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| Le Pont du Gard, par Hubert Robert - 1787 (Musée du Louvre, Paris) |
"As I turn to face the Gard bridge, my soul is thrown into a deep and prolonged sense of astonishment. The Coliseum in Rome never saw me plunge so deeply into such a state of reverie. " 1838 French Realist Marie-Henri Beyle or better known as his pen name "Stendhal"
July 4th, 2013, Pont du Gard, France -- So far, the last three blogs have all pretty much covered just one very special day in the South of France. An Independence Day that began with the sounds of street sweepers outside our hotel balcony, in preparation for the Tour de France, ended late that afternoon atop nearby Pont du Gard -- the best preserved Roman aqueduct in the old Roman Empire-- and one of the most famous of all World Heritage Sites. Pont du Gard is also most famous of all the "Grand Sites de France" -- a special French National designation.
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| Pont du Gard is Featured on the Euro, Held Up Here Next to the Actual Pont du Gard (photos courtesy of Drew Smith) |
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| Pont du Gard as you approach from the Visitor's Center, on the Right Bank (photo by Drew Smith) |
This was the picture you have no doubt seen countless times in textbooks and in pretty much any description of how advanced Roman Civilization was 2000 years ago. While most Europeans were still running around like the noble savage, in tribes, the Romans were constructing a civilization that must have seemed at the time like the airplane flying over an aboriginal hut in a Borneo jungle.
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| The Top of the Aqueduct Contains a Tunnel that Moves the Water Using Gravity (photo by Drew Smith) |
The Walkway Bridge Underneath (photos by Drew Smith)
The engineering and technology to build this masterpiece was not simple, however. Each stone was cut from the quarry up river and moved here then carved and fitted into each space designed especially for that space, and to hold up the structure. There is no cement, no other construction, and it has survived in tact for 2000 years.
The hydrology was equally amazing. Water was moved using gravity along a route hundreds of miles long passing through here and ultimately to nearby Nimes, a Roman center and to this day full of other Roman artifacts and structures. In Nimes, an amazing array of plumbing was used to spread this water throughout the homes and buildings and squares.
If you plan ahead, you can schedule a tour that takes you through the actual covered aqueduct on top. Drew and I hiked the steep climb and made it to the doorway, but unfortunately it was locked. It is big enough for grown people to walk through. If I come back, I am doing that tour.
(photo by Drew Smith)
(photo by Drew Smith)
(photo by Drew Smith)
The Gard River is apparently a favorite swimming and picnicking place for locals.
(photo by Drew Smith)
Scene from the Left Bank of the Gard, Near the Prehistoric Ruins and, of course, an outdoor café (this is France, where there are literally more outdoor cafes than there are bathrooms or pretty much anything else).
(photo by Drew Smith)
Close Up View (photo by Drew Smith)
A Villa By The River with an Outstanding View of the Pont du Gard. It is currently undergoing renovation. I was told that this was a famous honeymoon location. I can see why. They say at night the Pont du Gard is even more beautiful to behold. I wish we could have stayed to find out, but we had to hit the road to stay on schedule for this whirlwind tour.
(photo by Drew Smith)
Ancient Olive Tree -- What This Tree Has Seen!
(photo by Drew Smith)
Perspective? I imagine it was not too different from the hundreds of artists and others who have come to this spot for inspiration and insight over the millennia. Like Rousseau and Stendhal above, this place requires, even demands reflection.
For me, the timeless questions asked throughout literature, poetry, music and art of all kinds can be summed up by the feelings wrought by walking across a 2000 year old structure, still standing. What is it all about? Our lives are but blips on the radar screen -- flashing moments in the totality of time and the universe. Why are we here? The people who placed these stones in their place are long gone, their cares and worries and loves and the rest all "Gone With the Wind" or, as the Kansas song says, like "Dust in the Wind". Yet this survives them.
For me, ironically, this place is a reminder of how almost everything we have today will one day no longer be, including ourselves and all that we know. Why is this so special a place? Because it is so rare that something lasts this long. After the Roman Empire fell, Europe entered a period known as The Dark Ages, and most if not all Roman Engineering advances like this were torn down by the ignorant tribes that remained behind, during one of the bleakest and scariest times in history.
