Provence & the French Riviera - Discover France: Experience the Best of France - page 655

Its visitors centre ( 04 66 37 50 99; www.pontdugard.fr ; 9.30am-7pm May-
Sep; to 5pm or 6pm Oct-Apr) on the left, northern bank, rents out multilingual audi-
oguides (€6). During July and August for an extra thrill (and extra €2) you can walk
the bridge's topmost tier. A guide leads the group every half-hour between 10am
and 11.30am and from 2pm to 5.30pm.
Entry to the site for a car and up to five passengers costs €15 from April to Octo-
ber, and €10 from November to March; cyclists and walkers get free entry to the
site, but admission to the museum, film and Ludo costs €10. There is free parking
and entry to the site after 7pm or 8pm May to September, and after 6pm October to
April.
The Pont du Gard is 21km northeast of Nîmes and 26km west of Avignon. Park-
ing in the extensive car parks on each bank of the river costs €5.
Carcassonne
POP 49,100
From afar, Carcassonne looks like some fairy-tale medieval city. Bathed in late-af-
ternoon sunshine and highlighted by dark clouds, La Cité (as the old walled city is
known), is truly breathtaking. Luring almost four million visitors annually, it can be a
tourist hell in high summer. That said, you'll have to be fairly stone-hearted not to be
moved.
La Cité , dramatically illuminated at night, is enclosed by two rampart walls and
punctuated by 52 stone towers. But only the lower sections of the walls are original;
the rest, including the anachronistic witch's-hat roofs (the originals were altogether
flatter and weren't covered with slate), were stuck on by Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th
century.
If you enter via the main entrance, before you rears a massive bastion, the Porte
Narbonnaise , and just inside is the tourist office annexe. Rue Cros Mayrevieille,
suffocating in kitschy souvenir shops, leads up to place du Château, the heart of La
Cité.
South of place du Château is Basilique St-Nazaire ( 9am-11.45am &
1.45-5pm) . Highlights are the graceful Gothic transept arms with a pair of superb
13th- and 14th-century rose windows at each end.