3 Best Sights in France

The ornate synagogue in Cavaillon, now a museum, belonged to one of the four communities protected for five centuries under the Avignon popes and is set in the heart of the town’s Jewish ghetto, which, from medieval times until the 18th century, was closed every evening. Though the ground-floor rooms (including a bread bakery and ritual bath) were built in the 15th century with stone from the onsite quarry, the rococo-style sanctuary upstairs dates from an 18th-century restoration. The colorful and gilded interiors belie the Jewish population's difficult and severely circumscribed existence. The museum offers six to eight guided tours per day in high season (two in English) by reservation only. Cavaillon is 15 km (9 miles) west of Ménerbes.

Art Nouveau genius Hector Guimard built this unique synagogue (also called Synagogue de la Rue Pavée) in 1913 for a Polish-Russian Orthodox association. The facade resembles an open book: Guimard used the motif of the Ten Commandments to inspire the building's shape and its interior, which can only rarely be visited. Knock on the door, and see if the caretaker will let you upstairs to the balcony, where you can admire Guimard's well-preserved decor. Like other Parisian synagogues, its front door was dynamited by Nazis on Yom Kippur, 1941. The Star of David over the door was added after the building was restored.

Established in 1367, the oldest synagogue in constant operation in France—and one of the oldest in Europe—is a testament to the protection of “the papal Jews” in Avignon, Carpentras, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, and Cavaillon. Although persecuted throughout Europe, under the French popes, the Jewish people were given asylum in medieval Comtat Venaissin (roughly the Vaucluse of today). It was an asylum that lasted from the 14th century till the Revolution. After being granted French citizenship in 1791—when Avignon and the Vaucluse finally became part of France—many Jews left the area, free to live where they pleased

The synagogue of today was built over the original 14th-century foundations, where you can still see an underground bread bakery (in use until 1904), a ritual bath, study rooms, and even quarries for building material used in upward expansion (outward expansion was forbidden). The baroque-style sanctuary dates from the 18th century, when the Jews of Carpentras were finally permitted to rebuild the synagogue, which had fallen into disrepair. They were, however, forced to remove its arched ceiling so as not to exceed the height of St-Siffrein cathedral. Guided visits of the synagogue are by reservation only, but you can also learn about this fascinating chapter of history at the L’Inguimbertine museum, a five-minute walk away.