Avignon to Raissac

Thursday April 30th

• starting miles           50640
• temperature              17.5
• weather                     warm, sunny
• time                           11.15

We got up early. Being a diet day we didn't dilly dally with breakfast. We got the bikes out and by 8.30 we had cycled across the new Pont d'Avignon to explore in the warm morning sunshine.

 In fact it didn't take us too long to discover that we had seen most of what we wanted to the night before.

The roads were narrow and busy with traffic. The signs said that bikes were allowed to go the wrong way up one way streets but the car drivers were far from convinced. 

In the end after coffee for an amazing €1 each  we cycled in the sunshine along the banks of the river Rhone and got the boat back to the site.

The plan was to visit Nimes to complete our Roman education.

 We would meander along the route nationale and see what we could see.

 I spied a sign for the "pont du gard" which I had seen iconic pictures of. 

So we made a detour expecting to find a lay by in which we could park and take pictures of the bridge.

Instead they had turned it into a theme park. The car park was immense. The buses were in the dozens as were the camping cars. 

We duly paid our €18 for our vehicle and headed off on foot. What an international gathering.The Chinese have replaced the Japanese as the ubiquitous tourist but there were Spaniards and Italians by the horde and German school parties. 

The Pont du Gard is seriously impressive. It was built by the Romans as an aqueduct during the first century. it is the most iconic part of a 50 kms long aqueduct which brought water to the city of nimes over the gardon river which flows below. The pont part was added in the seventeen century but without the plaque with its explanation you would never have known so seamlessly was it stitched on. 

We arrived at Nimes at around 2.30 and by 3.30 and several faux pas we still hadn't found somewhere to park. Nimes has a serious parking problem. All of the car parks were underground with barriers at a height which made them out of bounds for Hermione.

In the end discretion was the better part of valour and since we hadn't succeeded at first we gave up and headed for Raissac. It is good to be home. Nimes can wait to be  explored another time.