BEN LAMINE ADEL

Visiting Palais des Papes was an unforgettable experience. The architecture and history are truly impressive, and the views over Avignon are beautiful. The visit was well organized, and the audio/interactive experience helped bring the history to life. A must-see landmark when visiting Avignon — highly recommended!

The Papal Palace in Avignon is a place I had dreamed of visiting for a very long time. It is incredibly beautiful, atmospheric, and absolutely massive — a place you truly need to experience in person. Take your time for it. Before visiting, grab a delicious ice cream, enjoy a cup of coffee, and then simply go and immerse yourself in this beautiful place — its atmosphere, incredible history, stunning gardens, spiral staircases, and the grand architectural vision of the entire palace. I highly recommend walking around Avignon first, then visiting the Papal Palace and truly soaking in the history of France — a magnificent country with an incredible heritage.

Visiting the Palais des Papes was disappointing, to say the least. Some rooms had a strong, very unpleasant smell that made it hard to enjoy. The space feels very empty, and with little context or display, it’s difficult to appreciate its history and significance. We combined it with the Pont Avignon ticket, which is fine, but it would not mean much if you don't know the folk song about the bridge.

This is a key historical landmark to visit if you are visiting Avignon for the first time. Huge place so give yourself at least a couple of hours to spend time in each room/location. We got the tickets for the palace and the gardens. Tickets come with the histopad. It's a tablet that provides an augmented reality view of how some spaces used to look. The histopad is a nice touch but I felt that it was somewhat distracting when we were walking within the castle. I felt my attention was divided between the tablet in my hands and the environment. Instead of absorbing the environment when you first walk into a room, you feel compelled to view the information on the tablet. And there was also some write-up in the rooms although not all of them were in English. I realised after the visit that they do have audio guides available - so if you are prefer listening instead of reading off the tablets, I would recommend that you get that option too. Beautiful view of Avignon from the top of the castle and loved the garden.

So fascinating. It's sizeable grandeur are amazing. I heard people apologizing or setting expectations that it has no furnishings or is not like Versailles. Yes, but that is not the point of this massive structure. The interior wall painting and political reasons for it all are the point. It is worth a visit for sure. And it is so well restored and conserved.

We were a group of 4 adults and we were happy we visited it. We found the history interesting. 2 of us has the tablets for the virtual tour. The devices have a great interactive experience and available in multiple languages. They weren't always the most user friendly and often even glitchy so that was a bit frustrating. For instance, you can scan the QR code and see a rendering of the space to show you what it used to look like and silhouettes of people and where they could've been in the rooms. This was very cool! But then, it's like the experience would time out and it wouldn't always let you go back to continue looking at it. 2 of us didn't want to be carrying tablets and chose to share instead, so the timing out was frustrating and if you don't have it, there's not a whole lot to look at in the rooms and information mostly in French with some signage in multiple languages or at least English. The garden area was nice and climbing up the stairs and around the base of the roof we had done nice views. We liked it enough and would even recommend if you go there to do it, but we wouldn't go back.

I was almost alone during my visit. I'm not usually into historical monuments, but this is worth a visit for the rooftop views if nothing else. Don't miss the Parc du Rocher des Dons (free to enter) behind. A great spot for lunch in the shade with more spectacular views.

It's a impressive site, architectural and historically it's interesting but the inside is a bit underwhelming. There's very little to see, very little remains of the decorations and there's nothing else other than the building itself. The signage is lacking and difficult to navigate around, disappointed to find that you can't access any of the higher points or ramparts.