Vineyard - Aix-en-Provence countryside. Vineyard - Mont Ventoux. Tourist guides - Avignon and the surroundings. The Rue des Teinturiers is a picturesque, cobblestone street that follows the small channel of the Sorgue from the Rue des Lices all the way to the city walls. In the shade of the majestic sycamores and with the coolness coming from the canal, the street is particularly pleasant in summer. Whether you are a theatregoer or just here for the sights, you can enjoy the great ambiance from morning until late at night.
Discovering the history of this street, and the story of its denizens, means discovering the history of Avignon itself The street follows the narrow Sorgue river fed by the waters from the Fontaine de Vaucluse. In the 10th century, this water filled the moats at the foot of the city walls before becoming the driving force of the textile mills starting in The 16th century saw the birth of the cotton print factories that provided work for the cleaners and dyers and also tanners. It could even be said that the street and the Teinturiers quarter embody in themselves alone nearly the whole history of commonplace life in Avignon.
You will easily understand that as you stroll along this shaded and, during the Theatre Festival, very animated street. At the bottom of the Rue des Teinturiers, on the corner of the Rue des Lices, you can see one of the remaining chapels and the bell tower of what had been one of the biggest churches in Avignon in The monastery housed many burial chapels. At the time, cemeteries were outright meeting places for traders and shopkeepers, card players and prostitutes and there were even complaints that pigs unearthed the freshly buried corpses!
So it's easily understood why some notables chose this place to house their family tombs, such as the Cardinal Pierre de Foix, Avignon's first legate, the Baroncelli family and Laura of Noves, the the famous poet Petrarch's just as famous muse.
A bit further along, in the shade of the sycamores, stands the Grey Penitents' Chapel, open to the public. Let's continue our stroll. Crenellated, flanked by gargoyles and two turrets, the Maison du IV de Chiffre House of the Figure of 4 , built in on the corner of the Rue Guillaume Puy, is one of the last remaining gothic houses in Avignon.
