Responses from Christopher C

Hi Wendy, thank you so much for sharing your experience and for joining me in Avignon. I hope you and Eloise enjoy the rest of your vacation and hope to see you again in Provence. Cordialement Christopher @oohprovence

Responses from Christopher C

Thank you for your kind words - as always it's always nice to have feed-back, very much appreciated and I'm happy you enjoyed your visit in Avignon. Hope to see you again at some time in the future. Enjoy the rest of your stay in Provence.

Responses from Christopher C

Thank you both for joining me and I’m so pleased you enjoyed the time we spent together. Avignon is a gem of a town with a lot to discover when you look beyond what you first see. It was lovely to meet you and I’m happy to have shared this moment together. Come back next year and enjoy the Festival d’Avignon and the Rencontrés de La Photographie in Arles in July - I know you’d enjoy them both. Best wishes Christopher OohProvence

Responses from Christopher C

Thank you again, it was an absolute pleasure. Avignon is an interesting town and there is as well as the the world famous Palais des Papes, so much more to discover. I hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay in St Rémy and hope you can find time in the future to come back and visit us again. Christopher @OohProvence

Responses from Christopher C

Hi Kristofer, firstly thank you for joining me with your family on our tour in Avignon this week. I was slightly taken aback reading your comments as you seemed to be enjoying the time we spent together, given the slightly late start due to your train arrival and an early finish as you requested for lunch.

The key elements of this tour start at Les Halles d'Avignon because this gives an interesting facet of the authentic flavours of Provence from the industrialisation period to Peter Mayle and 'A Year in Provence'. So too the setting of Place Pie from the mid-1500's when the aristocrats Parpaille was executed as a heretic and how this area has evolved over the last almost 500 year's is, we feel very much more of the history of Avignon.

The second key element of this walking tour is to discover Rue des Teinturiers and the flourishing textile industry that thrived here from the 14th to 19th century. From the Maison du IV de Chiffre gothic house, the Grey Penitents Chapel, the bell tower from 1226 right up to present day Avignon Festival, all tell an important part of the story of Avignon - and it's that too that we hope to capture for our guests.

Finally of course, the magnificent Palais des Papes, as you so rightly point out. Here it is never our intention to give an in-depth historical tour - the Palais guides offer that, we don't. The histopad visual presentation supplied by the Palais does that job exceedingly well and in conversation, what I hope to do is engage with our guests and hopefully see beyond the history as presented and try to understand the privilege and wealth that was attributed to the Pope's in Avignon during that time as well as the political elements that had to have existed as history tells us. None of this is nor should be interpreted as 'anti-Pope', on the contrary, I use my experience, hopefully to challenge and raise a few questions. I'm sorry if that was misunderstood. What is equally fascinating about the Palais is its history after the Popes left Avignon up to and through the French Revolution to the opening to the public in the early 1900's - and in conversation it is some of that which hopefully interests our visitors beyond what is immediately visible.

Finally, this is a tour that really does need a full four hours to do it justice and unfortunately as you had another tour booked later on, we were slightly constrained in trying to do it in three. I should also add that I am a French national, but sorry you didn't feel the tour was well prepared.

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your stay in Lyon, and hope to see you back in Provence, some time in the future when time permits. Thank you for your feedback and your generosity. Have a good trip back to Chicago.

cordialement,

Christopher