Pont Du Gard, France

August 17, 2001

Next up after Nîmes was a short drive over to the Pont Du Gard (see map). We went to the Rive Gauche side, but next time we will go to the Rive Droit side. It has better access to the River Gard. It was such a hot day that we did the extra long walk to get over to the beach that would have been an easy walk from the Rive Droit side. But it was worth the jump in. And the Pont Du Gard looked every bit as impressive as it does on those VW commercials, as you'll see from below. Dad and Jo were quite impressed, too.

The exceptionally well preserved Roman aqueduct was once part of a 50km long system of canals built around 19 BC by Agrippa, Augustus' powerful deputy and son-in-law. Much of the aqueduct was actually subterranean, and carefully built with a very gradual drop of about 1 in 3000 over its entire length.
The 35 small arches on the 275 meter long top tier was designed to carry 20,000 cubic meters of water a day. The Romans built the aqueduct from local stone and the largest blocks weigh over five tons. There are 11 arches in the middle tier, and 6 in the bottom tier. The second tier was used for chariot and soldier crossings, the lowest tier for regular foot traffic.

Here is the best picture I could get of the entire structure. You can see all of the people hanging out on the lowest tier, and all the others enjoying a dip, as we did, in the river Gard. The second picture is a little closer up. 

Here Steve and Connor take a quick wade into the river. The river bed was of all stones and very painful to walk around in bare feet. So Connor took the next best form of transportation. Patti and Jeffrey joined in as well. It was a very welcome dip into the cool water.

Here is the whole family along the walk path leading up to the Pont du Gard, which is French for Gard Bridge.

Last Updated Wednesday August 29, 2001 00:08 CET