← Run In Lyon by Harmonie Mutuelle Marathon·2 nights

Avignon: The Palais des Papes Without the Summer Crowds

A compact walled city built around the Palais des Papes, quieter and cooler in October than during its famous summer festival season.

Duration2 nights
TransitHigh-speed rail south from Lyon, direct or one change, roughly 1-1.5 hours
DepartsLyon Part-Dieu

After the Run In Lyon Marathon: Avignon

The Route: Lyon Part-Dieu → Avignon TGV / Avignon Centre → Lyon Part-Dieu Logistics: High-speed rail south, direct or with one change, journey time roughly 1 to 1.5 hours. Marathon Month: October Duration: 2 nights

Lyon Part-Dieu ──(TGV, ~1-1.5 hrs)──> Avignon
                                          │
                Lyon Part-Dieu ◄──(~1-1.5 hrs)──┘

Avignon is close enough to Lyon by high-speed rail that a two-night stay after Run In Lyon's marathon, finishing at Place Bellecour on 4 October, does not eat much of a trip. October also strips away the crowds and heat of Avignon's famous summer theatre festival, leaving a genuinely walkable city rather than a packed one, average daytime temperatures in the high teens Celsius and considerably less foot traffic through the old streets.

The old town sits inside its complete medieval ramparts, compact enough that most sightseeing happens on foot without long distances between stops, which suits legs still recovering from a marathon better than a more spread-out city would.

Nights One and Two: Avignon

The Palais des Papes, the fortified former residence of the medieval popes, dominates the old town and is worth the entry fee for the scale of its state rooms alone; current adult admission runs a standard historic-monument rate, checked against the palace's own site before booking since French heritage-site pricing is revised periodically. The Pont Saint-Bénézet, the famous half-bridge over the Rhône made known by the French nursery rhyme, sits a short flat walk from the palace and is worth the modest separate entry fee for the river view alone rather than the bridge's own limited remaining span. Whether the fountain features associated with the wider Avignon-Villeneuve river landscape are running in October is worth checking locally rather than assuming, since seasonal operating dates vary.

Where to stay: La Mirande, a converted 17th-century cardinal's residence directly beside the Palais des Papes, keeps everything within a two-minute walk. Hôtel de l'Horloge, on the central Place de l'Horloge, puts the old town's main square and its cafés immediately outside the door.

Where to eat: for a first, easy dinner, the restaurants ringing the Place de l'Horloge cover straightforward Provençal menus without requiring a booking made weeks in advance. For a specific regional dish on the second night, look for a restaurant serving daube provençale, a slow-cooked beef stew with red wine and olives, well suited to a cooler October evening.

Getting Home

Return to Lyon Part-Dieu on the same direct or one-change high-speed rail service, journey time the same 1 to 1.5 hours, with onward connections there to Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport via Rhônexpress for runners flying rather than continuing overland. Avignon TGV station also has its own direct high-speed connections further south and to Paris, worth considering if the onward journey does not need to route back through Lyon at all.