22nd August Pont Du Gard

After breakfast the standard fare but with some freshly squeezed orange juice we left Les Angles to visit the Pont Du Gard. A roman aqueduct that was constructed in the 19 century BC to take water to the city of Nimes. At the time of its construction it was the highest bridge in the world with the aqueduct being 47.5 meters above the river. It’s a marvellous feat of Engineering. It is 15 euro to park the car but that includes your admission to the site. If you cycled, walked or canoed then you could get in for free. The bridge took 500 men 3 years to construct. The aqueduct was capable of delivering a staggering 4.4 million gallons of water a day. Some of the limestone blocks weight as much as 6 tonnes and the bridge was constructed without the use of motor. The main bridge was constructed as 3 parallel arches. Its 275 meters in length and would be 360 meters if the 12 arches that were destroyed in the 12 century were replaced. Having visited the bridge the museum is well worth a visit. It explains how the bridge and aqueduct was constructed and how water was distributed around the city. The stones you can see projecting from the arches were used to support the scaffold and cranes and were probably left projection for future maintenance.
We would have liked a swim as the river looked very inviting but had to be a the BB by 6 so reluctantly had to leave the Pont Du Gard for the hours drive to the medieval town of Aigues-Mortes.