Pont-du-Gard...Roman Aqueduct

The bus ride from Nimes to Pont-du-Gard only takes 30 minutes.  We are let off at a bus stop that is a traffic circle just outside of town.  From here its a 15 minute walk to the entrance of a nature area that includes a museum, café, gift shop, and most importantly the aqueduct.  It is the world's second highest standing Roman structure. (The Colosseum in Rome is 6 feet taller).  The main arch is the largest the Romans ever built--80 feet.

 The aqueduct built in 19 B.C. crossed the Gardon River.

The river provides great fun on a hot day.

 For 150 years, this system provided Nimes with good drinking water.

 This was the biggest bridge in the whole 30 mile long aqueduct.

We now were to return to Nimes and to Arles for the night.  I missed a note in the guidebook that cautioned: "make sure you're waiting for the bus on the correct side of the traffic circle."  We weren't.   Fortunately, there was such a line of people to catch the bus that it was stopped long enough for us to run around the traffic circle to board.  Back in Nimes, we decided not to take the bus back to Arles but to take a train.  Although the travel time by train is faster than bus, it took us more time because we had to figure out how to buy our tickets.  By the time we could buy our ticket, the next train left about the time we would be arriving by bus to Arles.  But we learned a great deal about how to use the train station services.  Our travel tomorrow would be mostly by train.