Rodez to Mende via the mighty Millau Viaduct and scenic Gorges du Tarn

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It would be a relatively short distance between Rodez and Mende,if you took the main road.
However,we won’t be doing that as we have two attractions that we want to take in and it will mean first heading south to Millau and then back north again to end the day in Mende.
The day has again started out brilliantly fine although it is probably the coolest morning we have experienced and had to clear all the car windows of dew before we headed off.We still haven’t come anywhere near a frost yet and it is almost the start of winter.W e are putting the absence of frost down to the fact that it seems to cloud over at night and that the air or atmosphere has been quite dry.Not that we necessarily want to experience a frost before we head home to the New Zealand summer!!
We took the D29 out of Rodez through fertile looking farmland with many of the paddocks that had been recently resown showing very good green growth although there is still a distinct lack of animals in profusion alongside the roads we have been driving.
Just before we reached Millau we took a diversion off the road leading to the viaduct to take in the interesting named town of St-Beauzely and its chateau.Unlike so many of the other towns we have taken notice off over the past couple of days in our countryside wanderings,St-Beauzely isn’t built on a hilltop rather down in a valley.The chateau didn’t look especially photographic so we made do with a distance shot rather than going all the way to the bottom of the valley.
Back to the main road and the turnoff to the newly opened visitors centre was just a short distance on.
You get a glimpse of the viaduct structure as you come down a small hill.The tops of the steel pylons appear above the hills ahead of us although they don’t give away what we were about to see as we rounded the last corner to the visitors area.
The Millau is the highest multi stayed viaduct in the world and looks quite out of place such is the very modern and clean lines of the structure as it crosses the nearly 2.5km width of the valley it traverses.We say this because the surrounding countryside has an ancient look about it with pre historic sites in the area and the rocks protruding from the hillsides dating back to pre historic times.
We parked OO and walked up the path to the viewing area which is located a littlehigher and to the side of the road that runs onto the viaduct.There wasn’t a large amount of traffic using the viaduct although because the structure is so large and long passing over the deep valley, the noise coming from the cars and trucks was rather muted anyway.
The viaduct was built to speed up the time it takes to drive from Paris to Barcelona.Despite being the highest viaduct in the world at 343 metres in height and 2.5km long it took only 3 years to build.It opened for traffic in December 2004.Perhaps leaving these major contracts to private enterprise as the French government did in this case is not a bad idea as it certainly got the job completed in quick time.And the company that built the viaduct still manages the structure and has a license to do so until it comes to the end of its life in 75 years.
It is certainly an amazing sight and after taking it all in from above we drove down to the town of Millau in the valley and drove up to where you can view the viaduct from below at a public information building next to one of the 7 concrete piers.There you can view a video of the viaduct being built and then tested before it was opened to the public.The testing including driving 28 heavy goods vehicles(968 metric tons in total)supported by one span.It passed the test!!Also included in pictures of the viaduct in the centre is one of the Airbus A380,the plane we are flying from Paris to Singapore on Thursday next week,which made Gretchen think twice about that flight.It is a fantastic picture with the aeroplane caught as it did a slight turn right above the viaduct.
Getting good photos from below the viaduct,other than at the public information site which is right under the structure,was not that simple.At what was the best spot we found from the roadside at the boulangerie where we brought our lunch,was a maze of advertising signs,power poles and lines and we had to get into a position in front of these things to get the best view.There was probably a better spot next to the river that flows under the structure but we couldn’t find the road that would take us down to the river.
So our trip to Millau and getting alongside the world’s highest viaduct will rate up there with some other amazing things ,structures and places we have seen and done on this adventure.
Leaving Millau we took the D907 through the very scenic Gorges du Tarn.We had enjoyed the drive through the Gorges Verdun in Provence a few weeks back but this place was even grander than that with spectacular rock overhangs of the road,tunnels hacked out of the rock and unlined with concrete,including one that appeared to have a huge split in the rock face above the entrance that Gretchen drove through at speed and small hamlets with very old looking stone houses on the other side of the side that were only accessible by flying fox.
The road through the 30 or so kilometres of gorge is relatively narrow and we were pleased that there was little other traffic so we could drive and stop when we wanted without having opposing traffic all the time.The place is a haven for campers and people who like water sports,especially canoeing,and we guess that summer would be a hectic time here.
The few small villages that we came across were all very old and there seemed to be few permanent residents although each village had its own little collection of essential shops to supply those living there and of course would do a roaring trade when holidaymakers filled the numerous camping grounds in the summer.
Some the views through here would go close to rivalling those we have seen in some of the canyons we have visited in the western USA and they are special places on their own.
The road out of the gorge was an interesting affair too and we thought for a moment we were back in Switzerland or Andorra as the road zig zagged up a rock face that from below didn’t look like it would support a road of one lane yet alone two!!At a vantage point about three quarters of the way up the village St Eninie down in the valley just looked like a dot such was the sharp climb in height we had done.
The drive into Mende was through some rather dry looking farmland and natural forest along a plateau.
Our hotel was located right on the road that we came into town on and we had no need for Google Maps today.
It has been a very interesting and scenic days drive highlighted by the world’s highest viaduct and capped off by the spectacular Gorges du Tarn and our expectations for the day had been exceeded.

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