Courtyard of the Palais des Papes

I was still early morning at Avignon but the Palais des Papes was already open for visits. This was good since I don’t want the place to be swarming with visitors just yet. It is nice to be able to visit places as if you were the only person there. Although there were already visitors by the time I entered, it still wasn’t that bad. We got our audio and video guides as we started to make our way further into the castle. Although the Palais des Papes was massive, exploring the place was made more enjoyable because of the audio and video guides which were handed to us. While we were trying to make our way to the next spot, there would be commentary on what we are seeing.

Reconstruction at the Palais des Papes

Visitors would first have to go through the courtyard of the Palais des Papes. It is then visitors get to realize how large this palace actually is. There is a huge open area surrounded by the high walls of the palace. It seems to be incredible that this was the seat of power of the pope during the Avignon papacy. Visiting this place makes it feel like the popes were more like kings rather than servants as they were supposed to be. This is probably why a lot of people got turned off from the religion because of the behavior of these people. Granted that not all of these popes were bad people. These people might have also been victim to the power play between France and Rome at that time.

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