The Gothic bulk of the Palais des Papes rises directly across the lane from this cardinal's house, close enough to fill the bedroom windows. Inside, the Stein family spent three years layering antiques, silks and papers until it looked as though one household had been decorating since the popes left. Out back, a walled garden of fig trees and roses swallows the city whole. Add three restaurants and a cookery school in the old kitchen, and you begin to see why the cardinal chose the spot: Avignon, not Rome, was the seat of the papacy for most of the 14th century, and he wanted to live as close to the action as he could get. He got his wish. So do you.
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Fig trees, roses and clipped box fill the walled garden, where afternoon tea appears under the holm oaks and the city disappears entirely. Indoors, generations of decorating have piled up rather than been designed: gilt mirrors beside contemporary art, tapestries above sisal matting, coloured marble in the bathrooms and silk on the walls. The grandest dining room keeps its Renaissance coffered ceiling and a fireplace that gets going in winter. It reads less like a hotel than a family home whose owners happened to collect very well indeed.
Every room takes its name and character from the antique French cotton print that dresses it, from La Rivière Enchantée to Le Perroquet, so booking here is less about grades than personalities. Expect parquet or sisal underfoot, gilt frames and televisions that hide inside the mirrors until summoned. Deluxe rooms are handsome but compact. The largest suite stretches to antique-glass windows, dado panelling and a Carrara marble tub angled, quite deliberately, at the palace. That's the one to fight over.
Sign up at Le Marmiton and you'll be making pastry in a kitchen whose wood-fired oven predates most of Avignon's restaurants. Then step out: the Palais des Papes is across the lane, with the cathedral of Notre-Dame des Doms and the Pont Saint-Bénézet, the famous half-bridge, a few minutes further on foot. July turns the city into one enormous stage for the Festival d'Avignon, with performers spilling into every square and side street (book absurdly far ahead). Châteauneuf-du-Pape's vineyards and the villages of Provence are an easy morning's drive.
Your first coffee of the day under the fig trees, with a papal palace looming over the garden wall.
Book La Table Haute and you'll eat in the vaulted basement kitchen with the chefs working around you, wine poured between courses. It runs midweek only and fills fast, so flag it when you're pinning down dates.
No pool, no spa, no gym, and Avignon in July regularly tops 30°C. The shaded garden and thick stone walls do their very best.
Start with a recommended trip or create one from scratch
Hotel La Mirande can be booked with Timbuktu as part of a tailor-made France trip, rather than as a standalone room reservation. Start online, customising one of our recommended France trips featuring Hotel La Mirande or get advice and suggestions from one of our France specialists who will design the trip around your dates, check availability and handle every booking for you.
Stays at Hotel La Mirande start from around $370, or US$370, per person per night as part of a tailor-made trip. The exact price depends on your travel dates, room type and the shape of the rest of your itinerary. A Timbuktu travel specialist can give you an accurate quote for your dates.
An aromatic wonderland where lavender whispers sweet nothings to the olive groves, and the light seems to dance with an artist's touch.
