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Featured Special – Loire Valley Classic Loire – standard 7 nights or 4 nights Refer to this newsletter and get 70 euros off per person! Must be booked by May 15, for travel between June 1-August 30, 2008. For further details, visit http://www.discoverfrance.com/regions/loirevalley_cycling_tour_sgp3.html http://www.discoverfrance.com/regions/loirevalley_cycling_tour_sgp4.html Upgrades possible to Chateaux Hotels, please inquire for rates!
Rich History of Avignon The site of Avignon was settled very early on! The rocky outcrop (le Rocher les Doms) at the north end of the town, overlooks the Rhône, and may have been the site of a Celtic oppidum or hill fort. Avignon , written as Avennio or Avenio in the ancient texts, takes its name from the Avennius clan. Founded by the Gallic tribe of the Cavares or Cavari, Avenio became the heart of an important Phocaean colony from Massilia (present Marseilles ). Under the Romans, Avenio was one of the most prosperous cities of Gallia Narbonensis, the first Transalpine province of the Roman Empire . However, very little from this period remains (a few fragments of the forum near Rue Molière). During the inroads of the barbarians, Avenio was badly damaged in the 5th century and belonged to the Goths, the kingdoms of Burgundy and of Arles , the Ostrogoths and the Frankish-Merovingian kings of Austrasia . In 736, this land fell into the hands of the Saracens and was destroyed in 737 by the Franks under Charles Martel for having sided with the Arabs against him. Boso, having been proclaimed Burgundian King of Provence , or of Arelat (after its capital Arles ), by the Synod of Mantaille. At the death of Louis the Stammerer (879), Avignon ceased to belong to the Frankish kings. In 1033, when Conrad II fell heir to the Kingdom of Arelat , Avignon passed to the empire. The German rulers being at a distance, Avignon was set up as a republic with a consular form of government, between 1135 and 1146. In addition to the Emperor, the Counts of Forcalquier, of Toulouse and of Provence exercised a purely nominal sway over the city. On two occasions, in 1125 and in 1251, the latter two divided their rights in regard to it, while the Count of Forcalquier resigned any right he possessed to the local Bishops and Consuls in 1135. In 1309, the city was chosen by Pope Clement V as his place of residence. The city and the surrounding Comtat Venaissin were ruled by the kings of Sicily from the house of Anjou , and from 9 March 1309 till 13 January 1377, it was the seat of the Papacy instead of Eternal Rome. French King Philip the Fair, who had inherited from his father all the rights of Alphonse de Poitiers, the last Count of Toulouse, made them over to Charles II, King of Naples and Count of Provence (1290). Nonetheless, Phillip was a shrewd ruler. In as much as the eastern banks of the Rhone marked the edge of his kingdom, when the river flooded up into the city of Avignon , Phillip taxed the city since during periods of flood as the city technically lay within his domain. Regardless of the strength of the donation of Avignon , Queen Joanna I of Sicily , as countess of Provence , the city was sold to Clement VI for 80,000 florins on 9 June, 1348 and, though it was later the seat of more than one antipope. Avignon belonged to the Papacy until 1791, when, during the disorder of the French Revolution, it was reincorporated with France . Seven popes resided at Avignon : Pope Clement V Continued at http://www.discoverfrance.com/france_travel_info/avignon.html
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