Day 24 Friday 20/05/2017
Today would have to be called the day of two bridges, separated by two millennia. We left Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer early, driving off on a sunny day with the top down as usual. Kay drove first and took us north towards Nimes and to the Pont du Gard. This is a 2000 year old aqueduct which was part of a 53km long structure to bring water to the inhabitants of Nimes from a source at Uzes. We walked all over and around this amazing Roman structure. I was absolutely amazed by the imagination and skill of the Roman engineers to be able to visualise and then construct such an edifice. We were allowed to walk over the 18th century Bridge which is that the lowest level of the Pont du Gard but at the top (third ) level of the aqueduct we could look at the watercourse but we were not allowed access.
We continued to drive north west and headed for the Corniche de Cevennes which runs along a ridge, the very ridge that Robert Louist Stevenson walked for his book "Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes". The road was another challenging mountain road, quite narrow and twisty. At one point we were passed by three Lotus Elise cars in close formation, and at another point almost had an accident with two motorbikes coming down the hill when they crossed the line as they took a corner at very high speed.
We had lunch in a little pull-in towards the top of the ridge at an altitude of almost 1000 metres.
We did stop for coffee in one of the self-proclaimed most beautiful villages in France, a little place called St Enimie. It was very pretty and apart from its beauty there was a fascinating spring in the town which rose in a deep pool at the bottom of the gorge slope and which produced a substantial stream that ran down to join the Tarn. This spring still provides the town with its drinking water.
This was a one way section - goodness knows how high sided vehicles would get through
On leaving the gorge we drove towards Millau joining the A25 ( that’s right - an autoroute !!! ) with the plan to drive across the Viaduct de Millau. We pulled into the Aire beside the bridge and walked up to the new viewpoint. The bridge is the tallest in the world, as measured by the height of the pillars from the ground. The highest pillar is 343 metres which somewhat dwarfs the 207 metres reached by the towers on the Queensferry Crossing. The bridge is a stunning structure to look at and was fun to drive across even though the wind baffles did somewhat obstruct the view of the Tarn valley far below.
At this pointwe were late in the afternoon so we decided to suspend the no autoroute rule for the 180km run down to Carcasonne.
On arrival in Carcarsonne it was very easy to find our hotel, an Ibis Styles. We checked in quickly and then walked the short distance to the medieval city where we had dinner in Les Blanchette in Place Morau, again we took one of the menu formulae and were not disapponted, all washed down by a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Finally back to bed for a well deserved sleep after a full day.
Saints-Maries-de-la-Mer to Carcasonne 309 miles. Total 2623 miles
