The excellent Musée Calvet , 65 rue Joseph-Vernet (daily except Tues 10am-1pm & 2-6pm; 30F/¬4.58), and the impressive eighteenth-century palace housing it, are undergoing gradual restoration and transformation. Some of the collection will therefore be reshuffled. However, the Galerie des Sculptures , the first room, is completed and set to stay where it is. A better introduction to a museum couldn't be wished for, with a handful of languorous nineteenth-century marble sculptures, including Bosio's Young Indian , perfectly suited to this elegant space, lit from either side. The end of the gallery houses the Puech collection with a large selection of silverware, Italian and Dutch paintings and, more unusually, a Flemish curiosities cabinet, painted with scenes from the story of Daniel. Upstairs, the Provençal dynasties of the Mignards and the Vernets are well represented. Nicolas Mignard sets off with a fine set of seasons in the Joseph Vernet room, whilst Joseph Vernet himself sticks to representing the different times of the day. Further down, Horace Vernet donated the subtle Death of Young Barra by Jacques-Louis David as well as Géricault's Battle of Nazareth . On the way out don't miss the Victor Martin collection, including Vlaminck's At the Bar , Bonnard's Winter Day and the haunting Downfall by Chaïm Soutine. The rest of the eclectic collection - from an Egyptian mummy of a five-year-old boy to intricate wrought-iron work, taking in along the way Gallo-Roman pots and Gothic clocks - is due to be on show again at some point in 2002.

 

Avignon's remaining museums are considerably less compelling. Next door to the Musée Calvet is the Musée Requien (Tues-Sat 9am-noon & 2-6pm; free); its subject is natural history and its sole advantage is in being free and having clean loos. With little more to recommend it is the Musée Lapidaire , a museum of Roman and Gallo-Roman stones housed in the Baroque chapel at 27 rue de la République (daily except Tues 10am-1pm & 2-6pm; April-Oct 10F/¬1.53, rest of year free). Finally, at the Musée Vouland , at the end of rue Victor-Hugo near Porte St-Dominique (Tues-Sat: May-Oct 9am-noon & 2-6pm; rest of year 2-6pm; 20F/¬3.05), you can feast your eyes on the fittings, fixtures and furnishings that French aristocrats enjoyed both before and after the Revolution. There's also some brilliant Moustiers faïence, exquisite marquetry and Louis XV ink-pots with silver rats holding the lids.