Day 7: The Flow of Time

Today I got up early to go and see one of the wonders of the Roman world.

To the west of Avignon lies Pont Du Gard. It was built as part of the aqueduct system that carried water some 50km to the city of Nimes.

At 52metres high it is the tallest aqueduct bridge in the Roman world. For five centuries it supplied water to the city allowing it to flourish.

Getting to the aqueduct involved catching an infrequent bus from Avignon bus station.

Once there I looked around the newly built museum that explained the role of water in Roman cities and how the aqueduct came to be built. At its peak, Pont Du Gard helped carry 35,000 cubic metres of water a day to Nimes, allowing it’s citizens to use it with almost wild abandon.

Walking up to the monument itself and it’s easy to see why it’s a UNESCO World heritage site. The bridge is almost totally preserved and towers above the tourists below.

Being in the sunny south of France the views were made so much better by the good weather. I spent a good while exploring the around the site.

I then had lunch in the on site cafe when I saw that Italy had proceeded to quarentine a quarter of its population. And that was it. With one move the Italian government had succeeded in cutting my travels in two. I’m gutted but what will be will be. I’ll be going home in around two weeks rather than closer to 7. I just hope containing the virus will be worth putting 16 million people into quarentine and snuffing out Northern Italy’s tourist industry.

Moving on from the news I returned to Avignon and toured a couple of interesting little art museums before having dinner and retiring for the night.

It’s been a day of good and bad. Here’s hoping I’ll have more good in the days to come.