Thursday 6th December 2007

From the town of Millau there is a clear view of a motorway bridge, which would not normally be worth mentioning. However, this is not any old bridge, this is the famous Viaduct de Millau, the world's highest bridge. It was designed by the famous British architect, Sir Norman Foster, and looks magnificent (see photographs). It is a cable-stayed bridge, 2,460m long, the road is 270m above the river Tarn and the highest pillar is 343m. 205,000 tonnes of concrete and 36,000 tonnes of metal framework were used in its construction, it cost €400 million and, surprisingly, was financed and built by a private company. The residents of Millau are very proud of the bridge and it features highly in their tourist information office where there is a comprehensive lists of locations where you can obtain a good view of the bridge. On our way out of Millau, we passed under the bridge and came across the visitors centre complete with at least 4 staff, a shop, tourist information, audio visual display and a large display about the construction and statistics of the bridge. The bridge is a hugely impressive construction project and, unlike the Channel Tunnel – an even more impressive construction project, it looks fantastic. I am sure that visitors from France and much further afield will arrange their itinerary to view this sight for many years to come.
The landscape became more rounded but we still had steep ascents and descents until we reached Albi. The satnav located the car park in the centre of Albi that was listed in the Camperstop Europe book – right in the centre, within 100m of the cathedral. We can stop here, free of charge, for 48 hours and this is ideal as Bath Rugby are playing Albi tomorrow evening.
We obtain a map and ask about buses to the rugby ground at the tourist information office (200m from the car park) and then embark on one of the four trails around the town detailed in the tourist information guide.
Dinner is spaghetti carbonara cooked to a recipe from a Delia Smith cookbook with ingredients from Italy (parmesan cheese), pasta (from Slovenia and Czech Republic, blended), cream (UHT from Croatia), eggs, lardon fume (smoked bacon) and onion (all from France) – a trult international meal!
Photos: Millau bridge view; The bridge from below; Bridge detail; Albi café customer.