Remparts d'Avignon

What makes it special

Look up at the top of the wall first. The crenellations shielded a walkway, the chemin de ronde, and each gate once closed with a drawbridge, a portcullis and a pair of heavy wooden doors. The popes built the circuit in the 1350s, and on the south side most of the battlements you see are 19th-century restoration.

Then look at the gates themselves. Each one was adapted so it could be sealed with a temporary dam, because the Rhône in flood was the threat the walls were mostly built to hold back. Viollet-le-Duc, who led the restoration, judged these the finest town walls left in France.

Along the river, between the Porte Saint-Jacques and the Rocher des Doms, is the one stretch that never had a moat. Everywhere else, water drawn from the Sorgue and the Durance once ran along the base of the wall.

Visiting

Two parts make up a visit: a short stretch on top of the wall at the Rhône end, and the loop round the outside. Start at the bridge entrance and climb onto the ramparts, which run on into the Rocher des Doms gardens. From the wall, steps lead down onto the Pont Saint-Bénézet itself.

That entrance is shared with the bridge, and a fee can apply to the upper stretch, so ask at the desk as you go in. Back on the ground, walk the outside of the wall in either direction. The loop passes Avignon-Centre station on the south side and brings you back to the river.

Tips

Pick a still day if you can: the Mistral blows for 120 to 160 days a year, and it makes the bridge and the open rampart path hard going. Do the stretch on top first, before the gardens close. To cycle the loop instead, the tourist office on cours Jean Jaurès has an easy, flat rampart route that starts from its door.