Avignon - Prepare

Pack a hat, sunglasses and suncream, good walking shoes or sandals, extra memory and a polarising filter for your digital camera. Don't forget a good appetite and an ear for the music of the troubadours.

The year begins with the Tour des Remparts race (6 Feb) and Bric-a-Brac Fair (May and Sep). Avignon goes culture-mad each summer at July's Festival d'Avignon, when Europe's best theatre, music, circus and dance are performed all over the city, from the Palais des Papes' courtyard, to 18th-century mansions, old convent buildings and secret gardens. Like the Edinburgh Festival, you'll have as much fun at the Festival Off, the Fringe Festival, as at the official event. But be ready to see the city packed, and book your hotel well in advance. Tremplin Jazz bridges the end of July and early August and Wine Côtes du Rhône Wine Festival (third weekend Nov).

New Year's Day (1 Jan), Good Friday (Mar/Apr), Easter Monday (Mar/Apr), Labour Day (1 May), 1945 Victory Day (8 May), Ascension (40 days after Easter), Bastille Day (14 Jul), Assumption (15 Aug), All Saints' Day (1 Nov), Remembrance Day (11 Nov), Christmas Day (25 Dec).

The Mediterranean climate makes it a place to visit year-round, though the best times are spring and especially autumn. Wrap up for winter, when daytime temperatures can hover around 10°C and plunge close to freezing. Oct-December can be wet. Maximum averages nudge 30°C in summer. A peculiarity of the climate is the mistral, a strong, eerie northerly wind, which can last up to nine days.

230V AC, 50 Hz, two-pin European plugs are standard.

+33 (national), (0) 4 90 + 6-figure number.

Euro (€) is the currency.

GMT/UTC+1 (Central European Time)

Visit Avignon Office de Tourisme website

Avignon's dress code is casual with a French twist. More than most French towns of a similar size, this papal city has a sense of subdued pastel-coloured style. Even the most highbrow restaurants, for example, manage to be elegant without undue stiffening of the lip. Pack the polo shirt rather than the T-shirt, the trousers over the shorts, and the espadrilles over the flip-flops. Winter deserves a good coat.