Not knowing exactly what we were going to do today, except go somewhere outside of Avignon, Pont du Gard is the decision. A UNESCO world heritage site since 1985 and an aqueduct, should have known this would be the first place we would visit.
Since we haven't rented a car we will rely on public transportation. Pont du Gard is a little out of the way with really on one time to leave 8:45AM, but a few choices to get back by bus later this afternoon. First hurdle is what we thought was the bus station for this was not the bus station, good thing we tend to arrive early. The bus stop we went to was for little local buses, then we ended up at the tram station, then to the train station where someone there pointed us in the right direction. Good thing all of these places were within about a 5 minute walking distance so we still had time to wait once we finally got where we needed to be.
For this route you just pay the bus driver, 2Euro each for about a 45 minute ride. Couldn't beat that price. A couple got on after us from the US, they had no idea how to pay, or how much it was. I spoke up and told them it was 4Euro for the 2 of them, pretty sure the drive could have said 4 in English. For all you hear about how rude people can be in France this is the first time I have come across someone who has not been friendly or helpful. Turns out this bus is some kind of school bus as well, lots of kids getting off and on the bus as well, we think it may have been a college they were going to?
We get dropped off and the not so friendly driver does tell us in French where to get the bus back, I explained it to the english couple, we are all set.
We have booked a 11AM group tour that takes you up to walk where the water flowed, it will be in French. There is an English tour on Saturday but the bus schedule is terrible on Saturday so decided I would get what I could out of the French tour. We arrived about 1 hour before the tour so had time to visit the museum and watch a little movie, this will help with the translation later as I know a little more now about what we are going to see.
There are 10 of us on the tour. It was very interesting. Turns out there were 2 other English people on the tour that the guide gave quick translations to after the French speech. I stuck around for most of both talks. The Pont du Gard belongs to the aqueduct that as build around 50AD to bring water to Nimes. Nimes is a Roman town that I think we will be visiting later in our trip, a coliseum still intact, guessing we will be going there. The aqueduct ran from Uzes to Nimes, 50KM, and they were able to slope it 25cm per km by routing around the mountains. The aqueduct bridge is 49 meters high, the highest Roman aqueduct bridge in the world, and the only ancient 3 story bridge still standing. Amazing that it took only 5 years to complete.
Our tour took us up to the 3rd level of the bridge where the guide opened a locked door and we walked the length of the aqueduct. So impressive. There are 6 arches on the first level, 36 on the 2nd level, and originally 47 on the third. The churches have taken some of these away from the third level but not too many, they mostly took pieces from smaller bridges along the 50 KM aqueduct. The pieces still can be found in some cities. The aqueduct was used for 500 years, amazing. The water passing in aqueduct was very had and calcined along the walls. They used some of those to make statues for churches as well. The aqueduct was supposed to be 2 meters high but Andre had to duct for his walk for most of it.
We had originally planned to do some walks along the river here but that meant we would need to find things to do for 4 hours until the next bus, so instead we caught a bus in 1 hour. It would have been nice to spend a bit more time exploring, who knows if we run out of things to do we may come back just to do some walks another day. There is no charge to walk around and along the bottom level of the aqueduct, so if we run out of things to do we may be back.
Caught the bus, must say it was a quick ride back since I slept most of it. Back in Avignon at about 2PM and time to find some lunch. We looked at places in the square but nothing really appealed to me, so we continued on. Problem with this is most places close at 2:30PM so we are getting more closed options than welcomes. Finally decide to just get some Greek things and split them.
Back home at the apartment to rest up. Watch another Drive to Survive and we are then off to finish up walking around for the day. Look at bus options for our next 3 AIRBNB stops, they are not going to be fun drives, but trains are crazy expensive, so bus it will be it looks like.
Back out for another walk and to see the sunset. We didn't end up going where we had planned, but we found a nice place to walk in the evenings. Outside the walls there is a bridge over to Isle de la Barthelasse. We had great views of the sun setting over Pont Avignon and the Papal palace. We will definitely be renting bikes one day to go over to this Island, looks like great paths, and they even have 2 lanes for bikes to cross the bridge!
Back onto Avignon and we go through the gates to the Papal Palace. A few tour busses around today, we have also seen a couple of school groups. Many more people out on the streets than the first couple of nights we were here. Walked up the steps to the Papal Palace, if we want to have a drink with the under 30's for sunset we now know where to go. Back into the small cobblestone streets with nowhere really in mind to go. So many small restaurants opening that we hadn't noticed before, but I know we are also discovering new streets. Many more streets inside the gates here than there were in Old Town in Nice, still lots to walk and discover.
Back home for salad for supper, as well as trying out the blue cheese that Andre bought at the market. Also finished a Rose bottle of wine from this region that the AIRBNB host left for us.
Todays steps 21,000 or 13.5km
Leaving Avignon on the bus
No comments:
Post a Comment
We appreciate any comments/questions you would have or any stories about the places we visited.