The Pont du Gard from the Gardon

The Pont du Gard was built in the first century AD to carry the aqueduct of Nîmes across the Gardon: fifty kilometres of channel to bring spring water from Uzès into the city, and this bridge is the one place where it had to cross a gorge. It stands forty-nine metres high in three tiers — six arches at the bottom, eleven in the middle, thirty-five small ones on top — in honey-coloured limestone cut without mortar, and it is essentially complete, which is why it went onto the UNESCO list in 1985.

The frame that works is from the river bank downstream on the left side, where all three tiers stack up and the water reflects them when it is calm. The right bank gives a lower, closer angle under the arches, and the path up onto the hillside gives the aqueduct with the gorge behind it. Do not try to fit it into one wide frame from close up — it is bigger than it looks and the compression from further back is what makes the picture.

Light comes from the south, so the honey stone is at its warmest in the last two hours of the day and the reflections settle as the wind drops. Midsummer mornings are also good, and much cooler.

This is a paid site with one charge per vehicle covering the car park and access to both banks. The banks below are a public river beach used for swimming and canoeing from June to September, which puts people in the frame all afternoon — mornings and evenings are cleaner. Opening hours, parking charges and rules on commercial shoots change with the season, so check before your date rather than at the barrier.