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Monty Don's French Gardens


Gardian
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The Pont du Gard is truly amazing, I've visited 3 times and I find it an astonishing feat of engineering.

Have to say though Sweet "Never having seen the Pont du Gard, I am definitely keen to see it. Just hearing the name makes me think of Marcel Pagnol's grandfather who would look at the stones instead of the whole structure as he was a stone-cutter! Pagnol describes the scene with affection in "La gloire de mon père" .

Makes you wonder what's happened to Italy in the intervening years!

Ciao W
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[quote user="Wilko"]The Pont du Gard is truly amazing, I've visited 3 times and I find it an astonishing feat of engineering. Have to say though Sweet "Never having seen the Pont du Gard, I am definitely keen to see it. Just hearing the name makes me think of Marcel Pagnol's grandfather who would look at the stones instead of the whole structure as he was a stone-cutter! Pagnol describes the scene with affection in "La gloire de mon père" . Makes you wonder what's happened to Italy in the intervening years! Ciao W[/quote]

Hey, Wilko, did you see the programme on Italy on BBC4 last night?

Alas, I don't think the "intervening years" have been at all kind to Italy [:(]

Those Romans sure knew a thing or two about engineering.  It's a great pity that they might get Bellusconi back if they don't watch out [:-))]

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A drawing of the Pont du Gard was on the inside front page of my first Latin textbook at school and I always wanted to see it from then on! The Roman engineers were fascinating. We finally got there 20 years later with our boys in 1981 and at that time it was all free and you were able to walk across the top, (completely unfenced) and we have some dizzying slide photos from that visit. Mrs Sid and I visited again in 2003, but by then visitors were banned from walking across the flat stones on top, but you could walk through the aquaduct channel. I think it was planned to allow conducted walks at some point, but we haven't been back since. I believe it's a national museum site now with an entry charge.

Well worth a visit; it's spectacular an unforgettable.

 

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[quote user="sweet 17"]

How splendid that would be, GG.  I will discuss it all with Annie and see how she is fixed as she would have left her husband and a son in Italy whilst we walk.

Never having seen the Pont du Gard, I am definitely keen to see it.  Just hearing the name makes me think of Marcel Pagnol's grandfather who would look at the stones instead of the whole structure as he was a stone-cutter!  Pagnol describes the scene with affection in "La gloire de mon père" .

I will keep you "au courant" [:)] 

[/quote]

Well, Sweet, we'll just have to make sure the dates work - the Pont du Gard is just a few minutes drive from us! It's one of my absolutely favourite places in the world; we pop along at all times of the year, and I feel very privileged to be able to do so. Parking costs €18, and causes a lot of complaints, but of course that gives access to everything on the site - very good value for a family taking their kids there for a swim and a picnic in the summer, along with a visit to the very good museum there, but a couple who just want to visit for an hour or so get hot under the collar about the cost. I usually tell them it's just a fraction of the cost of their trip, and a visit to Haribo down the road would cost as much. We have an annual pass, which only costs €23, which is great.

Our son visited the Pont du Gard while on a school exchange visit about 25 years ago, and I was very envious of him. He didn't mention until just a few years ago that he had walked along the very top - probably because he broke both his leg and his nose on his visit to the same family the previous year within two days of his arrival. That was the only reason he was allowed to make a second visit, as he's missed out on all the visits.

I haven't read Marcel Pagnol for years, but recently got 'Le Château de Ma Mère' and 'La Gloire de Mon Père' on my Kindle - haven't started on them yet as I'm busy with a couple of others.

This week on my way to and from town I've been watching a stonemason cutting stones and putting them together to make a pillar to match one which hadn't been damaged. It's been fascinating to watch it grow; such skilled work! I did have a conversation with him on Monday - well, I say conversation, but I didn't understand everything he told me - I still find many locals from around here, from Marseille etc difficult to understand.

I'm not alone, of course, lots of people who retired here from around Paris tell me they also have problems - particularly on the phone, just like me! I tend to email the president of our apartment block committee, our managing agent and the owner of the cleaning company, as I find I can't manage conversations on the phone with them nearly as well as when face to face. I had a meeting with the cleaning chap this morning (the cleanliness of the building is one of my responsibilities on the committee); I emailed him, he rang me - and I had just managed to make out that he had 15 minutes when he could fit in a quick meeting, in 10 minutes' time. Having no concerns at the moment, that was fine - but I do have to really concentrate!

Sid, walking along the water channel isn't usually available, but is sometimes open for guided visits. We found it open one day last year for anyone to wander along - it got quite difficult to pass at times, as only one end was open and everyone had to walk back again. The water which flowed along it was taken from the valley below our town (in town we all still get our water from there) and there are parts of the aqueduct to see from close to the source and at a number of points as it snakes along to the Pont du Gard, then on to Nimes. 'New' parts come to light from time to time, such as a couple of years ago when a tractor fell in to a buried part of it while the owner of the field was out working; I was showing that part to a group I was out with on a walk recently. There's also a splendid walk from Vers that passes a lot of the aqueduct and you eventually arrive at the viewpoint above the Pont du Gard.

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[quote user="sid"]

A drawing of the Pont du Gard was on the inside front page of my first Latin textbook at school and I always wanted to see it from then on! The Roman engineers were fascinating. We finally got there 20 years later with our boys in 1981 and at that time it was all free and you were able to walk across the top, (completely unfenced) and we have some dizzying slide photos from that visit. Mrs Sid and I visited again in 2003, but by then visitors were banned from walking across the flat stones on top, but you could walk through the aquaduct channel. I think it was planned to allow conducted walks at some point, but we haven't been back since. I believe it's a national museum site now with an entry charge.

