Around the Pont du Gard

Around the Pont du Gard View from the top of the bridge The ‘rabbit stone’ replica in the Pont du Gard Museum Book a visit with a guide and climb the 80 steps to reach the top of the bridge and walk inside the 275m long water channel - a truly special experience. Once lined with lead to waterproof the walls (there are still traces of it) the canal is narrow in places and was covered to stop the water evaporating. It’s extraordinary how the Romans created something that required such precise measurements. Though it turns out that even Roman genius architects sometimes get it wrong, you can see the line on the canal wall where they had to add a new layer of stone to raise the level, it was too low! But that takes nothing away from the stunning achievement. You can easily make a day of it here with several places to take a break: there are visitor centres on either side of the river; Les Terrasses restaurant (book in advance, it’s popular), a bistro and terraces on the right bank where you can enjoy a snack, ice cream etc. - all offering fabulous views of the aqueduct. Hire a kayak: (there are several companies in Collias and Remoulins a few minutes by car), and float under the bridge for another perspective. And there are year-round events from a summer sound and light show to concerts and festivals. Pont du Gard sound and light show © Richard Sprang, Pont du Gard Tourism The Devil’s bridge? People in the past seem to have been somewhat cynical about the abilities of builders and commonly claimed that they must have done a deal with the devil to get the job done - especially bridges! And that’s the case with the Pont du Gard. The Romans placed a stone with the outline of a rabbit believed to ward off the evil eye. But in the Middle Ages the legend spread that Lucifer offered to help the builder if he agreed that the first soul to cross the bridge would belong to the devil himself. The builder’s canny wife suggested that since the evil one had not specified the soul of a human, they should simply pop a rabbit on the bridge if you know where to look you may spot the stone! This really is a bridge to the past - and it is quite simply, breath-taking. Find all the information about the Pont du Gard website, and the villages and places of interest to explore in the surrounding area, at: uzes-pontdugard.com/en View of Pont du Gard from Castillon-du-Gard Just north, hilltop Castillon-du-Gard exudes medieval atmosphere, even if it was mostly rebuilt in the 16th century. It offers views down to the Pont du Gard and a Romanesque chapel, St-Caprais, a setting for summer concerts and art exhibitions. East of Castillon, 11th-century St-Hilaire-d’Ozilhan is another charming village with an even older chapel, the Clastre, standing on its own just to the south. If it’s supermarchés or bustling sprawl you’re after, there’s Remoulins, the area’s market town and the gateway to the Fosses de Fournès, a weirdly eroded lunar landscape to the east. Southwest of Remoulins, explore traces of the aqueduct in the hills around Sernhac where the Romans dug two impressive tunnels, one for the water and one for maintenance, still bearing the grooves left by the hammers that excavated them, stroke by stroke. The extraordinarily hard calcium deposits that accumulated in the water channels were chiselled out as a prized building material in the Middle Ages: some went into the walls of the fortified Romanesque church St-Bonnet-du-Gard, near Sernhac. Medieval town of Castillon-du-Gard Vers-Pont-du-Gard The Roman quarries that produced the Pont du Gard are just off the Uzès road in Vers- Pont-du-Gard, another pleasant little village with another Romanesque church. Here, by the level crossing on the D227 and down the white road a couple of hundred yards to the south, stand a few aqueduct arches in a state of romantic abandon; other vestiges may be seen between Vers and Argilliers, just off the D3B, taking the side road that veers sharply to the left. 20 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 21