It is easy to have a good time at Uzès. It is not only a lovely old town perched on a hill and accompanied by half a dozen medieval towers, but is is full of life and, even better, contains more than just a few good restaurants. I stroll around the narrow lanes with renaissance and neoclassical houses, pass by the old castle and enter the cathedral to see the wildest mixture of style centuries in only one building.

For traditional and also for bright coloured modern pottery, you could spend your travel money in St. Quentin La Poterie and in cute shops all across Uzès. If you like to keep your money for other things, you should go shopping between 1.00 and 3.00 pm, when all shops are closed. Meanwhile, I choose the late morning hours for an improvised pick-nick at Pont du Gard, cooling my feet in the river  and leaving aside the possibility of a canoe trip (this would have meant much more organisational work anyway). I congratulate myself to off-season travelling: Most of the time I barely see any people around – it is only the other day when taking a self portrait as strangers rush in for any unknown reason.

Offsetting the touristical action, I take care to spend every day some time at the neatly shaped pool (with a reasonable length of 16 meters) and do not really succeed in improving my Dutch knowledge during chats with other campers.

Uzès is one of those boomerang places: Whenever possible, I will pass by once more for all that it offers. My fist choice home-base is the inviting camp-site Mas de Rey that had been the perfect recommendation by my wise sister (as have been their restaurant infos, thanks Andy!).

Day 3 of my trip is a non-moving one. After coffee and breakfast I drive the short distance to the UNESCO world heritage Pont du Gard and enjoy a crowd-free, spectacular view on the old aqueduct.

2035 years. That is today’s age of the Pont du Gard and it still is solid, still impressive. The height of nearly 50m, the length of 275m and the fact that is has been part of a 50km water piping system, handmade and with signatures of their architects on several stones, all this is a brilliant combination of function and aesthetics.

The entire region around Uzès, Nîmes and the whole Languedoc-Roussillion is always worth to spend some time. The renaissance and medieval buildings, the Roman traces and even the pottery traditions, they are still vivid and welcoming. The following day will point out the contrast from Uzès to a medieval Disney Land, but that will bring another chapter to the story.

Place des Herbes, Uzès