Pont du Gard

Saturday was the day we visited one of the places I had most been looking forward to – Pont du Gard. This amazing Roman bridge/aqueduct built in the 1st century has always captivated me and it was my dream to kayak underneath it. Pont du Gard is only about 40 km from where we are staying, so not a long drive. Nav-Madame took us through some goregous towns with narrow streets en route. The busiest was Remoulins – a small village come to life with its annual cherry festival. It is a major cherry growing area around here, and from the road you can see the trees laden with red cherries. There are roadside stalls everywhere selling cheap cherries – what a shame!

We had decided to kayak the 8km stretch of the Gardon river from Collias to Remoulins, passing under the Pont du Gard. We were kitted out with double kayaks and barrels to keep all our gear (and the all important picnic) dry. The loo at the kayak base gave the kids a good laugh as it was a squat toilet with a very powerful flush that drenched your feet as if you didn’t get out the door in time!



The river was a mixture of calm slow flowing stretches with fast flowing rapids in some places. The river level was pretty low so on some of the rapids you had to choose the right course or you ended up beached on the pebbles. There were a few close encounters with tree debris and rocks, but we made it safely down each of the rapids (even if it was backwards or sideways on occasions!).

After about 4km of paddling, we landed on a pebble beach for our picnic. We were all hungry after the effort of paddling and the baguette, ham and cheese soon disappeared. After another couple of kilometres, we rounded a corner and the Pont du Gard came into sight. Once we got closer, we landed again to just sit and enjoy the amazing view. It is such an amazing structure In a beautiful setting. I had always thought that the river would be wider, but it actually only flowed through one of the bottom arches.

After kayaking under the bridge, we had another couple of kilometres to go to the finish line. This was the hardest stretch as the river got wider and slower and there was a head wind. We were booked on the 3pm shuttle bus back to Collias and arrived right on time with sore shoulders and blistered hands.

After shuttling back to Collias to collect our car, we drove back to the Pont du Gard. You can only walk over the bottom level, which is actually a bridge that was added to the structure in 1743.

We were able to walk up and see the end of the aqueduct though and get a great view out across the bridge. We could have spent hours more at the bridge as there were lots of caches and a museum, but it was time to head back to St Remy for a delicious dinner of turkey, chicken and le cheval!