Arles and Pont du Gard

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We woke up to a grey sky and by the time we assembled on the quay for our walking tour there were definite spots of rain. Dave rushed back to the cabin for our rain coats and this was just as well because soon after we got inside the city walls, it began to rain seriously. We huddled under verandahs in a disgruntled fashion. This made the guide’s job rather difficult and we certainly did not see Arles at its best. The rain did slacken off quite soon and we got a view of the amphitheatre from the outside, the ancient church of St Trophime, the Hotel de Ville and other historic buildings, the site of the Roman forum which is now mostly restaurants and a very expensive hotel called Nord Pinus and lots of mediaeval streets. The place is like a labyrinth. They were holding the annual rice festival, with bulls running in the streets but unfortunately we did not get to see those. We did see garden of the hospital where Van Gogh stayed when he was in Arles and which has been restored to how it wasd then. We finished up at the market which had magnificent cheeses, olives, fruit and vegetables and paella which is traditionally eaten at the time of the rice festival.

We got rather lost going back to the ship and ended up not at all where we expected but a nice security man gave us directions and we made our way down to the river then had a very brisk walk along to the boat. It had stopped raining by this time – just as well.

After lunch we got on the bus for a visit to Pont du Gard. We drove through some interesting Provençal countryside, with fields of rice, sunflowers and olive groves. We did not have a guide so we decided to go to the bridge first where you can walk across the river on a modern bridge built next to the aqueduct, which is massive and remarkably well preserved. We then walked up the hill on the far side from where you could get beautiful views of the Pont du Gard, the river and the surrounding countryside. We then returned to the river via a steep zigzag path through the bush and admired the Pont du Gard from below. It was very still so there were magnificent reflections. We decided not to try fording the river but crossed back and went up the hill on the other side where we got quite a different view, then we scrambled down a different way.

There is a large museum showing the methods of construction of the aqueduct and something of the roman way of life at the time. There was a lot of interesting material but we found it quite hard to follow as it was all laid out in a very modern way with dim lighting and not a very logical order. However, looking at the pulleys and scaffolding I was very glad not to have been a slave working on the upper tiers. There was also a film which showed the route of the aqueduct, some facts and figures and a lot of artistic photography. I think we were all quite tired after this very busy day.

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