Enjoy a wonderful weekend exploring the walled ‘City of Popes’ – in watercolour!  There are dozens of fantastic sketch subjects in Avignon – including the infamous bridge – Le Pont Saint Benezet.  The city is largely pedestrianised and filled with incredible architecture, quant cafés, many churches, chapels and gardens and of course ‘the Pope’s Palace’.

Avignon’s colourful history makes it a perfect location to have fun with pigments and patterns!  In the Middle Ages the River Sorgue was diverted to form several canals. One of them, the Canal de Vaucluse, still runs through the city before joining the Rhône river.  From the 15th – 18th centuries, textile makers in Avignon took advantage of this water supply to create colourful, typically Provençal cotton textiles (even when they had been banned elsewhere in France).  At the height of the weaving boom, the mills were powered by 23 water wheels along the canal, whose water was also used to rinse the fabrics.  Most of the wheels were destroyed during the French Revolution but four still remain. It is in this charming and beautiful area of the city we find the rue des Teinturiers – known to local as rue des Roues – ‘Wheel Street’!  This will be just one of our sketching points in a fabulous weekend – do book soon as places will be limited.

Travel information

Avignon is easily accessible via many major airports including Marseille, Montpellier, Béziers and Nîmes, Avignon central station is a 5 minute walk from the city centre.

Where to stay

There are a number of hotels within the walled city centre which are ideal for a short weekend stay such as Hotel Le Médiéval – but here are some of the other options on Booking.com

Our sketching weekend starts on Friday evening with some warm-up sketches before heading out into the city on Saturday morning. I suggest you have comfortable shoes for walking and a sketch kit which includes both an A4 sketchbook for watercolour and pocket sized book for quick drawings & notes. A full list of materials will be provided on request.

If you would like to know more before booking, please send me an email to annette@sketchingfrance.com.