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To the Pont du Gard

Roman Provence - history & gastronomy

  • self-guided hotel-to-hotel walking, luggage transported
  • high-quality hotels, all with a pool
  • exceptional cuisine, including one Michelin-starred restaurant
  • relaxed walking
  • visit the Pont du Gard

The limestone hills north of the Camargue form the final fold of the Massif Central. At the western fringe of Provence, these secret, sun-scorched hills conceal tiny stone villages and the ancient duchy of Uzès. Cutting a deep, wooded gorge through the scented hills, the River Gardon slips between the graceful arches of the mighty Pont du Gard, one of the region’s Roman masterpieces. This relaxed walk, perhaps the most comfortable and gastronomic of all our walking holidays, follows attractive paths through these most Mediterranean of landscapes, where the air is perfumed with the scent of herbs, and buzzards and falcons soar overhead. To discover this secret region on foot is a delight, all the more so when you stay in high-quality hotels offering some outstanding cuisine (one boasts a well-deserved Michelin star).
We travelled right at the very start of the season, so the thyme was in flower, creating a sea of blue and attracting lots of large, bright yellow butterflies and smaller blue ones.
     
Travel diary by Susan Avison, Accounts Team
The Pont du Gard is just part of the 50-kilometre-long aqueduct which in Roman times carried water from the source of the River Eure, near Uzès, to Nîmes. It is arguably the most impressive section, a testimony to the Romans' enormous engineering expertise, and is the largest surviving section of the aqueduct. As such, it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Necessary to carry the aqueduct across the River Gardon, the bridge was built by the son-in-law of Emperor Augustus and is 273 metres long and 48 metres high, with 3 tiers of arches. The first level carried traffic, and was added to in 1743 to accommodate carriages, while the top level carried the water. The aqueduct took over a century to build, and was finally completed in the first part of the 1st century AD.
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