Well worth a visit; it's spectacular an unforgettable.

 

[/quote]

LOL, Sid, you make the P du G sound just like stonehenge![:)]  No longer able to visit for free, fence all around, etc.  Just as well "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" didn't have all of that to contend with as she'd already had a hard enough time?

And, don't forget, if you'll let me bring the dog, we might come and stay with you!  I do bring all my own covers for settees and armchairs and I do always, always clean up after me [:D]

GG, that' decided then.  I'm going to email Annie straight after this and include your post.  Anyway, even if she can't make it, I'm going to do my damnedest to meet up with you [:D]

This is deffo too good to miss. 

Talking about books, can you get Philippe Delerm on your kindle?  Cendrillon likes him too and I can recommend "La première gorgée de bière" and "La sieste assassinée". 

 

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Well that sounds almost a fait accompli! I don't know Philippe Delerm, but I've just added those two for my Kindle; don't know when I'll get round to all these books, but it's lovely to have so many waiting to be read - and without gathering dust in a pile by my bedside - a Kindle does keep books clean!

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The thing to do is not to get involved in the extortionate parking fee (it was just €5 a few years ago).

Go canoe!!

Take one from Collias and paddle down to the PdG.  It takes about 2 hrs and you can stop en route for a spot of picnic lunch. I've seen sanglier families coming down to the riverside to drink.

You'll get a much better view of the Pont from river-level (my avatar was taken thus).  There's a few very gentle rapids which are really fun - nothing to worry about.  They pick you up about 1km after the PdG and bus you back.

Strongly recommended.  

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Ah, how times change....I remember our visit to the Pont du Gard, waaaay back in 1984. We were both impoverished students, travelling round France on a camping holiday in a mini with a tiny tent.

Parking? Free

Walking all over the PdG? Free and no guided tours. OH walked right across, I bottled out because I'm prone to vertigo.

*sigh* Happy Days. It was just like France, 30 years ago...[:D]

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[quote user="Gardian"]

The thing to do is not to get involved in the extortionate parking fee (it was just €5 a few years ago).

[/quote]

To be fair, the fee now covers a vehicle-full of visitors, so €4 or €5 per person isn't bad really.

Before they completely re-vamped the site it had become hopeless for parking, so whilst one craves for 'the good old days', they just weren't appropriate for today's volume of visitors. 

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Too true, Cendrillon! I also remember climbing the leaning tower of Pisa. With my vertigo, how could I forget! No guard rails between us and the open archways which gave onto a fair drop, and a skimpy handrail! IIRC, there was only one way up and down, and crossing people going in the other direction was a bit hairy...

AFAIK you can't do that now, either.

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We are usually in France for the first couple of stages of the Tour. We go into the bar of the campsite we are staying on and annoy the staff by telling them to change the TV to France 2 so that we can watch it. They are usually listening to rubbish music. Too bad one of the French announcers and former Tour winner ?Laurent Fignon died. We got used to hearing him.  
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[quote user="Hoddy"]We could do a list of these - how about a brass band for anything north of Watford ? Hoddy[/quote]

And "Land of my Fathers" for anything remotely Welsh?

Anyway, that's not what I loathe about the music accompaniment.  It's when they play music from the "wrong" period, that's what really, really gets my goat.  If Norman sees this comment, I am sure he will have something to say about that![:D]

GG, tu es là?  I'm narrowing it down to the second half of May; is that any good?  Do PM or email [kiss]

And who was that who mentioned Titchmarsh?[+o(]  Hey, I don't even know you so do you have to spoil my  day like this?[:P]

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dwmcn, LOL, can you give us a name to call you by as I can't remember all the initials unless your post is right in front of me!

I, too, mis-spent most of my youth in St Albans.  Mind you, in those days, St Albans was "provincial" and you needed to take the cheap day return ticket (5 shillings and 6 pence) to get up to London for anything worth doing or seeing.  At least that's how we used to look at it.

Actually St Albans is lovely, especially the St Michael area and the old Verulamium.

As for Charlie Dimmock, I once heard her called "that woman with the free-ranging breasts)![:D]

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Good morning, David

You know, I WAS talking about the 1960s, that is PRE decimalisation![:-))]  So, ten pounds just for the train to St Pancras would have been unthinkable [:)]

Now you've reminded me about walking along St Catherine Street and calling at the Sainsbury's there which was really just a butcher's with a few vegetables in crates on the pavement.....and now I feel as old as Methuselah, thanks for reminding me!

We had family friends who lived in one of those luxury flats near the hospital and they even had "French windows" which I thought was the height of apiration in life.  And now I have a glassed in veranda with doors opening on to it, so the next time I feel a bit deprived, I'll try and remember the Anteys' flat with their French windows opening on to the veranda with a view of the car park for the flats, lol!

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We live near Catherine Street. My first year in England was 1970, in Winchester, so I got to use the old money (must have been thinking French, I typed monet) for one year. I still have some. But then, I also have some francs. You probably aren't familiar with the present, large, Sainsburys. We would love to be able to afford a house near Sarlat as we often stay at a campsite near Daglan using Eurocamp. They provide large tents with all the trimmings and it really isn't camping. We will be there in late June and early July. There was a company near St Albans called French Country Camping that we used to use and it was taken over by Eurocamp. We could drive right to their office and book the holiday. We recently had the chance to buy a mobile home from somebody we met in a pub. It was in southern Brittany near Pont Aven, and while we could afford the £3,000 for the mobile, we couldn't afford the yearly fees. We need to find somebody to share it with us.
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