France 5, The Pont Du Gard
One of the main reasons for the trip was to visit the Pont du Gard, the famous Roman aquaduct near Nimes. This was built in AD 38, taking over 1,000 men 14 years, to supply water to the town of Nimes. We have wanted to see this for a long time but have never been quite near enough. www.pontdugard.fr . The day we chose was very hot again, the temperature was 40 degrees C, thank goodness the car has air conditioning or we might have expired. There is quite a big visitor's centre at the entrance with a snack bar etc., but we went straight on to the bridge. What an impressive sight, how they built it all those years ago is unbelievable. Out came the camera of course, just like all the other tourists present. We strolled across the bridge admiring the views, heading for a lunch break at the restaurant on the other bank. At this point we became aware of lots of activity and noise. Yes, we had struck lucky again (not!), the entire place was swarming with all the emergency services of the area having a practice of their disaster plan and an annual lunch with speeches! There were helecopters overhead, lots of police, firemen with various sized engines, forestry workers, ambulances, every service that you could imagine plus some I'd never heard of. The restaurant was full of the great and the good plus families and the speeches were taking place over a VERY loud tannoy system. My, how the French love long speeches, on and on and on. We bravely fought our way to a table and ordered our meal, but converstation was impossible. Afterwards I sat in the shade and digested my lunch while my intrepid hero climbed the hill to the top of the aquaduct. A fantastic place, and well worth the visit, but it's uncanny how things keep turning out, never quite as we planned, always with some unexpected addition.
