29 June2012 - Uzes

A day of highs and lows.  We were sorry to leave our converted barn at Conques-sur-Orbiel, but tore ourselves away and headed down to the Mediterranean coast at Sete on the recommendation of our last hostess that the seafood was great and that we would see flamingoes.  All we saw was a traffic jam,  no parking spots and some very grotty housing apartments.  We turned tail and headed for Uzes where we were booked into a hotel.  Unfortunately the GPS didn't recognize the road, so we tried heading for the Office de Tourisme in Uzes.  First we were diverted through the very unsealed and dusty local church carpark due to roadworks and then had to jamb on the brakes and squeeze into an illegal carpark to get into the office to be told it was so simple to find....  After finding the first sign and following it down some unsavoury half sealed rural alleyways we found the hotel.  Very modern, comfortable, but lacking the atmosphere of our accommodation to date.  However the view from our balcony is certainly rural which helps.

 View from the hotel

After recovering from the trip we headed off to see Pont du Gard, a well known Roman aqueduct about 12 km away.  A very different style to the one we saw at Segovia in Spain 5 years ago - much more massive and in a very stark natural landscape compared to the urban background in Spain.

Pont du Gard

We ended the day with a meal at a recommended restaurant in Uzes.  I had the best Beef Tartare I have ever tasted - included parsley, capers and something we couldn't work out but which gave it a true zing.

One thing I have noticed as we've been driving through France is that from any slight elevarion you can see for miles - the contours are so flat. I'm sure that the Central Massif is high, but the scale of the country makes it seem flat.