Cuges les Pins to Pont du Gard

DAY 22 - Cuges les Pins to Pont du Gard 26/10/2007

This morning we have travelled to Marseille which didn’t look like the same place the All Blacks stayed. We saw the real city, Roman Ruins, ugly buildings built around them within the last 200 years and then the super yachts in the harbour. Outside of the city was first the tourist port and then the polluting factories and industrial ports. It was one big ugly city. We tried to find something touristy in the way of shops and found nothing. On the unpaid motorways the rubbish hasn’t been picked up for years, no grass or plants grew, the landscape is barren, brown and dry. I imagine the select route the 2007 rugby world cup players were taken on was tarted up.

We then went onto Avignon to see where the Pope was sent to because Rome at the time, year 1309, was a bad scene. Many successive popes resided here as they were here for some time. There is also the Pont d’Avignon (bridge) over the river that is half destroyed and goes nowhere. We never went on it like other tourists because I draw the line at paying 3 Euros to walk half a bridge and back. My generosity of 18 Euros to the Catholic Church to visit the Popes place was enough to cover my sins this week, but I am not sure about theirs. Roger did tip a young tenor in the town square, unfortunately he detected we were English speaking and changed to signing in English, shame.

Running behind schedule we went to Orange to see the oldest and original Arc de Triomphe built AD26. It was in bad shape and made no tourist attraction of. We then went quickly on the paying motorway to get to Pont de Gard before dark.

Pont du Gard has one of the world’s oldest surviving aqueducts (2000 years old) which we hope to see first thing the next morning. We camped in a free car park by the river on the edge of the shopping area with several other campervans. The only take-away place was a Pizzeria and it was very nice. The car park didn’t have a church but it was the local midnight meeting place for teenagers. You can’t complain too much when the car park/campsite is free or cheap. The night before we stayed in a forest for a gold coin donation. The terraced site under trees on damp ground is secured by barrier arms and a grumpy couple who live in a caravan and spend all the donations on cheap wine.

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