It was October in 1989 and Walt and I were starting a road trip from Grenoble to Toulouse and then north to Paris via Saint-Aignan and Chartres. (Little did we know that one day we'd end up living in Saint-Aignan, a place we had never even heard of back then. But that's another story.)
One of our first stops was the pont du Gard, an enormous Roman aqueduct about 30 minutes by west of Avignon by car. Not only did we see it from afar, but we climbed stairs up to the bridge's top level and walked the length of it. It was impressive and it felt more than slightly dangerous because there was nothing to prevent you from tripping and falling from up there into the river or onto the rocks 50 meters (164 ft.) below.
Walt took these pictures of the Pont du Gard. I'm not even sure that I traveled with, or even owned, a camera in those days. I found Walt's 1989 photos on my hard disk yesterday morning. Neither of us is in any of the pictures.
Absolutely stunning pictures and a remarkable structure. That said, there is no way I would walk across the top of it. Seeing this makes me grateful to my French teacher who taught us about it in fifth grade(?).
ReplyDeleteWe visited there three years ago, we rented a Gite in the area for a wonderful week.
ReplyDeleteDitto, Diogenes! (Although no one ever taught me about it!)
ReplyDeleteIn June of 1994 my family visited the Pont du Gard. My former husband walked across it while I sat on the flat rocks beside the river while our daughter swam in the stream under the bridge. I had planned on swimming with her, but the flat rocks gave me cramps immediately and I had to just sit. I just sent Walt's photos to my daughter so she could see that walkway and suggested she forward them on to her Dad to see what his memories of that walk were! WoW! I don't I think I would have walked across it!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't do it today, that's for sure.
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