| Some twenty kilometres from Nîmes, the Pont du Gard is the greatest surviving stretch of a fifty-kilometre-long aqueduct built by the Romans in the middle of the first century to supply fresh water to the city. With just a seventeen-metre difference in altitude between start and finish, the aqueduct was quite an achievement, running as it does over hill and dale, through a tunnel, along the top of a wall, cut into trenches, and over rivers; the Pont du Gard carries it over the River Gard. Today the bridge is something of a tourist trap, but nonetheless a supreme piece of engineering, a brilliant combination of function and aesthetics. It made the impressionable Rousseau wish he'd been born Roman. Three tiers of arches span the river, with the covered water conduit on the top, rendered with a special plaster waterproofed with a paint apparently based on fig juice. A visit here used to be a must for French journeymen masons on their traditional tour of the country, and many of them have left their names and home towns carved on the stonework. Markings made by the original builders are still visible on individual stones in the arches, such as "FR S III – frons sinistra", front side left no. 3. The Pont du Gard has recently undergone a massive restoration programme and work is now starting on improving the local amenities, including a multimedia centre with exhibits relating to the history of the aqueduct and the surrounding area. Seventeen kilometres further on, near the start of the aqueduct and served by daily buses from Nîmes, UZÈS is a lovely old town perched on a hill above the River Alzon. Half a dozen medieval towers – the most fetching is the windowed Pisa-like Tour Fenestrelle, tacked onto the much later cathedral – rise above its tiled roofs and narrow lanes of Renaissance and Neoclassical houses, the residences of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century local bourgeoisie, who had grown rich like their Protestant co-religionists in Nîmes on textiles. From the mansion of Le Portalet, with its view out over the valley, walk past the Renaissance church of St-Étienne and into the medieval place aux Herbes, where there's a Saturday morning market, and up the arcaded rue de la République. The Gide family used to live off the square, the young André spending summer vacations with his granny there. To the right of rue de la République is the castle of Le Duché (90-minute guided tours daily: mid-June to mid-Sept 10am–6.30pm; mid-Sept to mid-June 10am–noon & 2–6pm; €10), still inhabited by the same family a thousand years on, and dominated by its original keep, the Tour Bermonde. Today, there are guided tours around the castle building and exhibits of local history and vintage cars. Opposite, the courtyard of the eighteenth-century Hôtel de Ville holds summer concerts. For details of these and other summer events, including more bull-running, consult the tourist office in place Albert 1er on boulevard Gambetta (June–Sept Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–1pm & 2–6pm; Oct–May Mon–Fri 9am–noon & 1.30–6pm, Sat 10am–1pm; tel 04.66.22.68.88, www.ville-uzes.fr). The gare routière (tel 04.66.22.00.58) is further west on avenue de la Libération. Should you need accommodation, head for the friendly Hostellerie Provençal in two old row houses at 1 rue Grand Bourgade, south of the church of St-Étienne (tel & fax 04.66.22.11.06; under €30; closed Sun & Mon eve Sept–June & Feb), or the attractively renovated La Taverne (tel 04.66.22.13.10, fax 04.66.22.45.90; €55–70), behind the tourist office at 4 rue Xavier Sigalon, with a good terroir restaurant up the road at no. 7 (€14). The only other option in town is the deluxe General d'Entraigues, 8 rue de la Calade (tel 04.66.22.32.68, [email protected]; over €70), in a converted fifteenth-century mansion opposite the cathedral. Alternatively, there's a municipal campsite off avenue Maxime-Pascal (tel 04.66.22.11.79; closed mid-Sept to mid-June), on the Bagnols-sur-Cèze road running northeast of town. Alternate spellings:: France, Uzès, Uzès, Uzes
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