Avignon

Avignon's history spans more than 2,500 years.

The Popes held title to the city from 1300s through the French Revolution, and for 70 years, Avignon was the seat of Papacy -- instead of Rome. The Popes added walls around the centre, and built a grand palace on the rocky hillside above the Rhone River, the Palais des Papes. Natually, bankers, builders, and merchants quickly followed and Avignon became a thriving city.

My favorite part is the famous Pont d'Avignon, actually the Pont St. Benezet, a bridge originally built between 1171 and 1185, inspired by a simple shepherd boy, Benezet, who claimed that angels had ordered him to build a bridge across the river. Floods destroyed parts of the bridge by the late 1600s, but you can still visit the impressive remains, and, if you want, you can dance. The famous song about the bridge goes like this:

Sur le pont d'Avignon

L'on y danse, l'on y danse

Sur le pont d'Avignon

L'on y danse tous en rond

Les beaux messieurs font comm' ça

Et puis encore comm' ça

On the bridge of Avignon,

Everyone dances, everyone dances

On the bridge of Avignon

Everyone dances in a circle

The handsome men go like this (they bow)

And then they go like that.

The verses of the song go on in the same fashion to include the beautiful ladies, the soldiers, the gardeners, the tailors, etc. each adding a particular act to symbolize their status so we have ladies curtsying, soldiers saluting, etc.

They (meaning the hotel clerk, taxi drivers, and, of course, Wikipedia) say that the fine citizens of Avignon actually danced under the bridge and not upon it, but details of reality have never bothered songwriters. I would like to contribute one more verse to the song based on our experience.

On the bridge of Avignon,

Everyone dances, everyone dances

On the bridge of Avignon

Everyone dances in a circle

The happy tourists go like this (click)

And then they go like that.