This full day Marseille shore trip visits Avignon, including the Palace of the Popes, then travels to the Provencal Luberon region, famous for its small, hilltop towns.
After meeting your driver guide, you depart for Avignon. In 1309, Pope Clement V moved the seat of the Catholic Church from Rome to Avignon, judging Rome unsafe at the time. Six more French Popes resided here after his death in 1314, and Avignon grew into a cultural center with a flourishing university and the fortified Palais des Papes. From 1378 into the early 1400s, two rival Popes, one in Avignon and one in Rome, each claimed the papacy, until the seat permanently returned to Rome. The historic center of Avignon, including the Papal Palace and the Pont d'Avignon, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
The Palais des Papes is composed of two buildings, built one after the other in the mid 1300s. Unlike the Vatican, this palace was fortified to withstand attack, with battlements, turrets, and arrow slits. Today the interior is largely empty aside from tapestries and frescoes, and you can tour it by audio guide (entry fee not included) to imagine how the Popes lived. Afterward, you can climb to the Rocher des Doms, a park with views over the town and the Pont Saint-Benezet. This medieval bridge was once nearly 3,000 feet long with 22 arches, before 17th century floods reduced it to the 4 arches that remain today, made famous by the French children's song "Sur le Pont d'Avignon."
Your next stop is one of the small towns of the Luberon Valley, just east of Avignon. For many travelers, this area is the Provence they picture before they arrive: medieval villages such as Gordes, Lacoste, Menerbes, and Roussillon, perched on or clinging to rocky hills, built in these dizzying locations for defense during centuries of regional conflict. There is no single must see site, just the character of the villages themselves, so take your time rather than rushing between stops.
While in the Luberon Valley you will have free time for lunch (meal not included). The strong wind that blows in from the Mediterranean, known as the mistral, has shaped the local landscape and architecture, from windowless south facing walls to hollow bell towers built from wrought iron instead of stone. Lavender fields bloom in July, sunflowers in June, and wild red poppies in May, lining the paths between vineyards and olive groves. You end your day back at the Marseille pier where your tour began.
Review Location- Marseille 
