Day 65: l'Isle sur la Sorgue to Avignon

April 23, 2025

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We were looking forward to today as kind of a last day in paradise, cycling through the idyllic Provence countryside. It was not really to be, and it started with Google handing us an arcane track through back lanes to get out of l'Isle sur la Sorgue.

Ok, now follow this big road, and don't complain, because it has a shoulder.

and hold your breathe going through here.

All that took us to the nondescript outskirts of Avignon.

Until at last we reached the city wall. Once you pass the city wall, everything changes.

Inside the city wall, Avignon switches from being a nondescript cityscape to a more pleasing and familiar, but also rather nondescript French old town scape.

OK, an interesting tower (Tour des Augustins).

We are used to thinking of Avignon (to the extent that we are used to it) from the famous bridge to the Papal Palace to the clock Tower, and carousel in Place de l'Horloge. That is, from North to South. Coming this way, our hotel the Hotel Medieval, is found on a tiny one way street just a bit east of that north-south axis. But this time, we came into town from the east, busting though the wall at the extreme easterly St Lazare gate. That kind of upset our sense of where we were. It had the beneficial effect of us wandering about a bit (a lot) and in that way getting to see and appreciate bits we might not have stumbled through otherwise.

After dropping our bikes at reception in the hotel, we set off on foot. Our idea was both to look around the town and also to find the train station. The train station part came about because tomorrow we will train up the Rhone, all the way to Macon. Looking at our ticket, we saw that we would have only 36 minutes to change trains in Lyon - a 50/50 proposition. So we wanted to find the station, to talk about other options.

But first, of course, the Market. Indoor markets in France are called Les Halles, after a market (no longer existing) that was called that in Paris. In Avignon, Les Halles is a fairly modest building, but with the unique feature that one outside wall is covered with plants.

As with most things in France, the market hall has a long history, tracea ble in this case back to the 16th century, when the land it is built on was confiscated from a man executed as a heretic. The actual hall dates from 1624.

Inside, we didn't try to document everything on offer, and in fact it was technically just standard stuff. But a lot of it was very beautiful, in terms of colour and arrangement. Like this:

... and this:

We are always interested in strawberry varieties, quality, and pricing. Today we tried the rather small berries, labelled Gariguette. They were great, being red all the way through and nicely sweet. There were two other varieties. Maybe tomorrow we'll try at least one of them.

We had sandwiches in our backpack, but we succumbed to temptation at the rotisserie stall. The photos show why:

We put that stuff into the pack and completed our walk around the market.

And of course I always look for at least one of a school of fish.

We left the market and found a bench in a square (Place St Jean) containing a lonely looking out of place tower. The tower is a remnant of a building erected in the 13th century by guys ("hospitalers") named the Hospitalers of Saint John of Jerusalem. The story is a bit complicated, but anyone reading French and with patience can check out the historical marker, shown below.

For us the square was just a good place to find a bench, though we could not ignore the tall tower. The square did however also have an apartment building on one corner. This fueled our usual delusional exercise of choosing which apartment we would like to live in. The fifth floor corner one with a balcony looks good!

We then began a rather misguided trudge, back out toward the wall, loosely heading for the train station. This took us quite beyond our "usual" Avignon strolling territory, and allowed us to discover some new things.

Some new "typical" streets:

One of the new streets was called "Rue des Teinturiers" - street of the dyers. This street came about because a branch of the Sorgue runs into town along it. The water runs in a channel, sometimes disappearing under the pavements and reappearing, until it totally disappears. Eventually, of course, it must find its way to the Rhone.

The historical marker for "Rue des Teinturiers" talks about a lot of stuff, like the Grey Penitents and the mysterious House #4. We were not quite sure what this was all about, but I happily snapped away with the camera:

House of the (now invisible) number 4 (?)

After this rather confusing bit of stroll, we bust back out through the wall, well south and west of where we had first entered the city. We promptly continued south and east, exactly away from the train station. Eventually we asked a lady, who put us on the right track. Why did we need a lady, and not the GPS? Sometimes a human is just better!

Ahh, the train station! They told us our ticket is good all day and there are lots of trains to choose from, so no stress!

From the station the way to the heart of the city is clear - it's straight down Rue de la Republique. Rue de la Republique immediately gained favour with me, for having not one but two Marie Blanchere bakery outlets. But the street is also the main walking street of town, and the one with the more upscale stores and buildings.

The street arrives at Place de l'Horloge, in front of city hall. Of course, it's a place for street side dining.

All though the town, inside the wall, we encountered these electric busses. They are a bit dangerous, because they are so quiet, though they do go "Ding, Ding" when provoked. They also seem to be free. You can flag them down at any point.

At the end of the street is this hotel with the significant name of Hotel du Palais des Papes. The first time we were here, we thought this was our hotel, except it was closed - an apparent ruin. Today it was in operation, though its state of repair does not appear great.

We walked beside the hotel, to get the first view of the actual Palais des Papes, with Notre Dame les Doms church beside.

The Palace of the Popes is perhaps the largest medieval gothic structure in Europe. It was a fortress and papal residence throughout the 14th century. In the end, seven Popes resided here.

The area in front of the Papal Palace is Palace Square. This came about when in 1404 Pope Benedict XIII had all the buildings cleared from around the palace, to create a defensive zone.

The palace is partly built on a rock called the rock of the Doms. We slipped around the palace in a narrow lane, from which one could see rock and also buttresses and towers of the palace.

By this route we were soon back at our own medieval hotel. One of its "medieval" features is that in the corridor you can find yourself in the pitch dark, when a spring loaded door closes behind you and there are no immediately apparent lights. This happened to me as I was carrying bags to our room. I was glad of my phone flashlight, which got me out of there. Our room, though small, is perfectly functional, and even has a fridge and stove. I am not sure what they think we will do with the stove, as there are no pots, plates, or cutlery.

Tomorrow we leave Provence and set off on another phase of the tour. We will be hopping on La Voie Bleu, the cycle route joining the Moselle and the Saone. It's 700 km long, but we won't stick with it beyond Chalon. We'll be in Burgundy alright (near Dijon, and in Besancon), but then we'll veer off on EV 6 past Mulhouse, and then we'll go through Alsace to Strasbourg. We'll be sad to leave Provence, and we are already plotting a return to here, Camargue, and Mallorca. But cheer up, Burgundy and Alsace are going to be fun too!

Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 1,940 km (1,205 miles)

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Tricia GrahamWe have very warm feelings about the Hotel Medieval. It was here last year that we finished our ride. Looking at my mobility we were given a huge room on the ground floor opening onto the terrace where breakfast is served. It was here also we left our bikes with the boss man who had a connection with charity. Did you know that the Voie Bleu now goes all the wayto Lyon,it was great
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1 week ago

CHRISTOPHER JAMESFor your next visit, check out the luberon, just to the north and east of Avignon. I was just there a couple weeks ago. Fantastic cycling on roads with like one car per hour. And plenty of little villages where one can have a coffee and lunch. Have a great rest of your trip!
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6 days ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Tricia GrahamThe young man at the desk remembered us from our stay last year. It is always great to find such good service at an Hotel. We will always return to the Medieval, it is such a nice place.
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6 days ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo CHRISTOPHER JAMESWe hope to return to Provence and spend several weeks just wandering around on the quiet roads, exploring the villages, and enjoying the weather.
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6 days ago