Millau

We didn’t plan to leave Spain quite so soon. But the complications with staying and getting back and out of France had us jumpy. We searched and searched for a cool place to see in either Spain or France that got us going back in the right direction. Suddenly I remembered Millau.

I had seen a picture of the bridge crossing the Millau Viaduct years ago and was determined to go someday. As luck would have, it was exactly the direction we needed to go!

The bridge was built in 2004 to find a solution for crossing the huge valley for the people going back and forth from Paris to Spain. It is the tallest bridge in the world and is ranked as one of the greatest engineering achievements of modern times. Indeed!

We said adios to our 3 sheep Friday morning and had a 5 1/2 hour drive through beautiful Spain and France. There were these crazy marshmallow puff clouds along the road.

The restroom at our stop got my vote for best signs!

The hills were vivid green and rolled over and on top of themselves in all directions. It was 54 degrees with a bitter wind.

Parts of the road were very winding, and we got behind a tractor pulling a trailer of straw.

We got into the very nice town of Millau in late afternoon. As we were walking around, we realized a protest was assembling. There were several hundred people and it seemed peaceful enough. After a while, however, there was a verrrrry loud BOOM when someone lit like a firecracker inside a metal drum or something. People were knocking over planters as they went down the street.

It was St. Patrick’s Day and luckily there was like a pub restaurant near us, so when the protestors marched the over way we darted in. We had fish ‘n chips and beer and listened to a guy sing and play guitar and harmonica–he was really good!

Finally we drove toward the Millau Viaduct visitor center. There was a huge heart carved into the side of the mountain along the way.

The visitors center offered excellent views of the full bridge! And then we paid our toll of 9 euros and over we went! The view was stunning down into the valley! Then we stopped on the other side after driving in and around the countryside. We stopped again at the bottom and pretty much appreciated the bridge from every angle 🙂

From the ground looking up, the cars crossing the bridge looked absolutely tiny! The town looked so far away.

We spent hours and hours researching our exit strategy. It’s very complicated but we have to get out of France before March 23, when the strikes start again. Today people were marching and burning things in the larger cities, but so far no more broken windows. So tomorrow we head out further with all fingers crossed!