Gardon

• 1. Introduction

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  The Gardon is a river in southern France, 127.6 kilometers long, that carries with it two thousand years of history in its current. It cuts through the Cevennes mountain range, passes beneath a Roman aqueduct that still stands, and then slips quietly into the Rhone near the town of Comps. But the Gardon is not always quiet. In September 2002 and again in December 2003, it flooded at levels that broke records and cracked the stone of bridges that had stood for centuries. How did a river this old shape the landscape around it, and what draws people back to its banks today?

• 2. Source and Course

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  The Gardon begins its life in the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Lansuscle, high in the Cevennes. In its upper reaches it goes by a more specific name, the Gardon de Saint-Martin, a detail that reflects how intimately local communities have long tied their identities to individual stretches of the river. The river's system is not a single clean thread. Several of its tributaries carry the Gardon name as well. Measured from the furthest of these, the tributary known as the Gardon de Saint-Jean, the full reach of the river extends to 133 kilometers. La Grand-Combe and Ales sit along the major left tributary, the Gardon d'Ales. The river finally empties into the Rhone as a right-side tributary, at Comps, just north of Beaucaire and across from the town of Vallabrègues. The Gardon also lends its name to the department of Gard, giving it a presence that extends well beyond its physical banks.

• 3. Two Historic Crossings

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  The Pont du Gard is a Roman aqueduct that crosses the Gardon and stands as one of the most visited ancient structures in France. The 16th-century Pont Saint-Nicolas marks a different era of the same impulse: the need to get across this particular river. Between these two crossings lies the Gorges du Gardon, a canyon that ends at Pont Saint-Nicolas and has become a destination for kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, and hiking. The village of Collias sits roughly 12 kilometers downriver from Pont Saint-Nicolas. Kayak and canoe rental agencies there bus customers upriver to the bridge, with the season running until water levels drop low in late June. A paddler setting out from Collias reaches the Pont du Gard in roughly an hour and a half, passing beneath the Roman stonework if the river runs high enough to allow it.

• 4. The Floods of 2002 and 2003

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  In September 2002, the Gardon reached record flood levels, and the damage was severe enough to compromise multiple bridges, including the Pont Saint-Nicolas. Then, just over a year later in December 2003, the river flooded again at record levels. The Pont Saint-Nicolas, already strained by the first event, required restoration. It has since been fully repaired. Today, the river shows few visible signs of those back-to-back disasters. The speed of recovery speaks to the durability of the structures along the Gardon, many of which were built to last through centuries of exactly this kind of punishment.