2024 September: France and Spain – Uzès to Comps

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We are out of bed away from Uzès fairly early and take the D979/D981 to Pont du Gard Roman aqueduct. The car park at Pont du Gard is very large, sufficient for thousands of vehicles, as we are here early there is plenty of space and we park up with the motorhomes, €9 for the day. It is a warm and sunny day, 27°C again but the footpath is wide and paved with plenty of shade.

The Pont du Gard aqueduct spans the valley and is an impressive site (although it does not match Segovia!). We take our time and enjoy the relaxed ambiance of the day, curiously there are a lot of Americans… unusual in France, we wondered if they were taking holiday after Paris 2024 Paralympics. The Pont du Gard was one of the highlights of this trek around France. The construction is very pleasing to look at with three sets of arches on top of each other to cross the river. For the Romans, water was extremely important, to provide water for the population at fountains so that it could be taken to the houses. Then for the baths, considered part of life that differentiated the Romans from barbarians. Also the latrines, and finally for the grand villas of the very rich who paid for connection to the system in some parts of the country.

After lunch we drive to Sernhac and find the Roman tunnels that were also part of the water delivery system (two) hand hewn in 20 foot high rock as part of the structure carrying the water to the aqueduct. Exploring the area makes a pleasant afternoon, not least as we meet a lady who is part of the preservation team for the tunnels. She explains, in French and mostly to Mr C. about the area and what is here.

We follow to where she suggests and find the section of tunnel where the hand hewing of the rock (left and right-handed directions) is very clear, even with foot holes to the top… fascinating.

From Sernhac we take D986 to Comps, a short distance along the Gardon river. Here we follow a very narrow road through the village which takes us to a parking area under trees clearly used by local fishermen and kayakers. It is level, plenty of shade under the trees and next to the river. We cover ourselves in Jungle Juice (Deet-based) although the bites we have are now very troublesome, we get no more. After a bottle of fizz and chicken stir-fry for tea we have a very pleasant evening sitting under the trees until dusk.