Avignon/Arles walking tours?
 

Anyone taken a good (English-language) walking tour of Avignon/Arles, either with a company or with a private guide? My wife and I will be visiting Provence with 2 teens, and our experience is that having a good guide can make a tremendous difference. I've seen lots of posts on guides and walking tours for Paris, but none for Avignon or Arles.

In my experience, you will really not need a walking guide in Avignon. The city is very small and you will have many opportunities to tour the sites. We did stay in the old part of the city so walking to the "usual sites" was very easy. Avignon, much to our surprise, seemed like a very hip city. I think this has alot to do with the TGV making its way there.

We used Fodors and the Rough Guide to Provence for our stay in Avignon. There's a McDonalds there is you can believe it!!!!!!!

BTW~there are tapes you can listen to at places like the Palace des Papes and the Pont D'Avignon where you can listen in English. You won't need a tour guide.

One of our most memorable meals was lunch at La Fourchette. It will work with teens.

krishnan - There is a little book which I bought at a souvenier/t-shirt shop in Arles,"Provence Through The Eyes of Van Gogh". It has a great map which indicates the sites of many of his paintings. I took photos from the exact sites, and my family and friends have been amazed. Also, Avignon is a city which feels like home. You can easily explore these cities on your own, but sometimes it is amazing at the insight you get from a guide.

The Tourist Office in Arles offers a small compact booklet - In English - with several different walking tours. It's packed with information and costs 1 euro. I keep some at the house and give them to visitors... they all go buy one to take home.
Arles is an easy town to walk around and follow the maps in the booklet.

I've never checked, but I imagine that the Tourist office in Avignon has something similar. They might also be able to put you together with an English speaking guide for a walking tour (they have this service in Aix)
Patricia

Thanks for all your great ideas. I'll check with the tourist office to see if they have any suggestions for guides, and if we can't find someone, the audio tours would be a good backup. btw, the reason we're looking for a "guide" is not to find our way around, but to have someone that can give us historical and current context in a way that's interesting; we've generally found that using a private or small-group guide on occasion is well worth it compared to using a guidebook - we've had a number of history professors/art history students in various parts of the world who have been terrific.

We'll also keep an eye out for the Arles booklet as well as the Van Gogh map - we were planning to be on the Van Gogh trail in any case. And thanks for the restaurant rec as well!