66. The Millau Viaduct, Southern France

On the 25th of July we set off across France once more.  We had managed to secure an apartment on the Dordogne River in the greater Bordeaux area for 2 weeks.  Rather than take the more direct route, we decided to take the scenic option via Millau in the gorges of the River Tarn.

This engineering masterpiece is the new Millau Viaduct, traversing the Tarn river valley.  The bridge has won many engineering awards.

Millau Viaduct

"Problems with traffic on the route from Paris to Spain along the stretch passing through the valley near the town of Millau, especially during the summer when the roads became jammed with holiday traffic, required construction of a bridge to span the valley." Wikipedia

It rains a lot in this place.  Any wonder - it is about 2,900 metres above sea level.  It was raining when we were there, so the photos are a bit dull.   It was clear and sunny as we climbed through the mountains.  But at about 2,000 metres the rain set in, and continued until we worked our way back down to about 2,000 metres on the other side.

These photos really show the gorges - the huge valley carved in the rock by ancient glaciers in the Ice Age.  You can just see the bend of the river at the bottom.

To take these all of these photos we had to climb up this path to the viewing platform.

It was quite a climb from the car park and visitors centre - all especially built to allow bridge gawking in safety.