Pont du Gard

To see the Pont du Gard, the famous Roman aqueduct that supplied water to the town of Nimes, we rented canoes and paddled down the Gardon River.  The water was clear with enough minor "rapids" to keep paddling interesting, the sky was that "Boulder Blue" which we love, the temperature warm enough but not hot, and the wind was brisk, giving us a taste of the "mistral" wind that is so prevalent in this area.  We thought we had died and gone to heaven and that was before we got to the aqueduct!

Once there we stopped and joined the many other visitors who were swimming, sun bathing, taking pictures, and generally having a good time in the shadow of the aqueduct.

 After a while Ben went exploring and found the restaurant, so we walked across the aqueduct and had a wonderful meal while admiring the view.

Then back down to the banks of the Gardan for some more swimming and sunbathing.  We spotted a man enjoying the river au naturale and a woman swimming topless, which was pretty interesting.

We finally had to leave the aqueduct and paddle down to the canoe drop off point.  But it was only seven o'clock and way too pretty an evening to head back to our hotel in Orange so we drove to Avignon to check it out.  Well, it was hosting its theater festival and was very busy and crowded.  We settled for a walk down to the river where we could at least see massive walls that surround the city.   

The boys decided on "McDo's" for dinner, and Ben and I walked the two blocks to the center square where we just caught the last call for dinner at Le Pigalle.  It was a great end to a five star day.