4 Best Sights in Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, Provence

Don't miss the formal Italianate gardens of Fort St-André, littered with remains of the abbey that preceded the fortifications. The gardens are now privately owned.

The bounty of the cardinals nourished this abbey, whose name translates, literally, to the Charterhouse of the Valley of Blessings. Inside the impressive 5-acre complex are spare cells with panels illuminating monastic life; the vast 14th-century cloître du cimetière (cemetery cloister); a smaller Romanesque cloister; and, within, what remains of the abbey church, its cloister garden, and the Gothic tomb of Pope Innocent VI. The rose and herb gardens are planted as they would have been by the monks. It's worth a visit if only for the delightful indoor-outdoor courtyard café, and the bookstore is fun to peruse. Theatrical events are staged here during Avignon's annual theater festival.

At the top of the village is the Fort St-André, which once ostensibly protected the town of St-André, now absorbed into Villeneuve. The fortress's true importance was as a show of power for the kingdom of France in the face of the all-too-close Avignon popes. You can explore the fortress grounds and the ruined walls of inner chambers. There's a good view from the Notre Dame de Belvézet church within the fort, and you can also climb into the twin towers for broad views over Avignon, the Luberon, and Mont Ventoux.

Below the abbey, one of the luxurious, 14th-century cardinals' manors contains a notable collection of art, including the spectacularly colorful and richly detailed Couronnement de la Vierge (Coronation of the Virgin), an altarpiece painted in 1453 by Enguerrand Quarton. One of the greatest paintings of the 15th century, it shows rows and rows of Avignonnais hieratically sitting around the figures of God the Father and God the Son. Depicted by Quarton—the leading painter of the Avignon School—as identical twins, they bless Mary and hover over a surreal landscape that places Montagne St-Victoire in between Heaven and Hell.