“All right… all right… but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order… what have the Romans done for us?”

Monty Python couldn’t have been more accurate, which brings us immediately and conveniently to today’s foray into the world, having stayed in Pont de Gard overnight, we were less than a mile from one of the most impressive Roman remains, the pont de Gard aqueduct, an essential component in the Nimes aqueduct, which was some 50 km long from the source of the water in Uzés but incredibly was only 12.5m lower in altitude.  The entire route therefore has a gradient of only 25cm per kilometre.  Built in the first century BC it stands nearly 50m high, the highest known aqueduct bridge and 274 m wide across the river Gardon.  It delivered 200,000 cubic metres of water each day which apparently took 27 hours to reach its destination from the source, I can only presume it was using our Tom Tom!

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the tranquility of the olive groves and evergreen oak plantations, which would have been the indigenous plants before the area was cleared for agriculture and habitation.

And finally, whilst waiting in line for an ice cream , I came across my next challenge……observing the dynamics of the queue, I realised that France is the only country I know where the queue gets larger from the front !