Can there be any more evocative place in the South of France than Avignon? With its remarkable history dating from the Stone Age to its highlight as the seat of the Papacy from 1309 to 1377 after they vacated Rome to escape the corruption that ruled there at the end of the 13th and early 14th centuries. Just getting into the site of the old city between the rocks and old Medieval Ramparts was a thrill we shall never forget. Also, the view down onto the old stone bridge across the Rhone (which was one of only three permitting access to the North in ancient times), elicited all manor of imaginings concerning who, and when, and how.
Then just a year later (1974), Lawrence Durrell published Monsieur, the first of the 5 novels that make up the Avignon Quintet, and I was fortunate enough to get him to inscribe my copy for our eldest son, Caradoc, who was named after a character from his earlier two novels Tunc and Nunquam (The Revolt of Aphrodite) ......... all of this obviously rendering Avignon even more indelibly in our minds.
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The Old Stone Bridge at Avignon
Entrance to the old walled City
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