The bridge of a 1000 photos

One of the many varieties of bees in Provence

Finally some Tour de France bunting

At the start of the Pont du Gard

Practising our selfies

The Pont du Gard has stood here for 2000 years,
those Romans certainly knew how to make
something last 

Blistering hot and everyone enjoying the water,

Russ and I dipped in our feet

Lunch at the terrace restaurant with great view of the Pont

Terrace restaurant misting out water
to keep patrons cool

Big group on a bike tour of Provence,
these are e-bikes 

Olivia Bossion, a reporter we saw her interview
the manager of the Pont du Gard. Later she
explained how all her kit worked.
She was one impressive lady,
doing filming, audio and interview all on her own.

Today we are heading off to a very famous location, the Pont du Gard. This bridge has stood for 2000 years and is actually an aqueduct built by the Romans to transfer water. The full length of the aqueduct is 50km’s but the ‘piece de resistance’ is this bridge over the Gardon river.

Again James and many others have spoken about this bridge and I am keen to get going but it very close by so we don’t have to leave to early, that works well for finally having some time to capture the bees in the garden. There are at least 874 species of bees in France and so far I have found 5.

We head off, along the narrow streets, out onto the main road lined with plane trees and inside to the car park. The car park massive I am starting to understand that this is a major undertaking, not just a turn up and take a photo kind of place. Finally some signs about the Tour de France, the race starts here on Wednesday. 

Russ and Jane do the ticket buying in French and then the lady effortlessly switches to English to give me my ticket, amazing how bi-lingual many people are. First up there is a short movie in a blissfully air-conditioned theatre to learn about different aspects of the bridge.

Now we head out into the heat to walk down to this engineering marvel, there are 1000-year-old olive trees on the way and just a splattering to tourists alongside us. Finally, it is in view and what a sight, three levels and all made with giant blocks of stone held together without cement. The morning sunshine is illuminating the stone blocks beautifully.

In more recent times (1743) a bridge was built alongside and this is what we use to walk across and marvel at vaulted arches and ‘graffiti’ left by the original builders. I like the signatures that include stone building tools the best.

Over the other side, it is a carnival atmosphere, many people are swimming, kayaks are going down the river and everyone is enjoying themselves. Russ and I now venture down in the scorching heat to get photos from every angle and we even sans shoes enter the cooling water for just that perfect shot.

Time to head back up and spotter Jane has a treat in store for us she has secured a table for lunch in the shade looking directly at the bridge, that will do very nicely. This restaurant is very lovely and they have water misting out under the canopy to cool us down.

It's weird to think that this bridge has lasted 2000 years through countless floods. Eventually, its time to head back to the start and exit through the gift shop. The plan is now to head onto another little village, but we get sensible and decide the 38-degree heat is best left to mad dogs and Englishmen. We leave it behind and head back to base for a rest in the shade. Bliss.