The Rhône is a major conduit between Northern Europe and Mediterranean. Since prehistoric times it has been used for commercial exchanges. Cultural and religious influences, such as Christianity, also made use of its flow. This quickest and most powerful of French rivers has played an essential role in Avignon, shaping its environment, sometimes protecting it, sometimes threatening it.

Avignon is only five meters higher than the low-level of the river, and the Rocher des Doms poised over it has served as a natural refuge when its waters have risen, flooding the lower sections of the city. Numerous catastrophes have occurred in Avignon, when the dangerous waters overran entire portions of the ramparts, requiring the population to save themselves by scrambling to the roofs of habitations. There is much ancient and modern documentation describing the flooded streets, with the inhabitants circulating in boats.

There are several islands within the river that are perpetually modified by its swells, as are its sand and gravel banks, while marshlands, called le Limas (from latin, limaceus, muddy) extend towards the ramparts. Stones from the Rhône have also contributed to the appearance of the streets of the city because, along with those from the Durance, they were used as “calades”, paving stones. The osiers that grow in the alluvial waters have served for the weaving of banastes, or baskets (Commemorated in the name of the street, rue Banasterie that leads from behind the Palais des Papes to the riverside.)

The rhône’s banks were extremely busy, with three ports lining its quays. The main port faced the bridge and the Porete Eyguière (now the Rhône). Upriver was the port for wood, whose name “La Ligne” lives on in the quay and the gate. Downriver, at the Périers Port, stones and construction materials of different kinds were unloaded. Causeway jetties and breakwaters protected the wharves.

In the seventeenth century the wharves were refitted and adorned with sculptures. Jean Péru’s statue of Saint Bénezet was erected in front of the Porte de l’Oulle. It was accompanied by representations of other patron saints and protectors of the city : Saint-François near the bridge, the Virgin a little ways upstream, and Saint-Agricol at the Porte du Rhône. During the Middle Ages, Arles became the conveyance point where merchandise was loaded from seagoing vessels to those that embarked along the rivers.

Craft were hauled upstream to Avignon. Linked boats were towed by men and then by twelve to twenty horses. The towing-path has recently been converted into a pleasant riverside promenade, opposite the’ bridge on Barthelasse island. Merchandise transported by river or unloaded was taxed at the port, from an office built into the bridge’s first pier. In the twelfth century traffic was intense. Avignonnais purchased wood, wool, dye stuffs, copper, tin, iron, lead, hemp, tow, pitch, fish and cattle.

The fruit of its prosperous industries was exported : wheat, leather, rope, cloth…Transport was organized by the groups called nautes who assured the exchanges for each side. Dock hands, known as gagnedeniers (lowed-paid) because of the meagreness of their salaries, did the unloading. Life on this river is immortalized by Frédéric Mistral in Le Poème du Rhône.