In short, it put into perspective for me that -- even as I sit here and type on a modern computer, thinking that we are so advanced as a people -- it can just as easily be lost again by those who seek to destroy and obstruct out of fear and ignorance and greed, like these Roman masterpieces were destroyed in the Dark Ages
Those who know me know that I am something of a climate change hawk. We sit by, day by day, debating the cares and concerns of today while choosing to be ignorant of science and of the fateful warnings everywhere that -- even if we stop today -- the use of our atmosphere as an open sewer is leading us down a path that at best will change our lives dramatically and at worst will rock the very foundation of our current advanced civilization to the point of collapse.
The Ancient Romans once had good reason to believe the world would always go on as it had before, with them leading the way. But it all crumbled, quite literally, around them. Before the Romans, it happened to the Ancient Greeks, as it has to all great civilizations before and since. Who are we to think it could not happen to us? In spite of all the changes from their time to ours, the one thing that has not changed at all is human nature. We think we have changed, and perhaps we have around the fringes. Yet we still have the capacity to destroy our planet and civilization with the very same technology that helped us build it.
So, what does last? Hope. That is the only recourse. Somehow, just maybe, things will be different this time. The other thing that is certain, is now. Today. No one can take that away. So I was grateful that I had this day with my father and my son, at this special place, bathed in the late afternoon Mediterranean sun in all its splendor.
This was my own perspective, atop the Pont du Gard.
Alas, we had to hurry back to the parking lot and be on our way. After stopping in Toulouse later that night (a very long night of driving I might add), the next day we would be heading across the steep Pyrenees Mountains and into the French/Spanish border just above Pamplona. My next post will be from the little village of Burguete, where Hemingway spent the night while going trout fishing and hiking in real life and in "The Sun Also Rises". So if you are reading along, try to get to that point in the book by next weekend. I stayed in the same room, and I took pictures! Until then, Au Revoir!
For me, the timeless questions asked throughout literature, poetry, music and art of all kinds can be summed up by the feelings wrought by walking across a 2000 year old structure, still standing. What is it all about? Our lives are but blips on the radar screen -- flashing moments in the totality of time and the universe. Why are we here? The people who placed these stones in their place are long gone, their cares and worries and loves and the rest all "Gone With the Wind" or, as the Kansas song says, like "Dust in the Wind". Yet this survives them.
For me, ironically, this place is a reminder of how almost everything we have today will one day no longer be, including ourselves and all that we know. Why is this so special a place? Because it is so rare that something lasts this long. After the Roman Empire fell, Europe entered a period known as The Dark Ages, and most if not all Roman Engineering advances like this were torn down by the ignorant tribes that remained behind, during one of the bleakest and scariest times in history.
In short, it put into perspective for me that -- even as I sit here and type on a modern computer, thinking that we are so advanced as a people -- it can just as easily be lost again by those who seek to destroy and obstruct out of fear and ignorance and greed, like these Roman masterpieces were destroyed in the Dark Ages
Those who know me know that I am something of a climate change hawk. We sit by, day by day, debating the cares and concerns of today while choosing to be ignorant of science and of the fateful warnings everywhere that -- even if we stop today -- the use of our atmosphere as an open sewer is leading us down a path that at best will change our lives dramatically and at worst will rock the very foundation of our current advanced civilization to the point of collapse.
The Ancient Romans once had good reason to believe the world would always go on as it had before, with them leading the way. But it all crumbled, quite literally, around them. Before the Romans, it happened to the Ancient Greeks, as it has to all great civilizations before and since. Who are we to think it could not happen to us? In spite of all the changes from their time to ours, the one thing that has not changed at all is human nature. We think we have changed, and perhaps we have around the fringes. Yet we still have the capacity to destroy our planet and civilization with the very same technology that helped us build it.
So, what does last? Hope. That is the only recourse. Somehow, just maybe, things will be different this time. The other thing that is certain, is now. Today. No one can take that away. So I was grateful that I had this day with my father and my son, at this special place, bathed in the late afternoon Mediterranean sun in all its splendor.
This was my own perspective, atop the Pont du Gard.
Alas, we had to hurry back to the parking lot and be on our way. After stopping in Toulouse later that night (a very long night of driving I might add), the next day we would be heading across the steep Pyrenees Mountains and into the French/Spanish border just above Pamplona. My next post will be from the little village of Burguete, where Hemingway spent the night while going trout fishing and hiking in real life and in "The Sun Also Rises". So if you are reading along, try to get to that point in the book by next weekend. I stayed in the same room, and I took pictures! Until then, Au Revoir!
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