Paris

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The main highlights of this visit are the wall tapestries or what's left of it, because in the 19th century when the palais was a military barrack, the heads were hacked off the frescoes and sold by the soldiers to clever amateurs!
The grand hall "Grand Tinel" was used for big receptions and feasts. Those popes were big eaters and didn't dislike good food and wine. They considered themselves of course of divine nature and nothing was too beautiful and expensive to show the wealth and power to the guests. Only golden and silver house ware. The utensils were carefully checked after every dinner to see if nobody pocketed some for later use or selling :-). If they caught you with some spoon, you were banned for life or sometimes even executed, depending on the popes good will. At the 3rd floor you can visit the bed room of the pope nicely restored Ceiling in French larch. Nice mosaic pavement.
To finish your visit you will pass a fairly nude pontifical chapel , housing very often prestigious exhibitions. ( Picasso in 95, Rodin in 96)
In September 1376, the scientist Pierre Roger returned from Avignon to Rome as pope Gregorius XI (1370-1378). He never returned in the small town of Provence. His sea trip to Rome was nearly a disaster and took 4 months to arrive! Gregorius died 8 years after his election, he was not 50 years old. With his dead the Great Schism that divided the roman catholic church began. An Italian was elected, Urbanus V, the French protested, and elected a certain Robert de Geneve as an anti- pope under the name Clementius VII, who resided obediently in Avignon. The schism was a fact now. The pope of Rome was recognized by Northern -Italy the German Empire Flanders and England . The French pope of course by the French king, kingdom of Naples. Europe's kings and princes, were a little (an understatement) puzzled by all this complicated situations and decided to dismiss the 2 popes and elect a third one in Rome who would be less a pain in the ass, avoiding the worst. So, at one time the world had 3 popes !
Let's leave the Palais des papes and climb to the Rocher des Dombs. It is like discovering the quiet parts of Montmartre. In Avignon, the spot of the "Rocher des Doms" has the reputation you can breath easier in the hot summer. It was built in the 19th century as an agreeable park, with benches , balconies , small tents to have cool drinks and wonderful views: to the west, the Rhone with its famous "Pont Saint-Benezet" ( Le Pont d'Avignon) and at the other side the tower of Philippe IV and the old villa areas of the wealthy clergy in Villeneuve-les-Avignon. Coming down from the rock , let's concentrate on Notre-Dame-des-Doms. The history doesn't tell us the origins of this Sancta Maria del Duomo. My opinion is that the early Christians noticed the coolness of the rock in the summer, the safety against enemies and that it gave them power, a place where the Durance and the Rhone are almost to meet. This early Christian settlement came very damaged out of the "dark " medieval centuries around the year 1000. After repair it reopened in 1065 and the reconstruction is said to have continued until the 12th century.

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