Pont du Gard tourism boom contrasts with Gard wine crisis

The Pont du Gard in the Gard department remains France's most visited ancient monument, attracting around five million visitors each year and supporting roughly three million overnight stays. At the same time, the region's Côtes‑du‑Rhône vineyards are in crisis; growers are applying for compensated uprooting at €4,000 per hectare and have called for higher crisis distillation prices. The French state has unlocked an additional €130 million to fund parcel removal nationwide as red wine consumption falls and export markets to the United States and China shrink.

Nearby, the Vallon d’Escaunes near Sernhac offers lesser‑known tourist attractions, including two well‑preserved tunnels of the Roman aqueduct that carried water from the source of the Eure to Nîmes. The site showcases prehistoric artifacts and the engineering techniques used by Roman workers to carve the limestone tunnels.