July 1, 2017

July 1, 2017

Arles’ annual town festival, Les Fetes d’Arles is this weekend. The party started last night with a torchlight parade. After dinner we followed the music to Republic Square where we find a band playing and tons of people in period costume assembling. Soon after our arrival they begin to move. The parade takes a half hour to pass by. There must be a 1000 townspeople participating. Most are dressed in traditional peasant outfits. Many of the men are representing local farming trades. We follow the parade to the Arena, where we watch them file in. For the finale about 100 riders on white Camargue horses enter and fill the arena perimeter.

On our way out of Arles this morning we ran into the Saturday Farmers Market. It took us twenty minutes to find an alternative exit. We drove forty minutes northwest to the premier Roman ruin in Provence, the Pont du Gard. This World Heritage structure is the highest and probably best preserved of Roman Aqueducts. It is huge.

We paid extra for a guided tour through the water canal carried on the upper tier. After a brief explanation in English and French, we were escorted down the old water channel. After 150 years of operation it built up almost a foot of lime scale along the pan. We then hiked to several view points to take photos from various angles.

On the way out we explored the large Museum. It provides a lot of the details of this amazing 2000 year old technology. This aqueduct channeled water 31 miles from a spring down to the city of Nimes. Amazingly Nimes is only 41 feet below the elevation of the source. The aqueduct was built mostly below the surface following the contours of the topography only crossing valleys like this one when it had to. Building these monumental bridges was costly! The design, layout, and construction of this aqueduct remains an engineering marvel to this day.

During the Middle Ages, the stones of most of the valley spans were disassembled and carted off for churches.  Pont du Gard only remains because the stones were too big to easily move.

From Pont du Gard, we drive to Nimes to find the end of the aqueduct. After finally finding parking in an underground lot, we explore Nimes' Roman history. We are parked near the Arena, the best preserved Roman Amphitheater still standing. A short walk away is the best preserved Temple. Another couple blocks we arrive at the Castellum, a small circular tank where the aqueduct ended. From here we can see the holes that held lead pipes that directed water to various public uses. Thermal Baths were the biggest consumers of the waterflow.

On the walk back, Aimee and I were both impressed with central Nimes. It is a very clean upscale city. The pedestrian shopping zones are all paved in beautiful floor tiles.