Workshop visit: « Vivre comme un seigneur au Moyen Âge »

At the Palais des Papes in Avignon, families spend around two hours stepping into the shoes of a 14th-century lord on a workshop visit, followed by a hands-on sensory introduction to medieval food.

Living like a lord: a princely residence and the people who lived in it

Avignon Tourisme invites families to discover the everyday life of a 14th-century lord, with children from 6 years old. The visit shows how a princely residence was run, with its services, its routines and its ceremonial occasions. It explains how rooms, trades and duties fitted together so that life in a lord’s household went off without a hitch.

Four stages, from the palace rooms to banquets and diplomatic receptions

• The foundations of a princely residence: the architecture and underlying logic of a medieval palace, with its public rooms, private quarters and service areas. This stage sheds light on the social hierarchy and on what a lord and his court needed.
• The services and how they worked: visitors look at the trades that daily life depended on, from household management to the kitchen, from the guard to the chapel, not forgetting the bedchambers and the stables. Each role is explained, as are the collective discipline and the coordination that a prestigious residence called for.
• The lord’s daily life: audiences, meals, prayers, travel and the management of his estate set the pace of his days.
• Exceptional occasions: festivities, banquets, ceremonies and diplomatic receptions, with their codes of representation, their etiquette and the staging of power.

The « Saveurs et senteurs du Moyen Âge » workshop: rare spices and 14th-century foods

The visit then moves on to the « Saveurs et senteurs du Moyen Âge » workshop, where typical foods of the 14th century are on display: cereals, dried fruit, spices, herbs and drinks. Children smell, touch and look closely at them, then find out about rare spices, which carried both symbolic and economic value.

The workshop helps children understand what food meant in medieval culture. By engaging their senses, it sparks their curiosity and ties heritage and history to a concrete experience.

About 2 hours, from age 6, and access to the palace

Allow roughly 2 hours for the workshop visit, which is not suitable for children under 6. Please also note that the Palais des Papes cannot be accessed by visitors with reduced mobility, because of its very large number of steps.