Pont du Gard

What a difference a week makes! Last weekend we took the bus to Avignon in t-shirts and tank tops it was so warm and yesterday we had to wear our winter coats for our early morning trip to the Pont du Gard. The thermometer outside my window was registering 6C just before we left to catch the 8:40 bus. It was the same route as last week but thankfully not the same driver...this guy had showered, and we got off on the third stop, about 15 minutes away. We then had to walk another 10-15 minutes to reach the actual site. The sun was just coming up over the mountain on the right bank of the Gard river opposite the side we were walking on and we were the only ones there when we reached it. What a beautiful sight!

Standing on this amazing aqueduct, it was hard to fathom how the Romans managed to build it without the use of mortar. Each slab of rock weighs approximately 6 tons and they were cut to fit precisely against each other using just friction. It's 49 m high and 274 m long, making it the highest Roman aqueduct bridge. It was built in the 1st century AD as part of the Nimes aqueduct system which carried 200,000,000 litres of water a day from the Eure source (at Uzès) to the households of Nimes. It was used as an aqueduct until around the 9th century and then fell into disrepair. During the 13th century, the seigneurs (and later the bishops) of Uzès were granted the right to levy a toll on anyone using the bridge and in return, they would maintain and repair it. Then in the 1700's a new road bridge was built, attached to the lower level of arches. That's the one we were able to walk across.

The Pont du Gard has survived three serious floods(1958,1998,2002), one of which submerged the entire lower tier (1958). It continues to be one of France's most visited tourist attractions.

We hung around on the bridge, then walked down to the riverbank to toss some rocks. I tried to imagine what this must have been like two thousand years ago. Was the scenery the same? Was the river higher? Did it look just like this to travelers of that time? I was snapped back to the present by the sound of foreign voices and the sight of groups of people crossing the bridge, coming towards us. Tourists, not Romans, just like us, here to be taken back in time...even just for a moment.

I found this quote by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who visited the Pont du Gard in 1738 and captures the feeling of seeing this bridge for the first time so well.

"I had been told to go and see the Pont du Gard; I did not fail to do so. It was the first work of the Romans that I had seen. I expected to see a monument worthy of the hands which had constructed it. This time the object surpassed my expectation, for the only time in my life. Only the Romans could have produced such an effect. The sight of this simple and noble work struck me all the more since it is in the middle of a wilderness where silence and solitude render the object more striking and the admiration more lively; for this so-called bridge was only an aqueduct. One asks oneself what force has transported these enormous stones so far from any quarry, and what brought together the arms of so many thousands of men in a place where none of them live. I wandered about the three storeys of this superb edifice although my respect for it almost kept me from daring to trample it underfoot. The echo of my footsteps under these immense vaults made me imagine that I heard the strong voices of those who had built them. I felt myself lost like an insect in that immensity. While making myself small, I felt an indefinable something that raised up my soul, and I said to myself with a sigh, "Why was I not born a Roman"

As we crossed back over the bridge, we noticed some interesting engravings on some of the stones. It seems that stone masons in the 18th century were required to visit the site to view the quality of the bridge's masonry and many of them decided to engrave their names and the date on it while they were there. 18th century graffiti!

Another interesting thing to see is the giant olive tree on the left bank. Its trunk is 5 metres in circumference and it was originally planted in 908 in Spain and grew there until it was moved to the Pont du Gard site in 1985. I was disappointed that it hadn't really been standing near the bridge for its whole lifetime but I was also amazed that they were able to move a tree that big and that old without killing it.

As the place began to fill with other curious tourists, we went to check out the gift shop and the cafe. There is also a museum and a film to watch about the Pont but we decided to save that for our next visit with Grandma and Auntie El. We had coffee and a snack at the cafe then walked back to the bus stop and waited for our ride home. What a lovely way to spend a cold, sunny, Sunday morning!