Avignon in April

[MinnieMountain]

I’m going to Avignon for a long weekend in early April.

I’ve booked a nice restaurant. I’ll go to the Palace of the Popes. What else should I do?

I booked it because I can get there by train and it looks pretty.

Avignon is lovely - only been in the summer, but a nice place to wander through the old streets and fairly compact within the city walls. As I recall, there's an indoor market there which would be worth dropping in to see. Not sure what else there is to do other than the Palace and Pont St Benezet, but it's an easy trip by train to Nimes so you could go there to visit the amphitheatre. The Pont du Gard should be easily accessible as well - possibly by bus - and well worth a trip. Just sitting outside a restaurant in Avignon in the sunshine with some local food and a glass of wine would be my idea of a perfect afternoon . Have a great time!

Thank you @stringbean . The Pont du Gard looks easy to get to.

We stayed in Avignon. You can get a train round the town. Walk by the river. We took a train to Nimes and some people went to Marseille.

I go to Avignon regularly (live nearby). Pont du Gard is easy to get to by bus and 100% worth it.
The indoor Market is Les Halles, the outside is more impressive than the inside 😅.
Palais des Papes, Le Petit Palais and Pont St Benezet are worth doing once but they're not free.

Le Rocher des Doms is a lovely place to go for a walk and chill (it's free).
The tourist office in the Rue de la Republic is really helpful, so definitely stop off there (you walk past it coming off the train in Avignon centre).
Weather can be a bit hit and miss in April, it can be quite hot or chucking it down. If it's sunny, the chances are there will be the Mistral (bloody annoying wind).

I second the mention of the tourist office - they have a great fold out map with some suggested walks. I had a wonderful time following these - occasionally getting lost but it didn't matter.

As an aside French tourist offices are amazing places with helpful English speaking staff and loads of maps, booklets, walks which they hand out for free.

Other nearby places I visited were Arles with it's stunning Roman forum and Orange with it's equally stunning Roman theatre! Both nice towns to wander around in too

When you go again for a longer holiday (and you will - there's so much to see and do in the area) Aix en Provence is gorgeous - about an hour away by coach. St Remy also has really interesting historic sites although the town itself is a bit dull.

My only slight disappointment was not finding any really outstanding places to eat - obviously you never eat badly in France but compared to holidays in Tours and Narbonne the bakeries were not as interesting and varied.

Friends of ours did a guided walking food tour in Avignon which they said was fabulous.

I was there one Christmas and the weather was lovely. The light was beautiful.

Just came back from there. Beautiful in spring. The town itself can be seen easily in a long weekend. Walk the ramparts and along the river, try and hit the market if you get the days/times right. Spring is much nicer than summer imo. Enjoy!

I'm getting excited now 😁

I’m eating here https://www.restaurantacte2.com/ Shame the bakeries aren’t as good but I’d better try a few to make sure.

Do shops generally shut on Sundays? (Memories of rural Germany).

Most shops shut on Sundays yup.