Uzès and the Pont du Gard in 4 days

A plane-shaded arcaded square whose Saturday morning market spills into nearby lanes: goat's cheese, olives, Cévennes charcuterie and, in winter, black truffles.

The ducal castle at the heart of town, still home to the Crussol d'Uzès family; a duchy since 1565 and France's oldest surviving ducal peerage.

A 42-metre round bell tower with paired windows, the only part of the Romanesque cathedral left after 1621, beside the rebuilt Saint-Théodorit cathedral.

A path leads down a cool valley below town to the Fontaine d'Eure, the springs the Romans tapped in the 1st century to supply Nîmes.

On the southern edge of Uzès, working machines, old advertising posters and a 360-degree screening room show how sweets from jellies to liquorice are made.

A three-tier Roman aqueduct bridge from the 1st century, 48.77 metres above the Gardon, built largely without mortar and UNESCO-listed since 1985.

A village on a rocky outcrop above the garrigue, twenty kilometres north of Uzès, with cobbled lanes and a 15th-century castle housing the town hall.

Narrow limestone gorges cut by the Aiguillon, usually dry in summer, with giant potholes and the Portail, where the cliffs almost close overhead.