Incroyable!

So it's been an interesting week since I posted my last blog. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday consisted of more student manifestations. That means that I went to two hours of class on Tuesday, didn't go at all on Wednesday (which is a half day anyways), and went to all my classes on Thursday even though they were quite small. At the left is a picture of a ton of students from other lycees in Nimes blocking the front entrance to my school on Friday. The block was still going on at Camargue, another school in Nimes, so they came to recruit students from our school to help. I didn't go, but it was interesting to see anyways.

Today I woke up early and got out the door on my bike before eight o'clock. I rode to my friends Benjamin's house, and we left there at about 8:15 for the Pont du Gard. The Pont du Gard is a famous aqueduct built by the Romans probably in the middle of the first century A.D. It was originally quite long (about 50 km) and brought water from a spring in Uzes to Nimes. Now only a small portion stands, but it really is a magnificent thing to see. I can't even imagine how hard it was to create such a monstrous thing without modern materials or machines, especially for the length of time it has stood and will stand. To give you an idea of the amount of water here when it rains and the strength of the Pont du Gard, take a look at one of the pictures of the aqueduct. When it rains quite a lot here the water level if much above the first level or arches, and the aqueduct stands quite strong still.

The system of the aqueduct actually wasn't completely quite as extravagant as this. At the slightly higher elevations it was simply a canal that ran along the ground. There is a drop in elevation from Uzes to Nimes, which helped the water move along. On top of the Pont du Gard is a small canal. You can take a look at the pictures and see that there's a roof over most of the upper level, which was put there to prevent the water from being polluted by bird crap or leaves or whatever might get in there.

Besides the Pont du Gard, it was quite a good day. We rode almost 5 hours with getting there and returning home. Eating lunch sitting on the rocks in the sun next to the aqueduct was pretty awesome. If you ever get to the south of France make sure you check this out. And now, after a weekend of good riding, I'm tired and I'm going to go to sleep. I hope everyone's well and thanks for keeping up with the blog. Bonne nuit!