On Day 16 of Travel in France we took a break from countryside walking and visited Uzès and Vézénobres.
Vézénobres is a village perché, balanced on top of a hill overlooking the Gardon River. The town was an outlying stronghold, originally built to protect Nîmes. As a Mediaeval town it was guarded by five gates, each with a drawbridge and guarded by one family. At the top of the hill stood a chateau or fort, now barely discernable, and the northern gate, the Fort Gate or The Gate of the Wind.
The next gate, on the south east, was the Viterne Gate, but this was demolished in 1860. We entered into the city via a passageway under the Chateau de Girard, 14C – the Rue du Porche.
The passageway leads out to the square in the centre of the town, with the Chateau on the left, now the Hotel de Ville.
Just below the square is the eastern gate, The Sabran Gate, the only remaining fortified gate from the Mediaeval period.
The Chateau of Montanégre, also called the Chateau of Fay-Pairaut, was associated with the Bourgoule Gate.
I couldn’t find information about the fifth gate, the westerly Alais Gate.
This contemporary seating was rather beautiful.
The Régordane Way, a trade, military, and pilgrim route from (originally) the Île de France to Saint Gilles du Gard and the Mediterranean, passes through the town and is now the GR700. The road was originally built by the Romans.
We should have lingered – there was so much more to see and to understand, particularly the history of the town during the Wars of Religion. But we were tired so returned to the gîte and a chilly swimming pool for refreshment.
It was a time of a very full moon.
You may be interested in
An article on Vezenobres, with interesting photographs
The Régordane Way
Photographs of the town
An interesting brochure on the Gard
Walks and hikes around the Pont du Gard
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