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.

Popular posts from this blog

British Holiday Websites

-
You can have excellent holidays at home too. We don't always go abroad, we love Britain, especially the South West. Come to our part of the world, check out: www.beautiful-devon.co.uk it's full of Devon tourist and travel information and has lots of lovely pictures. How could you resist us? www.classic.co.uk this is a West Country cottage specialist website representing over 450 self-catering properties in Cornwall, Somerset etc. It will even tell you how far the property is from the sea. www.corncott.com this site offers self-catering holiday accommodation throughout Cornwall at very affordable prices. Your Journey: Coming in the car? Plan your route using either the AA - www.theaa.com or the RAC - http://rp.rac.co.uk/routeplanner for free detailed plans. On the motorway and need a break? Check out www.5minutesaway.co.uk a directory of services and facilities available to motorists within 5 minutes of each motorway junction. Taking the train? Plan your journey and find
Read more

Dublin's Fair City!

-
Image
Well, another wonderful trip to Dublin . We had the luck of the Irish, good weather, not a drop of rain. The Gresham hotel is still a grand old lady, friendly staff,a good breakfast, comfy beds. http://www.gresham-hotels.com/ . (A horrible view of the inner courtyard, pretty dire, but, as it turned out, a blessing in disguise. It meant that the room was very quiet, thank goodness, if we had been at the front of the hotel the traffic in O'Connell street would have kept us awake for sure.) We had a very busy four days. Apart from the usual trips to the shops, lunch on the green at Trinity , coffee at Bewleys etc. we went to the Gaiety theatre to see a performance of The Rat Pack. http://www.gaietytheatre.ie/ . They were all brilliant, especially "Frank Sinatra", he looked like him, had the mannerisms, and sang like him, great! Some of the women in the audience, who were old enough to know better, were in ecstasy, practically throwing their knickers, (personally, we
Read more

Algeciras, the real Spain

-
Image
If you want to visit the real Spain as opposed to the plastic one for tourists then Algeciras is a good bet. It isn't tarted up or full of English Pubs etc. It's a real, untouched, slightly scruffy town full of ordinary people, the way Spain used to be. However, there are lots of interesting places nearby to visit if the wanderer in you takes over. The most obvious one is just across the water - Gibraltar. Catch the local bus to the boarder and then walk across, cars can wait for hours to get in. Gibraltar is a British Colony (by choice!) and looks just like Britain used to in the 1950s, a real time warp. But it's a shoppers paradise because everything is so cheap (tax free). We took the cable car up to the top of the rock, fantastic view, but watch out for those evil monkeys! It's unnerving the way they stare at you, one even tried to get into the cafe while we were having a coffee, he came up the steps and was rattling the door handle! Another good trip is a visit to
Read more