Ucetia

TL; DR? Photo album here.

A couple of weeks ago our local paper had a full-page article about a remarkable discovery in Uzès: the first significant physical evidence of the Roman settlement of Ucetia, in the form of a large and very well preserved mosaic pavement. The archaeologists announced they would stage a single open weekend, on 1 and 2 April, before the mosaic was lifted for conservation, and hence unlikely to be seen in public again for years. I was on it -- instantly searched the web to book a hotel for the night. Then saw the prices, and got onto AirBnB instead. The weather forecast suggested Sunday was a better bet than Saturday -- and in fact the rain on Saturday turned out to be so torrential that the open weekend was postponed for a week. Big advantage of AirBnB -- because I'd told her why we were coming, our host Christine phoned on Saturday and told us, so we rebooked for this weekend. Try getting that kind of service from a hotel.

When we arrived in Uzès yesterday lunchtime, we quickly discovered that all the tickets for visits on Saturday were already gone. The open day had been far more popular than they'd anticipated -- expecting about 600 visitors, they'd shown round double that in the course of the day. Pascal told us he'd got there at about 8 a.m. on Saturday morning in order to be one of the first in line for the 10 a.m. opening. Christine hadn't been able to wait as she had to work, and Pascal liked it so much he wanted to go again. So all four of us agreed to be up for breakfast at 7 a.m. on Sunday. Christine served coffee, croissants, and home-made jam, and we all headed up the road at about 7:30.

The site is only a couple of hundred metres from their house, and when we arrived there were already half a dozen hardy souls waiting. It was a convivial wait as everyone chatted and admired passing hot air balloons getting a sneak preview of the site. And it was well worth getting up early to be in the first group of 35 people. By the time we early birds were given our precious tickets, the queue was snaking round the square, over 200 people, and when we came out an hour later, all the tickets for the morning had been given out.

This is a very large excavation, about 4,000 square metres, in advance of the building of boarding accommodation for two local colleges. Previously it had been fields, which explains the excellent state of preservation of the remains. Up until now, the only evidence of Ucetia was in inscriptions, so the dig is going to provide a lot of valuable information. It's already outdone expectations, not only in the presence of this beautiful floor, probably part of a public building, but its unusually early date of the first century BCE. 

It was hard to get good photos because the sun was very bright and the mosaic dry and dusty -- spraying water on it would have been a good idea. Lots of work in Lightroom required to bring out the details. The floor totals about 65 square metres; the archaeologists are still trying to figure out the significance of the animal motifs in the centre -- an eagle, an owl, a deer, and ... a duck. The guy showing us round gave a very good presentation, allowing plenty of time for everyone to have a good look, and it was wonderful to see it in situ -- the last chance, as they start lifting it this week. There's an album of better photos than mine (and more info in French) here.

Afterwards we said our farewells to Pascal and Christine, promising to stay again when we are in the area; it was like spending a weekend with friends. We dropped our luggage in the car and set off to visit the Roman aqueduct, described in the tourist brochure as "two steps from the centre of town". Ha! Two steps for a giant, maybe. I regretted not changing into my walking boots as my thin-soled shoes gave me an unwanted and violent half-mile foot massage on the way down a steep and rocky path to the river. I can't say the remains were very impressive: an archway, a sluice, and a few stones. It did look like a lovely place for a picnic, and many people were already indulging. But we had no food with us and weren't going to walk all the way up to town and back down again. We decided to buy the necessary in town and then head for the Pont du Gard. But by the time we got back to the Place aux Herbes, it was definitely lunchtime and we were tired -- so we ended up having panini and ice cream for lunch again. The ice cream from La Fabrique Givrée was fabulous, even better than yesterday's.

So then we drove to the Pont du Gard. The last time we were here was twenty years ago. In those days it was just there, surrounded by nature. There was a half-hearted fence to stop you climbing on it, easily circumvented, so we walked along the water-carrying channel at the very top. We met maybe three other people. But since then the Unesco listing has happened. Now there's a vast car park, and a massive visitor centre with a museum and shops, funded by extortionate entry fees. The bog-standard entrance fee doesn't include walking along the top -- you have to have a guided tour for that. But when S enquired he was told that these tours happen just twice a day, and they'd already sold today's 30 tickets. "Oh. You have to book in advance for that, then?" "No, you have to get here first thing in the morning, book the tour, and then visit the rest of the site while you're waiting." This caused some head-shaking from us, but on reflection I expect it's not an unreasonable way of restricting the number of people walking on the monument, while avoiding the tours being booked up months in advance by people savvy enough to book online.

Anyway we went around the museum, which was a bit underwhelming. It's trendily dark -- I know they like dark museums these days, but this was so dark I couldn't read half the information panels. There was a nice film shot from a microlight, travelling along the entire length of the aqueduct from Uzès to Nîmes ... the kind of thing you'd do impeccably with a drone nowadays, but the wobbling and lack of focus made it feel as if you were there with the pilot. And the museum was cleverly designed so that towards the end, after lots of small artefacts, you suddenly come across a full-scale model of part of the aqueduct being constructed.

Outside we joined the scores of tourists walking down to the bridge. It's hard to take photos that aren't cliches. I remember on our first visit liking the fact that the Romans left anchoring points for scaffolding, on the assumption that the empire would last so long they would need to envisage running repairs. It's lasted out the two thousand years pretty well.

Then the drive back home on a sunny Sunday afternoon. We weren't stupid enough this time to believe the claims of no traffic problems, so we left the autoroute two exits early and took the scenic and almost traffic-free route through the Corbières. This took a good 40 minutes less than yesterday's journey, and we were vindicated by noting later that we'd avoided another 5-km tailback in Narbonne. What a good weekend; we were really glad we'd made the effort.