When we arrived in Marseille, Europecar laid an egg and we ended up with a Renault Modus which is a far cry from the Alfa 147 I had reserved. The reservation said "Alfa 147 or similar": the 147 is a sleek Italian hatchback and the Modus is a boxy French 5-door (they both have four wheels and an engine so that was "similar" enough). Undaunted, we set out with the GPS guiding us northwest toward Nîmes. Driving past fields of blooming sunflowers with the cool, dry Mediterranean air, we arrived at Nîmes intending it to be simply a waypoint on the way to other sights, but we were pleasantly surprised by the Roman buildings passed during our drive through the city center.
After a lovely dinner and a walk around the Roman Arena, it was early to bed and early to rise. Breakfast was followed by a quick daylight tour of the Arena, a preserved section of the ancient Roman city gate, the Temple, and the pool where the water delivered via Pont du Gard ultimately entered Nîmes. Then, it was a short drive to Pont du Gard where we hiked the hills to take photos from numerous angles on a beautiful day and splashed in the river below to keep cool.
After visiting a marvelous example of ancient engineering we continued driving northwest up to the modern engineering marvel of the Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world. The French take pride in their engineering and the Viaduct is a stunning example (the headquarters of Airbus is nearby and the Viaduct giftshop sold photos of the new Airbus A380 flying over the Viaduct). The project was started in the 1970's when the French government decided to build a new motorway through the south of France and after years of planning and a design competition, construction began in 2001 and was completed in 2004. The Viaduct spans the valley near the town of Milleau and connects the center of France with the southern Mediterranean coastline.
Next the Modus was pointed southwest toward Barcelona and the French medieval city of Carcassonne. We had seen Carcassonne in a tour book and it had the double attraction of a walled fortress surrounding the old city and airport service from RyanAir. I had booked a hotel on the Internet (sight unseen, but it was rated well) and we were both surprised when we arrived and found that our hotel was actually inside the walls of the old city. Lugging a bag through cobblestone streets is a small price to pay for a great rate on a room with this kind of view:
We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and walked the streets before falling asleep to the accordion duet floating up from the restaurant outside our room. In the morning we prowled the empty streets for fresh pastries, then queued for the fortress tour. The city of Carcassonne is ringed by not one but two walls with turrets, and within the walls is a castle/fortress built by the Counts of Carcassonne. During the Middle Ages, Carcassonne was on the border of France and Spain and was always a point of contention until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 between France and Spain moved the border further south towards the modern border shared by the two countries.
The best part of the tour was walking the battlements with commanding views of the surrounding countryside. As we left, we stopped for a view from the other side of the river which flows past the city, in an attempt to capture Carcassonne's imposing presence at the top of the hill.
The end of the weekend turned a bit sour as RyanAir had apparently filled our return flight with members of the Extremely Unhappy French Children's Association, but overall the trip was a fantastic adventure under the beautiful blue skies of le sud du France.
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