Years ago, when I motorcycled to the south of France or Spain, I would encounter a huge canyon en route. It was the Gorge du Tarn.
In 2004, they opened a viaduct over the Tarn River, near the town of Millau. It is known as the Viaduc de Millau. The viaduct saves a lot of traffic from driving through the town centre, which is especially busy during summer.
In 2018, I mentioned on Facebook how I had an ambition to see the viaduct, which is an engineering marvel. A friend challenged me and said if I really wanted to see it, I would have gone already. I rose to the challenge.
We flew to Montpellier and spent a night there. Then we got a train to Beziers, where we’d booked in for a week. From Beziers we got a train north to Millau. The regional trains are marvellous, and you could go anywhere for just one Euro per person.
We booked one night in a hotel in Millau, and studied the options for getting to see the viaduct, which is a few km to the west of the town.
There’s a road train, but by far the better way to go is by boat, down the River Tarn. So that’s what we did. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the sky was bright blue. We had lunch outside a bar, before boarding the small flat-bottomed boat with four other people and a skipper.
After seeing the viaduct from below, we were taken by minibus back to the departure point. Then we had a steady stroll back into town all the while listening to the cicadas.
In relatively recent memory, this counts to me as the nearest we got to having a perfect day.