Uzès a Pretty French Town
Today we’re driving to Uzès, a pretty French town in the South of France. It’s Sunday morning and within the motorhome Aire at the Parking du Stad is a large Antique market.
We manage to find a parking space in the busy parking area, but we can’t use the motorhome dump as the market is surrounding it.
There are so many stalls here, so we can’t wait to take a look around and see what’s on offer. It’s the first week of October, and the main tourist season is coming to an end, but the weather is warm and sunny.
Exploring the Antiques market
Although we’re hoping to spot a few unusual bargain antiques, it’s not to be. Many stalls are similar to a car boot sale with various second hand goods. It’s great to have a rummage though amongst the stalls and it’s not long before we find a tempting item to buy.
Our little find is a trio of glass bottles which make one large bottle. Ok, my description isn’t the best, but it’s a perfect souvenir.
Last time we were here in our last motorhome, we took back a very sad looking cactus plant, thrown away by our van. The tiny little pot plant was to flourish into a very tall, healthy specimen. That wonderful prickly plant was to live for nearly 10 years by our front door!
Leafy squares and pleasant architecture
Venturing into the tree-lined avenues and lively squares of Uzès town centre is delightful. This gorgeous French town has a vibrant, classy mix and beautiful pale stone buildings amongst its heart.
With it being Sunday, most shops are unfortunately closed today. There’s a good selection of independent stores where you can explore when they’re open. As well as pleasant architecture, stone buildings and narrow streets there’s a lovely cathedral and chateau. The latter has an unusual colourful tiled roof which is extremely eye-catching.
Despite it being a Sunday in October, the cafes and pavement eateries are full and atmosphere idyllic. There’s nowhere so charismatic than France and sleepy Uzes reminds us why we love it so much.
The source of the pont du gard
Not only is Uzes a beautiful town, but it also has a rather famous connection. That’s because Uzes is the source of the incredible Roman aqueduct of The Pont du Gard.
Walking beyond the town centre through Duches Park leads to the original source of The Pont du Gard.
Nowadays, the stone channels remain and a visitor information board gives information about the site. We walk down some steps into the stone water channel and pause for a moment to remember the significance of these stone arches above our heads.
Incredibly, this spring and connecting stone channels carried a staggering 30,000 cubic meters of water from Uzes all the way to Nimes, covering a distance of 50km. This Roman masterpiece, built around 50CE was an incredible task and seeing the mighty Pont du Gard itself is a mesmerising sight.
Next time we’ll be visiting this spectacular Roman aqueduct of The Pont du Gard, one of the first amazing sights we remember from our early motorhome travels in the early 00’s. This is still one of our favourite places in France and in our opinion a “must see” sight.
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