Living Arrangements and Excursions
Living Arrangements
Living arrangements in Avignon will be handled by Mme. Margarite Cassar, formerly of the Faculté des Lettres in Avignon. She also will arrange our excursions in the city and transportation for our trips to the Vaucluse and weekend outings. She has worked closely over the years with the theatre festival there and with all details associated with lodging.
Housing for some of the members of the seminar will be in the Foyer des Étudiantes de Provence. It is a monumental seventeenth-century mansion, three stories high with a beautiful interior courtyard. At the center of the courtyard is a fountain and formal garden. Others will live in a large neighboring house belonging to the Foyer. All rooms have washstands, some have showers, one a bathtub, but most do not have their own toilet. Rooms in the Foyer do not have electrical outlets. Given the disparity in accommodations, prices for rooms vary. Breakfast is included. In 2006, I asked participants to give first, second, and third choices. Where duplicated choices occurred, I made decisions based on drawing lots. Unfortunately, given the fluctuating value of the dollar against the euro, I cannot at present quote an approximate price for the rooms.
There is no air conditioning and Avignon can be very hot. The city is also plagued with mosquitoes and participants are well advised to bring repellent with them. If you need a fan, it would be wise to buy one that works on batteries. The city is crowded within narrow walls and walking--lots of it--is the best form of transportation. We have internet service in the Foyer, but participants usually do their email at a pleasant internet café a five-minute walk away.
Excursions
Among the excursions related directly to the subject of the seminar will be an extensive afternoon tour of the papal palace. Another walking tour includes the church of Notre-Dame des Doms and the Musée Calvet, both of which contain tombs of popes and cardinals mentioned by Petrarch as well as sculptures and paintings from the period. At Villeneuve-les-Avignon, across the Rhone are located the remains of other monuments of those years including the tomb of Innocent VI. Although nothing remains of Petrarch's dwelling in the Vaucluse, a small museum now occupies the site and the Sorgue, the fields, and the hills remain largely unchanged. I will hold the third and the fifteenth meetings of the seminar on the lawn next to the stream by the so-called Maison de Pétrarque. Participants usually like to have their weekends free. On a one-day trip we usually take interested participants to visit Aigues Morte and the Camargues and have a swim in the Mediterranean. For participants who want to range more widely, the Côte d'Azur is less than two hours away and medieval villages abound in the region within a half-hour from Avignon. The area is also a gastronome's paradise.