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Winter Warmth in Avignon by David Henderson Want to visit France, touch antiquity, get a deal on airfare, stay in four star hotels at budget prices, receive VIP treatment at the best restaurants and avoid crowds? You can have it all with a winter vacation to Avignon in the south of France.
In 1370, when Rome had calmed down and the pope was no longer needed as peacemaker between the French and English, the papacy was returned to Rome to rebuild a financially strapped church.
Don’t speak a word of French? No problem. Avignon opens its arms to tourists from around the world, and the English language is spoken everywhere. The shopping is superb, especially if you are looking for the finest selection of colorful house wares from Provence (and a lot cheaper than in high-class American kitchenware shops, which import it or copy it!).
Restaurants in Avignon are excellent and plentiful, whether for first-class dining or a local brasserie. All of them serve fresh local Merlot wines that come from the nearby Nîme region. So, the views are great, the food is great, the shopping is great. What's keeping you away?
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At
this time of year, when it’s a little too chilly to tour the sights
of Paris, Avignon in the heart of Provence is another story. Just
three hours south of Paris by high speed train, Avignon is a town
full of life and antiquity. The sun continues to cast an amber,
warm glow on Avignon, creating the kind of hazy light you only
experience in a masterpiece by a 19th century impressionist.
No wonder. Many painted in Avignon.
For
more than 70 years in the 14th century, Avignon was
home of the papacy which had been moved from Rome due to political
and militant civil war and chaos in Italy. Avignon’s central location
between major Christian centers in Europe made ecclesiastical
administration more efficient. And that was lucky for those
to whom it mattered, because the papacy could not have operated
in Rome anyway, for all the fighting going on.
Today, the papacy compound of that time still stands on a hill
at the southwest corner of Avignon, open to tourists. The location
provides expansive vistas of the nearby countryside where, as
legend has it, the Holy Grail is hidden and of the ancient Pont-St.-Bénézet
bridge, constructed between 1177 and 1185.
It
usually is not necessary to book hotel reservations in advance
to visit Avignon during the winter months. There's an abundance
of rooms. Check out the four-star hotels -- such as the
Mirande and Europe -- where you can find super deals on fine rooms.
But here's an important tip: you must ask for their best
price. It's not offered.