the river.

The mistral is the other thing to plan around. This strong, cold north wind blows down the Rhône valley regularly, and it hits hardest on exposed high ground like the wall top and the Rocher des Doms. On a mistral day, bring a layer and hold onto your hat.

In July, the Festival d’Avignon packs the old town. That’s the month when a quiet walk along the walls is hardest to find.

Walking the ring without the traffic

The walls get far fewer visitors than the palace and the bridge. You can often have a stretch to yourself, but only if you walk them the right way.

• Walk inside, not outside. A busy ring road runs along the outer face. Just inside, small streets named Rue du Rempart (du Rempart Saint-Roch, du Rempart de l’Oulle and others) follow the wall and are much calmer.
• Do the full loop in stages. The complete circuit takes 1 to 1.5 hours at an easy pace. Most people do the river side one day and the eastern gates another.
• Photograph from across the river. The classic view of the walls, bridge and palace together is from the Île de la Barthelasse. A small shuttle boat runs there from near the Porte de l’Oulle; check at the landing whether it’s running.
• Greet before you ask. If you need directions from someone in a shop along the walls, start with bonjour. In Provence, skipping it comes across as rude.
• Pay attention at the ticket desk. Wall-top access is tied to the bridge site. Current prices and any combined tickets are posted at the Pont Saint-Bénézet entrance and on the official site.

After the walls

Everything big in Avignon is within a ten-minute walk of the wall top. The Rocher des Doms garden has a pond, shady benches and a viewpoint over the river. Just below it are the Palais des Papes and the Romanesque Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms.

The Place de l’Horloge is a few minutes further south, lined with café terraces. If you have a spare half day, cross the Rhône to Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. From the Fort Saint-André there, you look back across the river at the whole walled city.