Luminessences Opens in Avignon Aug 12

Les Luminessences d'Avignon, a monumental 360°sound-and-light show at the Palais des Papes, is one of those annual spectacles (as the French call them) that seems to grow more and more popular each year.  This year's show, the 5th annual, opens Saturday night August 12 and runs until September 30th, in the Palace's Honour Courtyard.

The Palais des Papes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was home to nine successive popes, was considered the heart of the medieval Christian world and was the scene of several sieges. It played a very unique and vital role in European history...and Luminessences tells its story. (For more on the Avignon papacy, click here.) The show--the same production as the one shown last summer but with the addition of new scenes--cloaks the four wings of the palace in enormous images and surrounds the audience "in a poetic fusion of architecture, light and music." Mostly everyone stands for the 40-minute show but small folding chairs and wheelchairs are welcome. 

The show will be offered every evening, in French at 9:15 pm and English at 10:15 pm. 

Tickets can be bought online here...or at the Palais des Papes during opening hours... or at the Avignon Tourist Office (see link and phone below). 

Prices are 12 € for adults, 10€ (reduced rate) and free for kids under age 8. Info on group sales, private events, getting to Avignon, tickets and much more  is on the Luminessences website in English here. They're also on Facebook. For info by phone, call the Avignon Tourist Office at +33 (0)4 32 74 32 74.