A while back, during the second
week of the February break, we made the drive from our home in the
Tarn, to Millau to see the Viaduct. The Millau Viaduct was on Lloyd's
list of MUST DO/SEE before we leave France on this trip. It was on my
list of things to see, as well.
(My list, however, also includes one last spin through our local shoe store, but that's another story. Back to the Viaduct...)
Lloyd and I enjoy watching the Discovery Channel, particularly the program Extreme Engineering. In the eighteen months leading up to our time here, we must have watched the program about the construction of the Millau Viaduct at least three times. It is fascinating! (Well, to us, anyway!)
The day we drove to Millau started out lovely and calm, although a bit overcast, but by the time we were through Albi, and on approach to Millau, the sky was dark and stormy, and rain was starting to fall. The landscape was rolling hills, and the road was blasted through the hills/mountains in some spots. I tried to get some pictures to show the steep grade of the highway, and the switchbacks that we followed, but I couldn't do it justice. The wind was whipping things around, and the storm, as a whole, was quite spectacular. As we arrived at the tourist office, I was so happy that we weren't planning on driving ON the viaduct, so high up in the air!
We walked with the children through the information building, and looked at the scale models they had inside, and the demonstration of the hydraulics, etc, that are inside the viaduct. With Margo wanting to just run, I didn't get to spend much time looking, but on another trip (with older children!), we'll go on a tour of the viaduct, where they take you underneath the deck, to where the exciting things take place! (Then, we'll drive to Nimes, and see an ancient viaduct, which is another engineering marvel of its time.)
After hitting the gift shop for some professional pictures of the Viaduct, we went to find a lookout spot that was not too far away, that offered a panoramic view of the entire Viaduct. It was about 5km out of town, and we started driving up. And up, and up, and up. And switching back, and then another switchback, on a tiny, muddy, narrow (did I mention NARROW!?!) little road, with ferocious gusting winds threatening to push us off the side of the hill, right past the non-existent guardrails. (Seriously, I have never seen a country so unconcerned with putting up guard-rails. Driver beware, I guess!) So, up we went on this little goat-trail, until we got to the top. The wind was so fierce that the windsock on a nearby building was completely horizontal. It did not slack once the whole time we were on the top of the plateau. I was almost nauseous by the time we made it to the top. When we saw the viewing platform, on the edge of the cliff, with the very low guardrail, and the grass and plants laying flat in the wind, I sent Lloyd out alone to get pictures. He wasn't so light as to get blown off the plateau by a gust of stronger wind! Nor was he bouncing up and down like the children in their carseats at that moment, so we stayed in the car, far from the edge (where I made Lloyd park).
The day we drove to Millau started out lovely and calm, although a bit overcast, but by the time we were through Albi, and on approach to Millau, the sky was dark and stormy, and rain was starting to fall. The landscape was rolling hills, and the road was blasted through the hills/mountains in some spots. I tried to get some pictures to show the steep grade of the highway, and the switchbacks that we followed, but I couldn't do it justice. The wind was whipping things around, and the storm, as a whole, was quite spectacular. As we arrived at the tourist office, I was so happy that we weren't planning on driving ON the viaduct, so high up in the air!
We walked with the children through the information building, and looked at the scale models they had inside, and the demonstration of the hydraulics, etc, that are inside the viaduct. With Margo wanting to just run, I didn't get to spend much time looking, but on another trip (with older children!), we'll go on a tour of the viaduct, where they take you underneath the deck, to where the exciting things take place! (Then, we'll drive to Nimes, and see an ancient viaduct, which is another engineering marvel of its time.)
After hitting the gift shop for some professional pictures of the Viaduct, we went to find a lookout spot that was not too far away, that offered a panoramic view of the entire Viaduct. It was about 5km out of town, and we started driving up. And up, and up, and up. And switching back, and then another switchback, on a tiny, muddy, narrow (did I mention NARROW!?!) little road, with ferocious gusting winds threatening to push us off the side of the hill, right past the non-existent guardrails. (Seriously, I have never seen a country so unconcerned with putting up guard-rails. Driver beware, I guess!) So, up we went on this little goat-trail, until we got to the top. The wind was so fierce that the windsock on a nearby building was completely horizontal. It did not slack once the whole time we were on the top of the plateau. I was almost nauseous by the time we made it to the top. When we saw the viewing platform, on the edge of the cliff, with the very low guardrail, and the grass and plants laying flat in the wind, I sent Lloyd out alone to get pictures. He wasn't so light as to get blown off the plateau by a gust of stronger wind! Nor was he bouncing up and down like the children in their carseats at that moment, so we stayed in the car, far from the edge (where I made Lloyd park).
And yes, I am laughing a bit at myself, but remember, I am a Prairie girl, from Saskatchewan. We don't have cliffs and switchbacks and goat trails up little mountains where I live. The joke is that you can watch your dog run away from home for three days, it's so flat. Saskatchewan actually has a very diverse landscape, but generally, it's pretty tame. Although there was that drive through the Cypress Hills InterProvincial Park a couple of summers ago. But the hills were much much smaller. ;)
Pictures taken, we started down the goat trail. I ended up taking off my glasses, just to blur the landscape and give my imagination a rest. Lloyd was a good sport, driving much slower than he needed to, and not laughing too much at me. :) We made it down without incident, much to my relief, and with a quick stop for some sandwiches, we wound our way back slowly home, still marveling at the majesty of the Viaduct.
More pictures can be found here.
1 comments:
Wow! This is so cool!
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