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This ancient Roman aquaduct, built in the first century AD, actually carried water from a spring north of the bridge to Nîmes. It was built with drystone limestone and some of the bricks weigh up to 6 tons, and were put in place with cranes and pulleys. The smaller stones were placed using human-driven treadmill-like apparatuses. It makes the 1500 year old church i saw in Fontaine-de-Vaucluse seem brand new. On this trip, one gets to paddle right under it.
The blocks sticking out of the structure are for supporting scaffolding when building the bridge.
It has been repaired and restored and is a UNESCO heritage site. My canoe partner and I paddled here, on the Gardon River, some 30 years ago. I was informed by the outfitter that the river has changed since then. He told me that great floods had occurred around the year 2000 and they cut down all the trees. It was not clear to me why cutting down massive amounts of trees would help control the flooding, but my French was not good enough to find out.
There are people walking on the Pont. They are about as big as ants, on the first floor of the Pont. You can see them in this picture. Gives you some idea of the scale.
Right now there are four outfitters serving the Gardon River, and all of them use plastic kayaks. There is not a Canadian canoe to be found. Not even an old aluminum Grumman, to say nothing of a Novocraft. In fact, if I asked about a Canadian canoe, I was pointed to a sit-on-top plastic boat with three molded seats. I selected instead, what they called a kayak, but with the exception of paddling with a double bladed paddle and sitting rather than kneeling, it was a canoe. So considering many canoes are now made to be paddled sitting on the bottom of the canoe, and even using a double blade, I decided to call this a canoe. I used a single bladed paddle. I took along a double bladed paddle just in case I could not control it with a single blade, but the single blade worked fine.
I was surprised at how easily it handled considering all I had read about these plastic bathtubs. It responded reasonable well to all the usual tripping strokes. There was quite a current which it handled well. In the slower areas it behaved more like a bathtub. I knew I would be sitting down. What I did not know is these bathtubs have holes in the bottom. I was prepared to get wet, but was surprised to find myself sitting in water. Like a bathtub. Ridges on the side provided foot rests for a variety of leg lengths. I mostly stuck my heels in two of the holes which were at exactly the right length for me.
I did not see much of the dramatic cliffs we saw thirty years ago. I think these are further upstream, which was too shallow to paddle. In fact, the Gardon runs under ground during dry times. I think at the right water level, there is enough water and river length to do an overnight on the river. But that was not now. There were many sections of Class I whitewater to run and some of the waves were pretty fun knowing there is no way this bathtub can roll over or wrap. A bit of cliffs on this section of the Gardon.
Bird life was abundant if not visible. Except for the Little Egrets (look like Snowy Egrets) and Mallard Ducks, the birds were all hiding in the foliage. I noticed this when I first went to France. My paddling partner said it was because songbirds used to be hunted for food, so they learned to stay hidden as those were the only ones who survived. I do not know if this is true or not. Luckily, my Merlin app for identifying birds by song worked extremely well. Loud and frequent along the Gardon (and other areas) are the Eurasian Blackbird and Eurasian Robin whose liquid songs are so beautiful. I also heard, per Merlin, the Nightingale, Blackcap, Cetties Warbler, the Golden Oriole, the Chaffinch. The major find, I thought, was the high reedy voice of the Black Kite, although I never saw it. At any one time, I could stop canoeing and listen to a tapestry of song. In a six minute recording, there might be as many as eight different songs waving through the air. It was much like a dawn chorus, except it wasn’t dawn. It was the middle of the day.
At the Pont, a Sand Martin pulled out of a hole in the cliff and sailed down to the water and away. These birds dig their own holes in sandy cliffs for nests. They are analogous to Cliff Swallows in the US, but are not at all colorful.
I pulled out river left on a tiny bit of rock beach, hidden by riverside bushes and for a while, it was quiet. I saw the stones across the river and then to the right, the remains of a home or castle. These remains are all over France. For us, in American, our history is only a couple hundred years old, while in Europe it is thousands of years old and one can feel the difference.
There are also holes in the limestone which must become dangerous during higher water levels.
And sometimes it was just a quiet beautiful river.
After my brief period of quiet, numerous kayakers came by in all states of distress and ineptitude, from double bladed paddles on tandem boats whirling like broken windmills, to the pair going backwards with no idea how to get turned around. One woman got caught in an eddy that brought her almost straight to me. I laughed and asked her if she was joining me for lunch. It was all in good humor. But after clearing the touristy area around the Pont, into the quiet, I realized how stressful it is for me to be around lots of people.
The Pont du Gard is the fifth most popular tourist attraction in France and many choose to paddle it. At this low water level, there were lots of sand and rock bars sporting sunbathing tourists and right around the Pont it was a bit of a circus, although I cannot object to families with children enjoying the beautiful outdoors and river and the young teenage boys trying out their luck and skill with swimming and climbing up the rocks out of the river. I was here on a Saturday of a holiday weekend in France, Victory in Europe Day which commemorates the end of World War II in Europe. So it was to be expected that I would see a lot of people. In season, in summer, there are many more. The calmest most peaceful times were near the beginning and near the end.
Paddling slowly and taking many breaks to extend the trip and see more of what was on the banks, still only took about two and a half hours. It is important to remember the name of your outfitter, because they all take out at different places along the river. (Do not ask me now I know this.) I wish the trip could be longer, but I was delighted with what I saw and experienced.
