France Guide
Provence
The Palais des Papes
Price: €9.50, €11.50 for palace and the Pont, €7.50 with the Avignon Passion passport; ticket includes an audioguide; guided tours on request)
Opening time: Daily: summer 9am–7pm; winter 9.30am–6.30pm, subject to variations; last ticket 1hr before closing
Rising high above the east side of place du Palais is the vast Palais des Papes With its massive stone vaults, battlements and sluices for pouring hot oil on attackers, the palace was built primarily as a fortress, though the two pointed towers that hover above its gate are incongruously graceful. Inside the palace, so little remains of the original decoration and furnishings that you can be deceived into thinking that all the popes and their retinues were as pious and austere as the last official occupant, Benedict XIII.