veni, vidi, vici & the wine was good too!

Day 10  Thursday 3rd October 2013

We were off & away in fairly good time, wanting to be ahead of any rain that was creeping across the country towards us.   Today's route was to take us up the A9, past Nimes & exciting at junction 23 for Pont du Gard.

The Motorway itself was fairly busy as we passed Montpellier & on as far as Nimes, so it was nice to leave the autoroute for the drive on near straight roads that headed towards ancient roman aqueduct.    The road took us through the crumbley old town of Remoulins, past the cafes where the locals were sat sipping coffees & watching the world or in our case, the traffic pass by.  

We took the road signposted Uzes, passing vineyards & fields of maize, turning off after about 2 or 3 kilometres, following directional signs to the world heritage site & car park.  The car parks were somewhat large, flanked by the creative landscaping of dry stone walls, lavender & olive trees.  

Parking up the motorhome beneath the shade of a tall cypress tree, we headed across the car park towards the entrance, which at this point resembled a cross between the Yorkshire Sculpture Park & the Eden Project.  Walking through the concourse the immediate thought was, wow high tech yet again.   There was no official entrance where entry fees are paid, you were just in.

Leaving the entrance area of virtual museums, cafes & shops, we followed the path & joined the throng of tourists from all over the world.  There were a variety of walks, some took you up through the scrub to a high vantage point, others took you past carefully cultivated mediterranean plantings.  We went for the main route, straight for the bridge & there it was as we rounded a corner, just past several ancient olive trees clinging to the rock pavement.

It was certaining a wow moment. A vast piece of engineering straddling the Gardon River, the shear size distracting from the guided tours & the hot & out-of-breath cycling for softies holidaymakers pushing their bikes.  Amazing to read the graffiti carved into the stonework,  fabulous views down onto the river below, watching a couple of large black dogs enjoying a cooling swim.  Perhaps the best views came from the north side of the bridge.  Here you could observe the aqueduct in all its glory with not a human to be seen, or very few at any rate.   So how much did it cost all this pristine roman history? Well, 18 euros per vehicle for an all day visit.  You paid on leaving the complex at a ticket machine in the concourse; these were not well signposted at all & l wondered how many people missed them altogether & suffered the embarrassment of being stuck at the exit barrier?

After spending lunch on an aires beside the river at Remoulins, we headed north along the D6068 which runs parallel to the autoroute.  The road, busy in places, took us through part of the cotes du Rhone region & it was interesting to see how many northern european motorhome owners were enjoying the liquid refreshments at the various roadside caves!  Stocking up for winter perhaps?  

Our overnight stop for this evening took us across the Rhone at Pont Saint Esprit, to the Arthurian sounding medieval town of Mondragon & the campsite, Camping le Pinede en Provence, set amongst pine trees just above the town.

Miles driven today  = 84.2 miles