Photo: Txllxt TxllxT (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of the papal quarter of Avignon and of the Palais des Papes along its own visitor route. It begins in the Place de l'Horloge, where a fourteenth-century Gothic tower still holds the clock and the figures that strike the hour, and climbs to the palace on the rock of the Doms: John XXII moved into the bishop's palace from 1316, and Benedict XII pulled most of it down and from 1335 built the Old Palace. Opposite stands the Hôtel des Monnaies, completed in 1619. Inside, the walk crosses the Cour d'honneur and goes through the Consistory, the cloister of Benedict XII, the Grand Tinel, where the cardinals were walled in for conclaves, the pope's bedroom in the Tour des Anges, the Chambre du Cerf, painted in 1343 for Clement VI with hunting and fishing scenes, the Grande Chapelle, 52 metres long and 20 metres high, and the Grande Audience beneath it. Outside again come the Romanesque cathedral of Notre-Dame-des-Doms, the garden on the Rocher des Doms above the Rhône, the Petit Palais, the Porte du Rhône of 1761 and the Pont Saint-Bénézet, which once had 22 arches and keeps four, with the chapel of Saint-Nicolas on its second pier. The rest of the old town has its own tour.
17 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 60 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Place de l’Horloge, Palais des Papes, Hôtel des Monnaies, Cour d’honneur, Consistory, Cloister of Benedict XII.
Grand Tinel, Pope’s Chamber in the Tour des Anges, Chambre du Cerf, Grande Chapelle, Grande Audience, Notre-Dame-des-Doms Cathedral.
Rocher des Doms Garden, Petit Palais, Porte du Rhône, Pont Saint-Bénézet, Chapel of Saint-Nicolas.
The palace on the rock of the Doms, rebuilt by Benedict XII from 1335 and enlarged by his successors; later a prison and barracks until 1906.
The banqueting hall above the Consistory, where the pope held feasts and where the cardinals were walled in during a conclave.
Clement VI's study, painted in 1343 with a continuous scene of hunting, fishing and fruit-picking, and not a saint among them.
The largest room in the palace, 52 metres long, 15 wide and 20 high, built for the solemn Masses of the papal court.
The rock about thirty metres above the Rhône, lived on since the Neolithic, whose top became a public garden in the 19th century.
The bridge begun in the late 12th century that once crossed the Rhône on 22 arches, about 920 metres long; four arches survive.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 17 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 17 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Avignon — the City of the Popes, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
17 narration points, including Palais des Papes, Cour d’honneur, Consistory, Grand Tinel and Grande Chapelle. That is about 18 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 17 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.