The New Student's Reference Work/Avignon

Avignon (ä-vēn-yōN ' ), a city in Provence, France, is on the left bank of the Rhone. Its streets are narrow and crooked, and it is still surrounded by high walls. Here is the cathedral of Notre Dame, dating back to the 11th century. There are so many churches and convents that Avignon has been called the city of bells. It has manufactures of paper, leather, silk, iron, etc., and is famous for its garden produce, fruit, wine and honey. Here the great Italian poet, Petrarch, lived for some years, and here in a church that is still pointed out, he first saw Laura, the lady to whom he wrote his beautiful sonnets. In the middle ages Avignon belonged to the popes, and here Clement V and six of his successors lived. Here also lived the anti-popes for forty years. Population, 51,000.